Today is Saturday, so what did we do?

We began by studying the Gucci company to learn how they managed brand positioning, which I guess is only somewhat applicable to electric utilities selling a commodity with a virtual customer monopoly.  Still, it was interesting.  I think the electric cooperative should offer premium branded electric power at a premium branded cost.  Wait a minute, we already do!  It’s called “green power.”  Maybe this Gucci thing will be useful, after all.  I’m sensing a need to return to Florence Italy with my special consultant, Lisa.

We talked at some length about how to address poor employee performance and conduct coaching, with special emphasis on the situation of the employee that is a high performer but just doesn’t fit the corporate culture.

We also talked about the issues surrounding 360 degree performance feedback systems, and how best to utilize them.  To this point, we will begin meeting with our individual performance coaches next week, and will each go over the 360 degree feedback that our peers provided before we left for this program.

On Monday we will review the organizational and leadership failures that contributed to the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Harvard has recruited one of the Challenger project managers from NASA to attend our class that day and answer questions. What a great opportunity for us to hear about the issues from someone who was there at the time.