Using the power of corporate culture to achieve results: A case study of Sunflower Electric Power Corporation.
by Schulz, Justin W.^Hauck, L. Christian^Hauck, Rita M.
Management Quarterly • Summer, 2001 •
Sunflower Electric Power Corporation was the first of several generation and transmission cooperatives (G&Ts) to default on senior debt obligations. Sunflower was driven to renegotiate its financial obligations with its creditors, including the Rural Electrification Administration, the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation, and the Bank for Cooperatives. The debt restructuring agreement was signed just days before CEO, Chris Hauck, was hired in 1988. Sunflower and its eight members faced a plummeting local economy, double-digit interest rates, and the problem of what to do with their brand-new $500 million coal-fired Holcomb power plant, loaded with expensive cutting-edge pollution control equipment and sized to meet an anticipated booming demand for energy that, even today, has not fully materialized. In 1988, the morale of Sunflower people was at an all-time low, as they faced an uncertain future with a debt structure thought by many to be only a temporary fix, with local newspapers leveling charges of mismanagement and corruption. In those days, some employees ev en feared cashing their paychecks in their local communities, as they felt they were blamed for the bad situation. This article summarizes the dramatic story of Sunflower's fresh approach to "business as usual."
At the core of Sunflower's change in approach was the deliberate redevelopment of its corporate culture. For Sunflower, the whole, its people and culture, would become more than the sum of the parts. In reflecting on Sunflower's development from the late 80 ...