Etro

This morning I woke up groggy, and not in the mood at all to interview anybody. To make it worse, I looked out the window and it was pouring raining. Great. Since I didn't have any advance notice, I ended up wearing the Max Mara slacks that I bought from D-Magazine along with a blouse to the interview. Ashley had emailed me back at some odd hour of the night to say that she communicated info as soon as she received it, and that she thought Rita and I were aware that we were doing the Etro interview because Stefania wanted to make sure we got face time with the companies before we leave. Ummm...I wonder when and where that conversation took place, because I sure wasn't there. And neither was Rita. She said Shruti would bring copies of the interview questions for us, and apologized about the last minute notice and said based on her time her in Italy she has just come to accept the madness, hard as it is. I responded to her that I wasn't placing any blame on her, but that the entire system here is unprofessional and unproductive. Then, just as Rita and I were about to leave the apartment this morning, I got an email from Sook on my Blackberry stating that she was joining us instead of Shruti and would be bringing 2 copies of the questions. 2 copies? Hmmm, so I guess if Stefania and the guy we're interviewing want to see the questions, they're just out of luck? I emailed her back and asked her to bring additional copies. We left the apartment around 10am, and hightailed it in the rain. Our tram connection was good, so we got to the Etro building at 10:30 and waited around in the lobby. At 10:55, we were still the only ones there (what a surprise?). Sook came running down the street at 10:58 waving copies of the questions, and dressed completely inappropriately for an interview (her outfit was more of a fashion getup, and nothing about it said "business" - but again, what a surprise). At 11:01, I made the executive decision to start the interview without Stefania, since she was late and we're fully capable of conducting the interview without her. So we went inside and notified the receptionist that we were there for the interview. As we were waiting for someone to greet us, Stefania finally showed up with some excuse about how the rain threw her off schedule because she rode her bike there, blah, blah, blah. Late is late (can you tell I'm a bit annoyed with her too?). Rita and I just looked at her like "yeah yeah".
So the guy that we interviewed is the international commercial director and is also responsible for franchising (they franchise in certain markets such as Shanghai and Hong Kong). He's brand new in the position (about a month) but has worked at Gaultier, and several other luxury companies prior. The interview itself went smooth considering it was the first face to face one (apparently, Ashley did a phone interview last night with San Pellegrino, which had Rita highly upset since she had been hoping to get that interview - the guy wasn't going to be available until after September so I guess they wanted to get it in asap). I gave an overview of the project and the interview format, and Rita asked questions. I was also designated the primary note taker since I have a tendency to take extensive notes. The guy we interviewed is very interesting and highly knowledgeable about the luxury industry. When it ended an hour later, I was wishing we had another hour to go because he had a lot of insight. He volunteered to do another interview with us b/c he said he enjoyed speaking with us, which I thought was nice, but it remains to be seen if Stefania follows up on it. I personally think another interview would be good, especially if he's willing to do it, b/c today's interview got very off track. We only formally asked about 5 of the 20 something questions on our list, although his responses touched several different areas so some questions didn't need to be asked. But for the sake of comparing interview data over time, we will need to at least ask everyone some of the same questions. Stefania commented about this as well when we left their office. She suggested picking 10 questions which we require they answer at the beginning then we can further explore others.
After we said goodbye to Stefania, we decided to check out the Etro outlet which is right across the street from their headquarters (y'all know I was the one who spearheaded that decision, lol). Their outlet was two levels, and they had some really beautiful things: paisley scarfs, handbags, striped dress shirts, very colorful and detailed pillows and home accents. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I had left most of my money home as a way to prevent myself from further shopping (I'm telling myself that I am broke - which is not so far from the truth), so I was working with the little bit of cash in my pocket. Don't worry, I still managed to buy a couple of things though, lol. Although I'm glad I didn't have more money on me, b/c there are a couple of dress shirts I would have bought too. They were really pretty. After we left the outlet, the three of us walked around to a couple of other boutiques in the area. Sook said she was broke, so she was going in the afternoon to look for a part time job at some retail store in central Milan. We were going to window shop some more but the stores had started closing down since it was 1pm. So then we debated going somewhere to have lunch, but none of us were really familiar with the area, so in the end, we each ended up going home. I came back to the apartment, ate lunch (chicken breast and french fries, lol), and typed up the minutes from the meeting. I sent them to Rita to make edits before sending to Sook, who would be sending out the final version to the team. Then I passed out. I woke up at some point this evening and went to the supermarket. I was supposed to be buying just a few things but somehow ended up spending 20 euros (I did find some more of the asiago that I like - which is hard to find here - so I had to buy it while I could find it). I'm about to cook dinner and (finally) relax in bed with Denzel and Idris (get your minds out the gutter, I'm talking about the movie!). Oh yeah, we're supposed to be planning a trip to Florence this weekend, but you know how that goes. It may or may not happen. If it does, I'll write all about it. Enjoy your weekend!