Health care - positive
DIAGNOSIS
Healthy development
WHAT'S NewS Issue 12 December 1996
info exchange
It has been six months since the cliënt focus strategy defined health care as one
of the spearheads for Rabobank International's future growth.The choice for
health care is comparatively clear cut, says Arnold Kuijpers who is responsible
for this sector. 'It fits perfectly into the market positioning of Rl and the bank in
general. In our customer focus strategy we have opted for relationship banking
and for knowledge-intensive sectors.
'It's not only that health care fits into the
cooperative philosophy of RI,' he
explains. 'There is much more to this
sector in the sense that, like F&A, it is
|lso a basic need. This is why we have
defined our mission statement as
Contributing to the improvement of
health around the world.At the New
York meeting, four international branches
were represented, each of which has or is
in the process of developing a solid health-
care portfolio. 'That's right,' Kuijpers
confirms. 'Relationship managers
specialized in this sector from the US, the
UK, Holland and Germany made up the
vast majority of participants. But we also
had product specialists. The message is
clearly that we can and will bring in the
business, certainly in the countries
represented, but we need the support of
content providers, or product specialists,
to come up with the ways and means to
achieve the solutions we offer to
^ustomers.'
KNOWLEDGE INTENSIVE
In the Netherlands, the bank has a long
history and established position in the
health care sector. 'This is primarily
through the member banks,' says Kuijpers,
'which have traditionally provided finance
and primary banking services to hospitals
and nursing homes. We have a big market
share here and that also means we have
know-how. In the US, New York branch
decided three years ago that health care
should be a focus. This is a very large and
well-developed sector and we already have
a highly experienced team of account
managers in place there. People like Lydia
Crowson in Chicago and Terrel Boyle in
Atlanta have been in the health-care
business for 15 years. Both are involved in
K working group we have established -
ther members are Björn Gross from
Frankfurt, Hal Gerber from London and
Leendert Mastenbroek from Utrecht
branch. They will be defining the
knowledge we need to serve customers
proactively. In a sector like health care, real
knowledge is crucial, not only for assessing
risks, but also to create cliënt value.'
PRODUCT WISH LIST
Knowledge and how to build it and apply it
is vital here. 'That is why our working
group will be an ongoing forum,' Kuijpers
explains. 'There are numerous ways to
acquire the know-how we need. We can
generate much of it ourselves, we can also
outsource - the working group will monitor
our requirements continually.' A second
working group has also been created to
ensure solutions can also be delivered. 'This
group will also be looking at the kind of
product specialists we need to do our job
well. The corporate finance group will
subsequently allocate resources in their
centres of competence to produce those
specific skills.' While long-term relationship
development with corporates is obviously a
key priority, the health care specialists have
already distinguished differences in
requirements and in approach to the various
components of this sector. 'If you look at
the massive multinational pharmaceutical
companies, then you see they are not
particularly interested in relationship
banking,' Kuijpers notes. 'In general, they
are highly rated and very sophisticated in
their own financial activities. They don't
need us to define products or solutions for
them - they have the inhouse capacity to do
that themselves. If we want to add
(customer) value, then we have to be
problem solvers for a selected group of
clients. This leads to a logical conclusion
that we can better target those corporates
where we can add value based on our own
expertise and our own sector knowledge.'
MARKET SURVEYS
The New York meeting was the first step
towards the concrete development and
coordination of the sector on an
international scale. 'What we are now doing
is building some infrastructure,' says
Kuijpers. 'This means infrastructure in
relation to knowledge and to management
information. That will not only allow the
relationship managers to do their job better.
Only four branches were represented in
New York, but our next aim is to help other
countries assess their markets. This is a
massive growth sector, not only in the
industrialized world, where no less than an
average 10 percent of GDP is spent on
health care. But also in the developing
world. There is enormous potential demand
there and we should be looking at that
demand in a serious way now, rather than
later. The branches around the world have
been invited to survey their own domestic
sectors. Based on the result of those surveys,
they can then decide which business should
be targeted immediately. This will lead -
step-by-step - to a truly global health-care
bank.'
You may be forgiven for thinking this
edition is starting to look like a health-
care theme issue, but the fact is that all the
past input and effort is beginning to pay
off. Td really like you to give some
exposure to the Inbrand deal we did,' says
Pieter de Bruin of Utrecht branch's health-
care team. 'We have just done a very nice
transaction with Inbrand Europe following
a referral from our Atlanta office. This is
the work of Terrol Boyle there. She set up
the contact with this major US cliënt who
is a leading, publicly traded manufacturer
and marketer of disposable hygiene
products. This last year, the American
parent acquired a number of stakes in
various European companies and created
Inbrand Europe BV here in Holland as
their European sub-holding. This holding
company has now become a Rabobank
cliënt for whom we have put together a
multicurrency facility. Thanks to the
Atlanta team for the cooperation and
networking, especially to Terrol.'
