Tupperware and the Lessons of Boiling Frogs

I don’t remember when I first heard the parable of the boiling frog, but I do remember when it entered the zeitgeist of business truths. The year was 1990, and Peter Senge had just published The Fifth Discipline .

Here’s a warning. The story as Senge told it can be graphic.

“If you place a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will immediately try to scramble out. But if you place the frog in room temperature water, and don’t scare him, he’ll stay put. Now, if the pot sits on a heat source, and if you gradually turn up the temperature, something very interesting happens. As the temperature rises from 70 to 80 degrees F., the frog will do nothing. In fact, he will show every sign of enjoying himself. As the temperature gradually increases, the frog will become groggier and groggier, until he is unable to climb out of the pot. Though there is nothing restraining him, the frog will sit there and boil. Why? Because the frog’s internal apparatus for sensing threats to survival is geared to sudden changes in his environment, not to slow, gradual changes.”

The point was profound in its simplicity. We must learn to pay attention to gradual changes to prevent our organizations from boiling in irrelevance.

I thought about that story last week as I read that Tupperware, the company that defined how food was stored in my mother’s kitchen, had filed for bankruptcy protection as it reorganizes. The company’s sales have declined since 2018 thanks to cheaper competition and an outdated sales model. Its leaders were looking for more time to engineer a turnaround.

The company’s lenders immediately opposed the plan and pushed for liquidation. The water was boiling, and there is little chance that the company will be able to jump to safety. It is too far gone.

The point would be made, and this post would be much shorter except for one thing … the boiling frog parable has been proven untrue.

What really happens with frogs

German physiologist Friedrich Gotz was testing for the presence of a “spinal soul” in frogs in 1869. He found that frogs became increasingly uncomfortable when the water reached about 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Gotz’s conclusion has been confirmed by more contemporary research—a frog will jump out before succumbing to gradual increases in water temperature … if it can.

There is an interesting caveat to the story. Gotz also conducted an experiment where he removed a frog’s brain before placing him in the water. In that experiment, the frog never tried to escape as the temperatures increased despite showing other responses to the stimuli.

In other words, frogs will ignore gradual change if they are brain dead. Otherwise, they will attempt to escape if at all possible.

Back to Tupperware

Tupperware hasn’t been brain dead … although you might conclude that it was in a coma for several years.

The company knew its sales had been vanishing since at least 2018. The pandemic provided a momentary lift, but its continued efforts to get it back on track have unfortunately been too little too late.

A reported material weakness in its financial controls didn’t help, but the major culprit was its distribution model.

The legendary Tupperware Parties my mother attended in the 1950s revolutionized opportunities for women through home-based direct selling. Its sales force of over 465,000 independent consultants in almost 70 countries was a formidable strategic advantage … until it wasn’t. The company reported that 90 percent of its sales in 2023 came from a model that would be described as quaint at best.

Tupperware has broadened its distribution channels and updated its marketing approaches since its turnaround began in earnest. But it did not fully embrace a digital strategy until 2020 or launch its Amazon storefront until 2022.

Why wait so long?

Tupperware succumbed to its own success and became complacent. It was guilty of 3-D Vision: Denial, Distortion, and Delusion.

It denied the facts, distorted reality, and deluded itself into believing that it was immune to marketplace changes. Over the years it:

• Failed to adapt to keep up with the changing retail landscape and the rise of online shopping.
• Invested in what worked in the past believing that it would work again in the future. ?
• Allowed itself to be disrupted by cheaper alternatives that could be purchased the way consumers wanted to buy them.
• Missed the rise of eco-conscious consumers who demanded more sustainable options.?

Tupperware, in essence, placed a lid on its own ability to jump to safety. Being brain dead wasn’t the problem. It was faulty thinking that happened years—even decades—ago. A company cannot squeeze 20 years of necessary changes into a 4-year window.

The Lesson

Sears should have been Amazon. Blockbuster literally turned down the opportunity to buy Netflix. Tupperware should have been a premium brand sold in multiple channels. Companies don’t fail because they cannot detect gradual change. They fail when something—often 3-D Vision—prevents them from jumping to safety quickly enough. That is the true lesson of boiling frogs.

Randy Pennington is an award-winning author, speaker, and leading authority on helping organizations create and sustain cultures that deliver positive results in a world of accelerating change and uncertainty. To bring Randy to your organization or event, visit www.penningtongroup.com , email [email protected] , or call 972.980.9857.