•Quality update - 2 t t 1 1 Bank notes WHAT'S NëwS Issue 6 October 1995 short news 5 Of the 31 projects in the 'As good as the best' drive, some are already completed and bringing in results. Others are still ongoing. As promised What's NewS brings you up to date on two very different projects. EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION Kim Egger, marketing services: 'Position- ing CBS as a major wholesale bank was seen as very important and a number of external projects were set up to ensure that the message we wanted to get across to clients was really pressed home. These projects included media training for all members of the management committee, ^Bnproving tomb-stone advertising, high- ^rquality seminars for clients, relationship marketing and an adapted brochure line - the Group Profile is one example here. In addition, all of our senior managers will Kim Egger of marketing services (right) receives the IAA/M&M award in the finance and banking category. ^^ttend a course on presentation tech- niques. 'Essentially, the message is perfor mance, professionalism and, of course, partnership. These are sometimes known as the Triple-I' factors. There's not really much point in us knowing we're a good bank if you don't teil people about it. This was one of the reasons we also opted for a strong international advertising campaign. I remember that not everyone liked the new advertisements - they thought them a little too self-congratulatory. Now, congratulations are in order, and not front ourselves, hut from the IAA/M&M. This is a joint award organiz- ed by the UK's International Advertising Association and the English advertizing journal. Media Marketing. Our interna tional campaign - the 'We're a Swiss ^^tank, except we're Dutch' ads - won the ^Banking and finance category for I 995. This is the top UK advertising award and we got it because "our positioning was ag- gressive and proud with humour added to the mix". One of the judges actually said: "They know what they want to do and do it proudly." Of course, one award doesn't mean we're there. But it is great to see your efforts acknowledged. We'11 have to do even better next year.' FRONT OFFICER TRAINING Ruurd Weulen Kranenberg, financial mar kets: 'This project is still ongoing in our division - some of the others have already completed what I suppose you could call an "inventory" of training requirements. We also looked closely at what we needed if our culture was to change from a trad ing to a sales-orientation. The ultimate goal is to improve overall performance and you do that by promoting a positive attitude in our people. You can do that in lots of ways, but one of the best is to make sure people have the skills they need to achieve that goal. 'What we are doing at the moment is de- veloping a training program aimed at very specific sales skills. We want everyone to have a theoretical framework as a base for - improving their performance. And we cer- tainly need to work on shared values - I know its one of those buzz words, but we have been recruiting quite strongly this year. People are coming into the bank from very different organizations. The idea is to give people the same skills and the same goals. 'The training course will consist of different elements - the RabobankAcademy is cur- rently working on it with us. It will help initially salespeople and later traders to identify with clients. These days, you have to know so much about a cliënt if you want to provide the service they expect. We all, including management, have to have a broad range of skills and perceptions so that we can really do our work well.' Ruurd Weulen Kranenberg - we all need a theoretical frame as base for improving our sales performance. (CBS organization) Where were we? Oh, yes. Cross-guarantee systems and the cooperative concept. What we always have to both understand and re member is that even though it has all the appearances of a 'head office', Rabobank Nederland was actually developed almost exclusively as a centralized service organiz ation for the member banks.They are our equivalent of shareholders and the oper- ations initially set up twenty years ago were designed solely for the purpose of meeting the needs of the member banks.You could almost say that 'dient'lread: member bank) orientation is in our blood because that is what we were and are for, although per- haps not exclusively these days. But let's go backa bitfirst. Rabobank was created in the early 1970s when the two major dominant cooperative movements in the Netherlands joined to- gether - that's where we get our name and a grand mouthful it is,too.The Raiffeisen member banks operated mainly in the north and west of the country, while Boe- renleen banks were widespread in the south. Both bank organizations favoured the merger, but, being extremely 'cooper- atively' inclined, neither wanted to step the other's toes by insisting that the main cen tral organization be located at their head office. So a very 'Rabo' compromise was reached and a new headquarters was open- ed in Amsterdam. It was a very politically correct decision, but the logistic problems it generated were a real disadvantage - re member, these were the days before every one had the kind of Communications tech- nology we now take for granted. External advisors recommended Utrecht as the main base.The reason was its geographic loca- tion right in the heart of the country - Eind hoven is further south. But again, the newly merged banking organizations weren't keen on that idea.They decided there was no reason why the bank couldn't have two. Over time, certain activities have been located in either one or the other head office, usually based on efficiency and logistical considerations.The whole of the domestic-based CBS organization ended up in Utrecht - international, operations, corporate banking, corporate finance and financial markets. But it didn't start as an organized group of divisions. Over time, tt grew and is still growing gradually - keep watching this space...

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blad 'What's news' (EN) | 1995 | | pagina 5