4 International
opened officially in November
and our Milan operation upgra-
ded to branch status. Rabobank
also acquired the specialist Aus-
tralian agri-bank, PIBA, which
gives us a real foothold in a fast-
growing region. In the coming
year, we will continue to consoli-
date our international position
and to explore new opportuni-
ties.
'All in all, 1995 will be
another year of hard work for all
our people in CBS - whether
they are located in Holland and
in our foreign operations - as we
pursue the changes in cliënt
approach already launched. And
even though it is very early in the
year to make predictions, I'm
confident we'11 do very well in
the coming 12 months. The
strategies are in place, we know
where we want to go and I'm
sure everyone will do everything
they can to make sure we get
there.
'As I said, we're living in an
ever-changing world. We have to
be ready to adapt flexibily to
what is happening around us
and, where possible, to antici-
pate change. So we have to be
aware of the challenges facing us
not just this year, but in the years
to come. A number of real chan
ges are relatively imminent. First
The Challenge
of 1995
After a boom year in 1993, last year proved tough going for a wide variety of reasons. Although the
high targets set for 1994 were not always met, CBS senior management are not disappointed. Chair-
man Rik van Slingelandt explains why, and outlines the challenges facing the bank in the coming year.
'1994 was a difficult year, not
just for us, but for everyone. I
don't need to remind you of the
turbulence that hit the markets
in the first half. Although we'd
been expecting something of this
nature, forecasts indicated the
second, rather than the first half.
This created problems with the
tough targets we had set for the
whole year. However, in spite of
this, I would say 1994 was a
good year for Rabobank. Strong
growth for the organization as a
whole continued and gross re-
sults rose by 11 percent. That is
no mean achievement, especially
when you consider the turmoil in
the first half.
'In purely practical terms, we
as an organization were under-
going massive changes. I think
the bank's chairman, Herman
Wijffels, put it well when he said
1994 will prove an historical
milestone for us. We launched a
far-reaching program of change
throughout the bank. The world
around us is evolving all the time
and we have to evolve with it.
Our focus last year was to
ensure that we moved firmly
from a product-oriented bank to
a client-focused organization. I
think everyone would agree we
made real progress in that sense.
We've put enormous effort into
improving the quality of our ser
vice all across the board and that
effort will pay off.
'Internationally, we again
expanded. We reinforced our
presence in North America.
Representative offices were laun
ched in Thailand, Poland, Chile
and China. Rabobank Ireland