Man at the top 16 talking heads WHAT'S News Issue 8 August 1996 Whether he's talking relationship management, the new focus strategy, golf, country bleus or birds of the feathered variety, for corporate banking's Robin Bargmann 'the devil is in the detail'. The mention of golf as one of his hobbies seems rather predictable. But only at first sight. Before you know it, Robin Bargmann is expounding the origins of the sport like a true authority. In fact, that is what he is - a widely recognized amateur historian on the subject. And whether you love the sport or loathe it, you can't help being drawn in by the entertaining way he manages to prove etymologically that the Netherlands, and not Scotland, was golf's birthplace. His strong advocacy for Holland as the origin of his favourite sport has nothing to do with national chauvinism. He was bom in Singapore - 'which is why my parents called me Robin and why I still have dual nationality; British and Dutch'. The family later moved to East Africa, where his father was Dutch trading company Hagemeyer's man in the region. 'I spoke English as a first language until my early teens,' he recalls. 'When we finally came back to the Netherlands, I could understand Dutch, but couldn't speak it. So I spent a lot of my free time as a young teenager picking up my "native" language. Looking back, I think it was a useful experience because comparing two languages helps you develop analytical skills.' At school, Bargmann also spent a lot of his free time on studying Chinese history and culture. 'I was fascinated by it,' he says, 'and in fact planned to read Sinology at university. In the end, I opted for a more practical course - trade and corporate tax law But Bargmann was to acquire another language after finishing his degree - Russian. 'I did my national service in the Royal Navy,' he says, then begins to laugh. 'They called my department the "Institute for mathematics", which was essentially an euphemism for the intelligence service. I had to monitor Soviet naval traffic. So I suppose you'd say I was in the spy business.' Although Bargmann studied law, he didn't intend it as a career. 'It was very useful - I still use it every day, but I think I saw academie training as a way to learn how to think analytically, to solve problems that way. I wanted to do something international. Maybe that desire was prompted by the fact that I'd spent my whole childhood outside the Netherlands.' After completing his national service, he began looking around. 'I asked a number of my father's friends for advice and one of them suggested Bank Mees and Hope. At that time, Morgan had an interest in the bank and it seemed to offer perspectives for working internationally.' Unfortunately, these diminished after this bank was acquired by ABN. 'So I went to Amro,' he recalls. 'The bank had established a strong domestic base and was looking for international expansion, especially in important commodities markets. I was sent first to London and later to New York, which is what I had always wanted. In fact, two of my four children were born there.' Bargmann's passion for bleus and rock 'n roll didn't emerge during his stint in the US. He already had it. 'When I was a child, I played guitar. My mother wanted me to study the classical side, but 1 managed to convince her I couldn't read notes because I had musical dyslexia. It wasn't true, of course,' he grins. 'But I much preferred the blues. People likj^fl Sunhouse, Leadbelly, authenti^ music. When 1 was in the States I did get the chance to go into the history of American music. Rock and country are a melting pot of European influences that were taken to the US by emigrants. The blues evolved into rock 'n roll with Chuck Berry as the ultimate exponent. Elvis made a kind of sanitized blues for consumption by white kids in America - he was the acceptable face of rock 'n roll.' There is that passion for detail again, for the history of a subject that interests him. 'Knowing how it emerged, M where it came from, makes it - and everything else - more fun,' he says. 'It is the same with bird watching. I love to observe birds, to see how they care for their young, to watch the patterns of their lives. It is something 1 do with my kids and, you know, observing birds in their natural habitat is more than just looking at beautiful creatures. There is an artistic, esthetic element in there, too. Before photography, artists drew them and engraved them. That makes you curious about who those artists were, how they worked, and so on. Which I suppose brings me back to mv fascination for the history, the fl detail of things. Audubon's Birds of America is an unsurpassed monunental work of art.' This fascination for history, for more than just a passing knowledge of things is, Bargmann believes, an inherent part of his personality. 'It is the same in the way I work,' he admits. 'I believe there is real meaning in the saying: The devil is in the detail. If you get the detail right, the headlines will take care of themselves. If you want to make the right decisions on the future, you have to know the past and its context. Knowledge is of the utmost importance and I think our new focus strategy confirms that. I'm all for it.'

Rabobank Bronnenarchief

blad 'What's news' (EN) | 1996 | | pagina 16