Specialist
Former Global VP at Tupperware Brands Corp
Agenda
- Kitchen and household product trends across regions
- MLM (multi-level marketing) distribution drawbacks
- Tupperware's (NYSE: TUP) e-commerce competitive landscape vs Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and others
- Areas for potential growth – regional trends and sales avenues
Questions
1.
Could you provide an overview of the various roles you’ve held in the industry? How has Tupperware and the wider industry evolved during your career?
2.
Could you elaborate on the dynamic of building out Tupperware’s omnichannel presence but then also competing directly with its own sales force? To what extent does the company rely on direct sales?
3.
How did the change in Tupperware’s leadership prioritise the allocation of resources, given the new CEO wasn’t making some of those changes fast enough? Which is more important, the omnichannel expansion and penetration, or the product innovation? Where did management focus many of those resources?
4.
Who do you think Tupperware considers a competitor, since it lacks the ability to be more self-reflective?
5.
Tupperware is a public company. It’s not like this is a start-up. The fiduciary duty shifts to investors and if there’s a clear opportunity in some channels to expand beyond a direct selling company, it is a little bit alarming that it’s hard to do so. What has been the impact of Amazon’s private label products on the industry? What is it doing to innovate in some of Tupperware’s categories?
6.
The company seems to be very balanced in its footprint globally, just to be able to build a decent presence in various markets. Why is the company struggling so much in Asia and China, given there’s a rebound in almost every other region? Why is it successful in entering these markets and building up strong revenue numbers?
7.
You mentioned Tupperware has a rice cooker product that the company only sells in Asia. How closely is Tupperware aligned with the data or how reactive is it to sales trends? I remember your point about still using a fax machine. Is there a data focus when it comes to product roll out and product management?
8.
When outlining the challenges and goals you were tasked with while at Tupperware, you talked about some of the resistance you’d noticed from the sales force. In which areas have you encountered the least resistance that could represent the company’s next sales avenue? You discussed the business partnerships that it already has, but that management weren’t necessarily leveraging them. Which areas within the business might be the next avenue where Tupperware excels, despite the much bigger problems such as that omnichannel strategy or winning over some of the sales force?
