WHAT'S NewS Issue 5 May 1997
customer value
13
for core-business customers.
^iz:And vice versa. I think that when you
go into a credit relationship, you have to
make it quite clear that you expect the
relationship to expand...
Karei: Do your customers swallow that,
Liz? I mean, the idea is fine, but we often
get a positive message from our
customers, but they say credit is the only
product they want to do with us for the
time being.
Liz: Okay, that's valid. But I'd also argue
that in my particular business (WNs:
investment banking/institutional
investors), which is fairly new, we have a
responsibility to watch who we target. We
shouldn't target customers who will just
take the money and run. That's not really
being a customer, is it? I think it has to
come from both sides - you can't have a
^partnership without more than one
Ppartner.
James: Hi, I haven't been asleep! I've been
listening to you and I know for sure that
in Utrecht people have been inventorying
the number of products a cliënt takes and
that certainly has an influence on lending.
WNs: As a product specialist, James, do
you see people bringing you in more?
Liz:Can I break in here? I've worked both
in Utrecht and here in London and my
Liz
Merica
personal view is that the product
specialists don't market their products
internally as well as they could - I don't
mean you, James (laughing). I guess this
will be part of our role as relationship
managers. But it's a two-way process.
James:In fact, I've just come back from
the US where I've been doing some cliënt
visits with the people in Atlanta. They
introduced me to a number of really
interesting companies. You know, M&A
can be a really useful foot in the door.
Michel: I was very interested to hear you'd
been in the US. We've made a fairly
significant investment in our M&A
resources here. Anything we can do to
leverage from that into a more
k international scope is terrific.
WNs: But you didn't know James was
around?
Karei: I'm glad you said that. Lack of
communication impedes some of the
customer value we could generate.
Sometimes you're in the office and
suddenly bump into someone from
another continent. Maybe I'm kicking
down an open door here, but it would be
much more efficiënt for everyone to know
who will be where so that you can talk.
James: That's a good point. I usually only
travel when I'm invited by a particular
office. In this case, Atlanta invited me to
visit some healthcare companies.
WNs: Liz mentioned we were facilitating
information between account managers
and product specialists as one of the
senior relationship manager's tasks. Is that
how you see it Liz?
Karei: To be honest, I'm not sure what it
will involve. So far, I've heard so many
definitions. But my initial perception is
that a senior relationship manager should
have in-depth contact with high-ranking
counterparts in cliënt or prospect
organizations. I say organizations because,
like Liz, I'm focusing on institutionals as
well. However, if I see what Liz is doing in
her market, then it seems to be very
different from my job here. I'm also the
treasurer in Singapore.
Liz: It was always said that a SRM could
be either full or part-time. I think Karei is
typically a 'part-timer'. I'm a full-timer in
that I'm responsible for financial
institutions in the UK and other countries.
Basically, mine is a new role. I consider it
my job to get as many of the bank's
products through the doors of as many
clients as possible. By developing
appropriate product range from them.
WNs: That would mean you have to work
closely with the product people, but you
also have to be armed with all our know
how. How do you tap that knowledge?
Liz: I think we're all familiar with the basic
product range. The know-how is more
difficult. Sharing ideas around the
network tends to be through personal
contact. We definitely need more
communication. It is something we are
bad at as an organization. I don't know
how we'11 improve it, but I know we have
to.
Karei: I agree that communication is the
weak link, even if you look at it from a
regional perspective. Everyone is pursuing
their own agenda and there's no
coordination with other offices. You even
end up with duplicated resources; it
doesn't seem to bother people.
James: There are two issues for me. One is
in fact the cooperative legacy. The culture
appears to allow people freedom to do
their own thing. But after a while, I've
been here for 18 months, I realized it
wasn't freedom, but a vacuum. This can
really be a big disadvantage for our
corporate structure. I'm not saying we
should have a highly centralized
James
Nolan
dictatorial system, but there must be a
happy medium. The second thing is the
whole concept of 'information capture'
and 'knowledge transfer'. The former is
crucial in my business because it is one of
the two knowledge elements we have - the
other is healthcare. There is an amazing
amount of knowledge in the bank. The
problem is that we're not maximizing it,
so we are losing along the line.
Liz: We don't emphasize marketing enough
either.
Michel: As I see it, one area where
commercial banks are quite weak, and
Rabobank is no exception, is the
generation of ideas. Effective
communication is critical otherwise you
can't share the idea around the network. A
second point is getting the right mix of
people with perhaps different skills to the
traditional banker. It's something we've
started focusing on in the States. I actually
don't mind a bit of chaos if the result is
the generation of a lot of interesting ideas.
I'd like to see that happening more.
Karei: It's all about personal contact and
relationships, internally as well as with
clients.
Liz: I think the global product managers
will make a difference. It will be their job
to organize products around the world.
That should improve Communications as
well.
Karei: There's also a lot of talk about
establishing some sort of shadow
accounting. I think people will be a lot
more willing to share if they know their
input will be recognized.
Michel: Coming back to communication,
there's also a lot of talk about us - the
senior product managers - meeting up. I'd
love to discuss financial institutions with
you people - it's a new market for us in
the US. Any idea when that is happening?
Karei: I heard June.
WNs: Will you let us know how it goes?
Liz: You bet.
Together with Liz, Michel and Karei five
other Rl-colleaques have been appointed
senior relationship manager financial
institutions: Freek Hoek, Paul Michielsen and
Shafik Gabr (Utrecht); Andries Mak van Waay
(Rabo Securities):and Peter Geis (Frankfurt).
