Man at the top
20
talking heads
WHAT'S NewS Issue 7 July 1996
An investment mistake that turned into a bonus
gave international's Jaap Slotema a taste for
banking at a very early age. He and his family have
spent almost all 'their' working lives in the business
of international banking. 'We worked in countries
as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Ireland, St Maarten and
Singapore,' he says. 'And every place we go, my first
stop is usually a supermarket.'
Slotema's late father was
something of an investor. 'He
played the stock market -
cautiously, hut quite
successfully,' he says. 'At one
point, I'd been doing a lot of
odd jobs because I was saving
for a moped, you know, one of
those mechanized bicycles. I
had a couple of hundred
guilders and my Dad suggested
I should buy a few Philips
shares. They were
denominated in two prices -
NLG 1,000 and NLG 10. He
called his bank and bought
some for me. Unfortunately, he
didn't say they were for me so
I ended up with 20,000
guilders, rather than 200, in
Philips shares and Dad had to
foot the bill. He went bananas.
But the shares went up and I
made what for me was a
killing. I got my moped
straight away.'
Slotema junior not only made
money. The fortunate mistake
also gave him a fascination for
banking and how money and
markets work. 'It decided my
future. That and a real desire
to work abroad. We live in
such a small country, I think
looking cross-border is
practically part of Dutch
culture. At the time, ABN was
the only Dutch bank that had
any kind of real international
presence, although Rabobank
has changed that significantly
in the past 10 years. It was
really the only option to
combine both banking and
international experience.'
Yes, but what about
supermarkets? Slotema laughs
- almost ruefully. 'Not very
macho, is it? But yes, I've been
fascinated by supermarkets
since my student days. When 1
went to Nijenrode - which
wasn't yet a university - we
were given a multi-disciplinary
education. It was a good mix
of the humanities and business
studies. One day a guest
lecturer gave us a presentation
on the development of mega-
stores - they were a relatively
new phenomenon in Holland
then. It wasn't so much that
the products got my attention,
but more the psychology
behind the organization of
supermarkets. In the west,
whenever you walk into a
supermarket, the first thing
you see is cosmetics. Why?
Because it's a high margin,
high turnover product range
and it appeals to our sense of
smell. In other countries, with
different cultures, cosmetics
may he tucked away on the
fourth floor. How a
supermarket is laid out can teil
you a lot about a country.'
Wherever he goes, Slotema
always tries to look over a
supermarketalso because they
tend to sell wine,' he grins. 'For
19 years, we worked all over
the world and it would have
been almost impossible to
continuously move a 'wine
cellar'. I always promised
myself that at some point I'd
start laying down some wine
for when I retire. I have this
picture of myself with
grandchildren sampling the
wine we're putting down at the
moment.' His two sons, Sander
and Michiel, are not yet aware
of their father's plans for them.
At 22 and 20, they do not
appear ready to oblige at this
stage. 'Our eldest boy is doing
accountancy with KPMG and
the younger son is going into
hotel management,' he says.
'Because we worked in so
many different countries, they
went into the international
school system. The eldest did
business management in Londc^fc
and our youngest is still at
college in the UK.'
There's that 'we worked'
again. When he says this, he
firmly believes in the
importance of seeing an ex-pat
career as a family effort.
'Certainly, my wife Marijke
was never on the payroll. But
she played an incredibly
important role from a
commercial perspective. It was
her who organized and cooked
many of the business dinners.
And she always did a lot of
voluntary work wherever we
went. Now we are back in the
Netherlands, she continues to
work for the Red Cross on a
very regular basis.' Marijke
Slotema is not as passionate
about wine as her husband.
'I've convinced her that one
glass a day and an asprin is
good for your health,' he
laughs. 'The passion we do
share is the garden. This is a
real team effort, a kind of
natural division of labour.'
Slotema is also a firm believer
in team efforts within the work
sphere. 'The challenge in any
organization is to get the right
mix of people, the right mix of
skills,' he says. 'This is one of
the reasons I found Rabobank
so attractive. I'm part of a very^
successful organization that is^P
made up of a broad range of
very different people. Different
views, different backgrounds,
different lifestyles. And it all
comes together in this bank.
This is a very entrepreneurial
organization - a lot is
delegated to the network, so
you have to put entrepreneurs
in place. The fact that the
international division was
started almost from scratch
not too many years ago means
that many of the people who
have built it had never, for
example, run an office before.
I don't want to sound
dramatic, but I'm inspired by
being part of a team of the
people from all over the worlc^F
which has such a lot of drive
and dynamism. I love the fact
I'm part of a winning
organization.'