From universal to wholesale
banking operation
RABOBAND
N
People
2 International
Vision
ISSUE 32/15 AUGUST 1994
Rabobank Germany made headlines in both the Dutch and German press
last month when the dosure of three offices was announced. The reason
behind the dosures is the bank's goal of transforming its present universal
operation into a streamlined, centralized and effective wholesale bank. Over
the next six months a major restructuring will hone Rabobank Germany into
a rationalized, focussed organization. Raboband International reports on
how the restructuring was developed and the future vision that lies behind it.
Argentina Martin Kember joins the Buenos
Aires office as credit analyst. He comes to the
bank ff om a major national oil company where
he worked in the finance department.
Brazil Carlos Eduardo Pereira takes on the
business support position in the Sao Paulo
commercial department. He replaces Ursula
Starke. Ricardo FleuryLacerda goes on a sab-
batical to New York on August 12 to gain his
graduate degree in business administration.
Alexandre Guiao joins the bank as junior ac
count officer. Rotterdam's Jan van den Ende
is Brazil bound. After an orientation period in
the operations department, he will join the
commercial department to reinforce links
with the bank's European branches.
London Ton Röttjers has been appointed man
ager of the credit division's legal services sec-
tion. He joined the bank on 11 July. Corpor-
ate banking manager and Raboband Inter
national correspondent Deborah Cohen left
the bank on July 8 as did systems developer
Vijay Gajparia, deputy manager banking syn-
dications Ann Kinrade and secretary Carole
Cooper.
Utrecht The foreign offices department has
two new secretaries Annemiek Keijzer (left)
spent three months backbacking through
South America before joining the bank. Ma-
rina Spelt-Demper was with the corporate
banking division before moving to interna
tional.
International
Editorial staff
Stan Polman and Anne Lavelle
(Editorial Department).
Cees van Rest and Brigitte van Kanten (International
Division).
Editorial address
Rabobank Nederland, Caroline
Renette, editorial assistant, UC-R 514 P.O. Box
17100, NL 3500 HG Utrecht, Telephone +31 30
902083, Telefax +31 30 901904.
Designed and printed by Hoonte-Holland, Utrecht.
>- Frankfurt, July 1994. A brief press release
announced the closure of three of Rabobank
Germany's seven offices and the down-sizing
of its Berlin operation to rep office status. The
decision was reached following an intense
period of self-examination involving the
whole bank in Germany. Reorganization into
the type of operation envisaged will be far-
reaching. The three remaining offices, in
Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and Hamburg, will each
concentrate on developing specific areas of
know-how, while Munich, Stuttgart and Han-
over are to go, with the loss of 43 jobs out of
a current 241and more may be announced as
the ultimate new structure of the Frankfurt
operation is finalized.
Specialization
Each of the three remaining units has been as-
signed its own fields of operation and specialist
staffin those fields will be located there. Frank
furt will concentrate on corporate banking food
and non-food, corporate finance, M8tA, treas-
ury, private banking and operations, while
Dusseldorf will service Dutch and worldwide
customers operating in German markets and
look after cash management worldwide. Final-
ly, following Rabobank's international port
policy, Hamburg will focus exclusively on food
and agribusiness trade finance. But before
looking ahead to how the new structure will
work, we should first go back in time to under-
stand the process that led to its design, for as GM
Albert Sonntag says: 'the future needs a past'.
Frankfurt, July 1993. The personnel's res
taurant was the venue for a meeting of the whole
staff of Rabobank Germany's Frankfurt office.
They had come together to discuss ideas and
concepts for improving the German operation's
efficiency and effectiveness, and no one pulled
any punches. Asked how they feit the bank as a
whole functioned on a scale of one to 100, the
unanimous rating was around 50. This self-
searching and critical meeting would prove the
beginning of a radical reorganization process
that is still ongoing today.
Acquisition
Unlike other foreign offices, which start small
and grow as business expands, the German
bank began big. In 1984, Rabobank acquired an
84-percent holding in ADCA Bank, which
private-banking chief Helmut Vortanz charac-
terizes as 'a mini universal operation, with every
kind of product, including retail'. At the time,
the international division was in its infancy and
a local bank with a small network of offices ap-
peared the ideal way of gaining a foothold in
Germany.
New structure Rabobank Germany
Dusseldorf
>- Dutch/German trade
>- Cash management
l
Hamburg
Trade finance
food and agri and non-food.
Unfocussed
However, over time it appeared that ADCA
bank was unfocussed. As a relatively small bank
in an overbanked country, its extensive range of
products made it difficult to have a real impact
on the market. 'This realization led to reorganiz
ation after reorganization,' says Jaap Klep, Dus
seldorf s manager and, with Sonntag and Anton
Nillesen, one of Rabobank Germany's three-
man management team (Vorstand). 'But, put
bluntly, none of them actually went far enough.
We still didn't have the structure necessary to
operate effectively as a wholesale bank. So it was
essential that we define our vision of the future,
our strategie goals to support that vision, and re-
alistic actions to achieve those goals. Only then
could we put the right structure in place.'
The July 1993 meeting was the first step towards
the ultimate definition of that vision which, in
effect, is a statement of intent: We, Rabobank
Germany, will proactively create and realizepro-
fitable solutions inpartnership with customers and
personnel. 'I believe that a vision is something we
all have to share,' says Sonntag, 'so I didn't want
it to be imposed from the top down. I wanted
participation from as many of our people as pos-
sible, so we set up 13 projects involving around
70 staff members whose job was to explore ways
of improving quality, results and processes.'
Strategie goals
The projects were based on the strategie goals al-
ready defined, and which include increasing net
profits to 7 percent after expenses and taxes by
Frankfurt
Corporate finance*
>- Corporate banking*
>- ffl/A
Private banking
>- Treasury
Operations
>- CuSTOMER SERVICES