WOMEN'S WORK Going with IT Update THE GRAIN organization continued from page 1) Board-member Burghouts' main message appeared to the reiteration of 'no affirmative action' thinking. He repeated the bank's aim to 'facilitate' career development, but insisted this should apply equally to both men and women. 'We are talking "people" here, not just women,' he said. Anneke Broere A further contention was that the situation, ie. the number of women in middle and senior management, was improving. However, the figures do little to confirm that optimism. At present, the two Rabobank Nederland sectors represented at the meeting, the Member Bank Sector and (the Dutch arm of) CBS both number 28 percent women in higher echelon positions. In 1990, the percentages were 26 and 28 respectively. No figures were available for the whole of CBS. They may have proved quite revealing, especially in view of the relatively high number of women in top positions in, for example, the Far East. No one doubts the fact that the Netherlands are not the pioneers when it comes to promoting women into the really top jobs. There are some socio-cultural underlying causes here - few Dutch married women worked until well into the 1970s and 1980s, it simply wasn't done. However, women are gaining ground, slowly but not always surely. The glass ceilings that have been shattered in many other countries are still gleaming and unbroken in Holland, not least perhaps because of all the women's heads which rub them with often impotent regularity. 'We're not talking here about an insistence on a 50/50 representation in the Board of Directors,' Broere argues. 'What we do want is a chance to show not only that we mean business, but also that our motivation, enthusiasm and know-how adds value for the bank. Burghouts himself pointed out one of the main problems. Men tend to recruit men, and men tend to be behind the top jobs, so... Men also work through networks. Our feeling is that a "young women's" network may prove a step in the right direction when it comes to tackling the "old boys".' Burghouts did have one crack in the glass to offer Rabobank Nederland's official women's network. Recruitment is currently ongoing for the so-called Management 2000 drive, a training program to meet senior management shortfalls predicted for the end of the century. 'If you've got the potential,' he challenged, 'go for it. You have to do it yourselves.' As the women broke up into discussion groups, a lone man who had been sitting in the audience stood looking slightly lost. This reporter couldn't resist asking him: 'Well, how does it feel?' He thought about it before replying: 'But you're used to it. We're not.' Anyone, including Rabobankers in international offices, who is interested in learning more about the Women's Network, should contact Anneke Broere in Utrecht on +31 (0)30 216 3282. VROUWENNETWERK Op 12 maart jl. vond in Utrecht de start plaats van een intern vrouwennetwerk, dat zich richt op medewerksters van het Hollandse deel van Rabobank Nederland. De opkomst was groot, tweederde van de genodigden was deze avond aanwezig. Anneke Broere, een van de initiatiefneemsters,formuleerde de opzet van het netwerk als 'het duidelijk maken dat vrouwen gemotiveerd zijn en zich oriënteren op hun carrière'. De laatste 7 jaar is slechts weinig vooruitgang geboekt. De Rabo-vrouwen willen geen voorkeursbehandeling, maar wel gelijke kansen en een gelijke behandeling. Rabobank'sTrade and Commodity finance department played host to representatives from the US Feed Grains Council (US FGC) during their annual internal strategy meeting held in Amsterdam this year.The US FGC is a trade organization representing and marketing the American grain interest around the world,'says Paul Dekker. They have offices in some 50 countries worldwide and are in touch with all parties involved in the global grain and compound feed business. Rabobank New York is a member and our department and the branch frequently share information on development in the industry. Every year the US FGC organizes a meeting for their people at a different location.They were in Amsterdan this time, so we took the opportunity to explain our role as trade and commodity finance department and get better acquainted with the people in this important organization.' During the past few weeks, the bank's intet- national IT project - back-office, front-office, (management) reporting applications and telecommunications facilities for offices worldwide - has been the subject of a diagnostic review. It focused on the international business needs as well as objectives.constraints and strategie IT principles.The review examined whether the current international project provides the best IT solution to deliver the desired business benefits to our offices, both in the short and long term. The findings are currently under discussion with senior management. Once they have been studied.an implementation strategy will be developed that focuses on ways of providing the most effective, efficiënt and reliable IT solution. A priority area of focus for the international^^ network is the need for IT infrastructure to sup^^ port back-office business processes. It is the back-office which is the key to successfully handling the top deals generated by the front office.

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blad 'What's news' (EN) | 1996 | | pagina 6