Kaoo
band Issue 19/July 26, 1993
streamlined Rabobank Deutschland oper-
ation hasn't been entirely painless. 'We had
to change a whole culture,' reckons Geis,
whose 16 dealers are geared primarily to
customers' and arbitrage needs. 'But even
though we've come a long way since the
ADCA days, we're still very different from
other Rabobank foreign offices in that about
50 percent of treasury income is generated
by selling advantages to clients, both dom-
estic and foreign, which they can't access
themselves. We're continually working on
improvingthat percentage, and learning new
ways to package products, but even though
ADCA wasn't exactly a househoid name in
Germany, at least it was a German bank.
Now, our people also have to put a lot of ef-
fort into positioning what is perceived as a
foreign house in the market.'
'You can't bank on the Rabo-name opening
doors,' says account manager Stefan
Riphaus. 'Our name-awareness is almost nil
in this country, and personally l'd like to see
some advertising to improve it. It's rather
better in agribusiness, but getting a foot in
the door is still hard work. And I think we're
still rather slow in responding to credit
requests.' Yet, Riphaus also sees this in-
convenience as an advantage. 'We're trying
to build long-term relationships and once we
enter into a relationship with a cliënt, we're
there to stay. So, I suppose we have to be
very careful at the outset. But there's cer-
tainly room for improvement
in speed and efficiency.'
Room for improvement
was the leitmotiv running
through the whole quality
presentation. All of the staff
feit that the basis which had
been laid through restruc-
turing was no more than that.
The questionnaire which had
circulated throughout the
bank asked staff to evaluate
performance on a scale be-
tween one and 100 percent -
both personnel and manage
ment agreed around 50 per
cent was a realistic estimate.
'This means we still have a
long way to go,' Sonntag
said, and asked his people what they
thought the next step should be. The exter-
nal advisors who had led the workshops
gave the assembled staff the opportunity to
come up with ideas on improving quality. No
less than 20 notions emerged, includingthe
setting up of quality teams to monitor de-
velopment, improved information flows, de-
partmental discussions on how quality can
be stimulated, greater staff involvement in
interdepartmental effort, more product sup
port, and so on. These suggestions will be
incorporated into the overall total quality
Corporate finance chief Ralf Jung and secretary Walt-
raudt Berkhoff
management process and refined at Rabo
bank Germany's 'management team
building' and 'management by objective'
process in August. However, essentially, the
general consensus in Frankfurt was that
'less talk, more action' was the key to what
they were trying to do. Sonntag rounded off
the meeting by pointing out that 'the future
needs a past', and the staff at Rabobank
Deutschland appear to agree - they have al-
ready defined their past and looked closely
at their present, so they're well on their way
to shaping their future.
Germany's Rabobankers are anything but camera shy as personnel chief Astrid Stretzel demonstrates how to climb the corporate
ladder. Treasury chief Peter Geis wanted a little help from some friends (above middle left) and the guys from the computer
centre are also doing their bit for the environment. But the serious business of banking is ever present in the deaiing rooms, audi-
tors' department (top centre), in the back office and in the clearing department (bottom right corner).
