Making the Best Out of Challenging Times

Miguel Fernandez became chief executive officer and president of Tupperware Brands in March 2020, bringing to the iconic household products company more than a 20 years as an executive and a decade of experience at two other multinational direct sales leaders, Herbalife and Avon.

FERNANDEZ CAME to Orlando, Florida, Tupperware's home and place where he could enjoy playing golf, as someone who had learned how to direct high-performance teams. Central to achieving this proclivity, Fernandez said was the humility to take a "harsh look in the mirror," to discard excuses and to recognize that "the higher you are in the ranks of any organization your job is to bring the best out of people," he said, and when you do that people give you a lot more than what you are asking.

"When I see passion in the people around me I feel I am doing a good job," he said. Talent is not enough, he added, "you need the ability to step back and understand where people are coming from, that you don't have to be right every single time and sometimes you just have to take a back seat and let other people shine."

The path that took Fernandez to Tupperware began in Mexico City where he was born, went through northern Mexico and to the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITAM). He also went to the United States to earn an MBA at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. At the ITAM, Fernandez, who loves numbers, got a degree in industrial engineering, but also took a liking to economics and banking. Fernandez went from financial jobs at Procter & Gamble and JPMorgan in the United States to stints with OCC Mundial and Microsoft in Mexico. In November 2007, Fernandez joined Herbalife, which markets nutrition products, in Mexico and rose through a series of executive posts to global president. "I spent ten years and was happy there," he said.

Then Avon called from London where aside from work he could indulge in his passion for football with his wife and two children. He was Avon's global president until it was sold to a Brazilian company and he joined Tupperware. Fernandez admits that before joining Herbalife he knew little about direct selling but now sings its praises. "I was able to witness first hand how you change people and lives," he said.

Direct selling, he said, is a way to contribute to society, particularly in countries in Latin America where there are fewer opportunities. "It was wonderful," he said, "because I was inviting all these people to come and set up their business without any kind of credentials, without any background. It was just if you to expend your energy, there is a good opportunity for you to make money."

Today, direct selling is transitioning to the changing business environment through e-commerce and other new techniques. "It was not always that way, he said, Tupperware was "like in a bubble," keeping its own way of doing things. "The market made us pay for that," he said. "People were just preferring more convenient options than ours and we suffered." The fix, he said, involves taking Tupperware's brand to oth- er channels so more consumers will have access to the company's products while it improves its core direct selling channel.

Also, Fernandez said that Tupperware is going to build on the strength of its brand to expand into new categories "I would not be surprised if we step out of the kitchen and go into the living room, into the air fresheners, into the more professional type of products, and we can even launch a pet category," he said. At the same time, Fernandez has seen opportunities for progress even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"One of the very first things we saw is people were staying home they were cook- ing and they were using Tupperware." The challenges included, he said, how to communicate the products people needed in this environment and to help sellers who were losing business because of the pandemics negative impact on interactions.

Fortunately, he said, the sellers became more open to using technology. For example, Tupperware taught them how to use Zoom to invite people and to host a party. A big part of his job, Fernandez said, is to try to identify what are the megatrends in Tupperware's category. "If you can see it well in advance, you can prepare.”

What helps Fernandez is what he looks upon with pride, is his love of learning. "When start get as enough information as possible you start connecting dots and going 'what about this,'" he said.

Fernandez said sometimes he may learn things that you think will never be of use, but then there are situations where ten years later you remember something and this is the right time to use it. "But even if you don't use something, he said, "it was fun to learn."

"WHEN I SEE PASSION IN THE PEOPLE AROUND ME I FEEL I AM DOING A GOOD JOB."