Rabo
band Issue 18/June 21,1993
'A bank with
excellent
people will
be an
excellent bank...'
w
- know-how
- more efficiënt marketing
and the fact that success and excellence
breeds even more of the same.'
Synergy To contribute to an optimum
synergy within our worldwide the organiz-
ation is one of the divisions primary aims.
This can be achieved through projects such
as CAM and, at another level, through the
EXIM bills system whose first phase was in-
troduced recently. 'By using concepts and
tools of this kind, we create a synergy to-
wards our clients,' he said, 'and we shouldn't
forget this factor internally. Synergy helps re-
move compertmentalized mentalines and
provides opportunities for knowledge, profit
and cost contol. So the message here is -
know your products and use them.'
Risk management Van Slingelandt re-
called-a conversation he had had with New
York's Dennis Ziengs not long ago. They had
come to the conclusion that, whatever other
art and know-how it required, the essence of
banking comes down to risk management.
'This means you have to ensure you have a
good spread within your portfolios so that
cyclicals can't hit us hard. I believe that if we
concentrate on maintaining our focus and
work closely on creating improved synergies,
then we will have the tools to manage risk
effectively. And if we stick with this, what we
are still learning today will have become
habit in the verynear future.'
Milan 's De Cardona: 'GMCs make you
more familiar with both Utrecht and the
branches, so cross-border deals go
much more smoothly.
Buenos Aires' new GM, Peter Green
berg: 'It's an eye-opener in that you get
a global perspective which is unique
and highly focussed...
Van Lynden van Keppei of Singapore: 'i
think the GMC is trying to put Asian
growth and European recession into
Rabo perspective...
The joint presentation on
Rabobank North America -
past, present and future by
New York's Dennis Ziengs
and Hans Hannaart was what
can only be called a biueprint
for how these things should
be done.
In Rabobank parlance, the
New York office is what is
known as a 'mature oper-
ation'. Not quite the oldest
(Curacao was opened a year New York's
earlier in 1980), but certainly
one of the most prominent within the group,
And Rabobank North America is now poised
to consolidate and build on more than a de
cade of focussed hard work. 'Around 70
percent of our current portfolio is in food
and agribusiness,' says Ziengs. 'From the
very beginning, we have placed the bank in
the market as a specialist partner for that
whole industrial sector, and it's beginning
to pay off.' Ziengs and Flannaart believe
the bank is mature enough to exploit the
reputation that is firmly in place, and the
North American operation will now be
looking at other opportunities. 'Perhaps
you could say this presentation was an
Hannaart - looking ahead
exercise in thinking out loud,' he says, 'it
gives us a chance to get feedback from
other managers around the world on our
plans.'
These plans include a diversification
into three other markets sectors - phar-
maceuticals; distribution and storage; and
the environmental industry. 'We already
have some links to pharmaceuticals,' ex-
plains Hannaart, 'through pesticides and
insecticides. So this is not an entirely new
field for us. But we also feel that this parti-
cular market is attractive because it is very
well regulated, and experience has shown
Rabobank does very well in these types of
markets.' Similar criteria also
apply in distribution and storage.
'I'd say that you can see distri
bution as a logical extension of
our existing food and agribusi
ness,' says Ziengs. 'and we also
have a number of clients who are
in storage - especially grain.
When you look at the environ
mental sector, you see that this
factor is becoming increasingly
important. We're already doing
environmental audits to ensure
there can be no future problem,
gso again it is a fairly logical step.
I But I should add here that this
particular business will be evalu-
ated on a case by case basis.'
IZiengs and Hannaart explained
an additional reason for the
choice of these three sectors.
'At the present time, food and
agribusiness represents around 21 percent
of US GNP. Health care, distribution and the
environment together account for around
25 percent of GNP. If you add those num-
bers up on an economy of about $4 trillion,
then that's a big sand box to play in,' says
Ziengs.
But you can only play if you have the
right players on the team. 'There are a
number of key success factors in anything
you do,' says Hannaart, 'but the main one
is your people.' Ziengs agrees: 'If you have
mediocre people, you'll end up with a me
diocre bank. By the same token, we have
excellent people - so need I say more?'
