Coordinating the future
hand Issue 15/February 22, 1993
Account managers from Rabo offices all over the world met
experts from the full range of banking divisions for a working sem
inar in the Netherlands at the end of January. The aim was to
determine and fine-tune a coordinated global approach to the
bank's large corporate ciients. Known as the CAM concept, this
approach is a new element in strategie thinking on how best to
serve ciients whose activities are increasingly globai.
KaUU
The Strategie Action Plan (SAP) for
1992 to 1995 is aimed at a deepen-
ing of the bank's relationship with
cliënt target groups. One of the methods de-
signed to achieve this is the creation of so-
called Coordinating Account Management
(CAM) teams. The basic idea is to establish
groups of specialists drawn from the various
countries where a large, international cor
porate cliënt has interests and from Utrecht
so thatthe resultingteam can better service
the customer on a global scale. The CAM
team for each specific cliënt is headed up by
an account manager in the country where
the company has' its residence or principal
decision-makers but involves people on the
spot at each location where the customer
operates.'Through customer contact, we
have noticed that our target customer
groups expect a more structured approach
in providing banking products,' explains the
CAM Team project's chairman Arthur Arnold.
'You should think here in terms of a package
of different products available on demand at
any location in the world.' To achieve this
kind of service, the CAM Team project came
up with the notion of forming customer-
oriented teams of account managers and
product specialists, experts from the inter
national, corporate finance, financial mar
kets and operations divisions. 'A further key
point here,' adds Arnold, 'is listening to our
customers. In today's complex international
world of finance, coming up with the right
kind of solutions requres a Rabo-team
approach. And that is what CAM is all
about.'
Challenges But how do you evolve a
strong working relationship, team spirit and
coordinated cliënt approach when the team
is scattered all over the globe? The confer
ence which took place at the end of January
was designed to introducé and work out a
formula that would be effective in achieving
this goal. Participants were divided into a
cluster of working groups which each com-
prised a wide variety of expertise and skills.
The first session was used to define the
roles of CAM-team members - what respon-
sibilities and tasks do the account executive,
coordinating account manager, local ac
count manager and general manager have in
the implementation and maintenance of
concept. By working together, each team
came up with their own assessment of
these and how they could be made more
effective. However, the major seminar as-
signment was to enhance a relationship
development plan for two specific ciients,
and the results of the teams' work were pre-
sented to two of the bank's larger corporate
ciients at the end of the day. It was no easy
task as all the teams had to work with was
the basic RDP, annual reports and some
figures on the two ciients - the UK-based
brewery and leisure group Scottish New-
castle and the Dutch chemicals and phar-
maceuticals Corporation Akzo. 'It was quite
a hard assignment,' says Jean-Louis Ber-
nard of the Paris office, who was respons-
ible for making the presentation to Akzo.
'What we were trying to come up with was a
creative package to offer the cliënt, and not
just a laundry list of products that we hap
pen to have. But, of course, you can only do
that if you're thoroughly versed in the
client's business affairs and know their own
aims and strategies for the future.'
Communication In fact, both presen-
tations to the ciients were applauded by
S&N's John Laurie and Erik Zuidwijk of Akzo.
'I think you've done a wonderful job to pull
together so many salient points given the
limited information you had,' Laurie remark-
ed. Zuidwijk agreed, although like Laurie, he
feit some of the points raised were not
always appropriate to his corporation's
specific needs. While both men welcomed
the CAM concept, they also stressed the
need for short lines of communication. It is
a point that lies at the core of the CAM
strategy. 'Whenever you're dealing with a
large organization, such as a bank,' says
Raymond Koh of the Singapore office, 'you
can come up against bureacracy that could
slow you down. The way I understand the
concept here, we're involved in trying to
establish ways of avoiding getting bogged
down in that type of red tape. The fact that
we're all here together hammering out a real
working method shows the bank's commit-
ment to the idea, and that should produce
a situation where there's a real authority
which can run with the ball and cut through
bureaucracy.'
Client communication will be carried out by
the customer's personal account executive
and coordinating account manager who will
be responsible for keeping both the cliënt
and other members of the team informed on
developments and opportunities that could
be offered to the cliënt. 'I think it's critical
that this philosophy becomes pervasive in
the bank,' says Richard Schulze of the New
York office, who acted as observer on one
of the teams working on the S&N presen
tation. 'No one should contact a local cliënt
subsidiary without first talkingto the CAM or
you could lose out on essential intelligence.'
Bernard agrees: 'You have to start from the
customer. That's why it was extremely use-
ful to have the two account executives for
the ciients here with us, because they
helped us define what we should be looking
at.'
Exercicies in style The cliënt input
was also perceived as crucial to the sem
inar. 'In view of the response from S&N and
Akzo,' says Hong Kong's Roger Bradshaw, 'I
believe that it really doesn't hurt to be ad-
venturous. The relationship we have with our
ciients should be such that both parties can
make constructive criticisms.' The fact that
two of the bank's major ciients were invited
to what was essentially a training seminar
reflects that view of customer-bank re-
lationships. 'How can we learn if we don't
have cliënt input? says Bernard. 'I believe
their reponse indicates that we should go
further and tailor specific products to a
specific cliënt so that what we are proposing
to them fits their needs and is profitable for
both parties.'
The seminar was not only aimed at defin-
ing ways to meet cliënt needs, it was also
designed as an exercise in team work. Tm
a strong believer in team work,' adds Ber
nard, 'and I think we learnt a lot about group
dynamics today.' Bradshaw confirms the
general feeling about the seminar: 'every-
one was very positive about the spirit that
evolved as we worked together, you really
feel the commitment that everyone wants to
make this concept work...'
Team work - Rabobankers from all over the world mean business.
