'Cooperative bankers
don't dictate, they advise...'
4 International
Exercises in style
ISSUE 31/25 JULY 1994
For the past nine months, strategie alliance partner Credit Agricole's
Pascale Ginglinger (29) has been part of International Banking Services.
Seconded to IBS to report on joint service options for small and medium-
sized busineses, she was quickly incorporated into the IBS team and has
spent her time learning how the bank operates while providing real
assistance to French and Dutch colleagues and dients on the intracacies of
doing business in France.
Credit Agricole (CA) is also a
cooperative bank, are there any
major differences in culture?
No, CA's structure is slightly
different - we work on a
regional basis - but I found it
fairly easy to settle into the
work environment in Utrecht.
The exciting thing about a
cooperative bank is that you
can't dictate to dients, you ha
ve to convince them that a
course of action is appropriate, j
so you have to be abie to back
up your recommendations
with solid arguments. In that |',j
sense, there is no difference at
all, although my feeling is that
Rabobank has rather more marketing drive.
What do you mean?
Well, what I've found here is that if someone
comes up with a good idea, or even an idea that
looks potentially interesting, there is a rapid
response to doing something about it. I've real-
ly enjoyed the rapport with alliance managers
here at IBS, because we've been able to work out
some useful ideas.
Is that why CA wanted a young manager here?
Initially, the idea was to send a group of young
managers to our alliance partners so they could
learn at fïrst hand what kind of services and
products the partners had to offer and how we
could make more efficiënt use of them. Nine of
us were selected for secondment to banks like
Lloyds and Rabobank. But I didn't want to be
just an observer, so I was really happy when the
people here began involving me in actual cliënt
problems.
Your home-base is CA's sud-est regional office
in Lyon.
That's right. I joined the bank almost four years
ago having first lectured at Nancy university.
My area of expertise is human resources and
training. At CA I developed and set up training
programs for managers and staff.
So Rabobank was your first taste of the
practical side?
I wouldn't say that. The philosophy at CA is
that you can't train people if you don't know
what the reality of their situation is, or if you
don't have an indepth knowledge of the prod
ucts and services you're training them to use
or market. The idea is that you know the bank
and its operations inside out and at all levels.
And that has proved really useful here because
I was able to provide comprehensive informa-
tion to the alliance managers
here.
Can you give an example?
I'd say one of the major differ
ences between France and the
Netherlands is that we have a
cheque-based system of pay-
ment while the Dutch work
with a giro system. If there's
cross-border business, then a
French importer will some-
times send the Dutch exporter
a cheque in payment. Because
the Dutch are not used to work-
ing with cheques confusion can
arise. We've been able to assist
clients in working out payment
traffic that is convenient for everyone, and fast.
That's the advantage of knowing the people in
both countries who can put together an attrac-
tive joint payment traffic package.
Are there any other major differences?
What has struck me during my time here is that
the French don't really know much about the
Dutch. As far as I know, France is one of the
most popular holiday destinations for Dutch
people and we see them in their caravans on our
autoroutes, but my feeling is that the French
don't realise what potential business oppor -
tunities there are here.
That's surprising because France and Holland are
the number two and three top global
agri-exporters in the world, so you'd think
they'd want to know about the competition.
I'm not saying there isn't a lot of business done
between the two countries, it's more that people
- especially in France - often seem to know too
little about how it's done here. That's why I
think these secondments are so advantageous
because I can help my colleagues at Rabobank
with all kinds of information on France, but the
same applies for CA clients at home. We now
have much more insight to the potential joint
products.
So your time here has been well spent?
It's been a fantastic experience. My colleagues
in IBS have really made me feel part of their
team and I think they'd agree the work we've
done together has been productive and even in-
novative. They made me feel welcome ff om the
very first day, but probably the most satisfying
moment was when they started speaking Dutch
to me. The people here are so good at languages
and just about everyone speaks some French.
When they started talking Dutch I knew I'd
really made the team.
'Corporate image', 'corporate identity' -
whatever you care to call it, it's a buzz word
that hasn't gone the way of most other fads
developed by the new breed of management
gurus of the 1950s. Just check out your local
bookstore and you'11 find row upon row of
weighty academie tomes devoted to the sub
ject. Earnest and not so earnest university
students ponder its signifïcance at lectures.
Communications departments in global cor-
porations continually pursue the ideal sym-
bol. Even tiny companies want their letter-
heads to be somehow distinctive.
Of course, the notion of a corporate identity
is not new. Since man began walking upright,
groups have gathered together under one
symbol or another. Today's version of heral-
dic symbols is no different. We use it to teil
people we are a group involved in a specific
activity. And it has been done successfully
for years - just think of Coca-Cola, or Mer
cedes, or Sony. Each has a symbol that makes
it immediately recognizable to most of the
world's population.
But when you think about it, what we are
asking from designers seems like a tall order:
create a sign that immediately conveys to a
wide variety of people from variegated cul
tures that we have the best cars, soft drinks,
audio equipment, or, in our case, banking
services. That probably isn't too difficult in
itself, but then we also add a more abstract,
even esoterie demand: make it express
something we feel defines us collectively as an
organization of, again, a wide variety of
people fforn widely differing cultures.
When Rabobank's current logo and symbol
were created in 1972, there wasn't even an in
ternational department, let alone a division.
The symbol that emerged was actually a sort
of compromise. The two leading Dutch co
operative banks had merged. The Raiffeisen-
bank (the RA in Rabo) had borrowed the
existing logo from a member-bank advertis-
ing campaign - it was drawn from an inter-
est-rate graph; the Boerenleenbank had no
symbol at all. Top Dutch graphic designer
Wim Crowel was asked to do something to
promote customer recognition of the newly
merged banks, and he came up with the pre
sent logo and symbol - 22 years ago. But
market research showed the customer of the
1990s perceived it as old-fashioned, stuffy,
uninspiring - a far cry from the type of image
a dynamic, global bank wants to project now
and in the future. So, Rabobank has a new
house-style to be introduced throughout the
organization in January. You've all seen it
now - or should have - via the video pre-
sentation sent to the foreign offices network
last month.
It represents an integral part of what corpor
ate identity is supposed to be all about - it
symbolizes a fresh, vital, but especially per-
sonal approach to the way our organization
perceives both itself and its clients. It's
something we all need - that sense of belong-
ing, especially when we're scattered all over
the globe. Maybe that is why the notion of
corporate identity has never gone out of
fashion and never will.
