'WHAT I LIKE ABOUT Rabobank is the OPPORTUNITY TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR' 16 talking heads What'S News Issue 6 June 1997 As one of small but growing band of non-Dutch generai managers, Antwerp's Willy Van den Houdt brings to the bank specific and lengthy knowledge of his home market. And a wealth of experience with global giants like Bank of America. What he hadn't tasted in almost 30 years in banking is the 'incredible richness of this bank in that it gives you authority to act.To me, that means you have to use it as wisely as you can'. When Willy Van den Houdt was invited to come and talk to Rabobank about taking on the generai managership of the bank in Belgium, he was flattered. Td been head-hunted before, but I never really saw that as a compliment,' he grins. 'In a market this size, there must be something very wrong with you if you are not asked at least once.' The previous time, Van den Houdt had been approached by Citibank and admits there was real inner conflict. Td been a BofA man for almost my whole career,' he says. 'You grow up with an organization and you feel an intense loyalty. In the end, the decisive factor was that Citibank offered me much greater freedom of action.' The move to Citibank came in his mid-thirties. Van den Houdt had married early and the family had three children. 'So you have responsibilities,' he says. 'Bank of America had given me the opportunity of working on both sides of the bank - I'd started in the back office and moved to marketing via almost all the various departments. Maybe I'm a bit old-fashioned, but when you have a young family, you tend to prioritize stability. Once they started to grow, I was able to look more at what would challenge me. I had a great time at Citibank and climbed the corporate ladder there quickly quickly. Within a year I'd moved from assistant manager to vice president.' But when Bank of America asked him to come back, he did not hesitate for long. 'What was interesting at Citibank was the options they took when a need for restructuring and repositioning became essential,' he explains. 'I had been with them three years when it was decided to close down the Antwerp office and move some staff - including myself - to Brussels. The bank was subsequently divisionalized into three very seperate units and even cultures - investment banking, corporate banking and private banking, with the underlying notion that these were separate. This caused a lot of internal problems, as you can imagine. And even though they corrected this structure later, it was never quite the same.' Van den Houdt had not been back at BofA long when a restructuring of both the Belgian and Dutch operations was set in motion. 'So, you will see that I've been through my share of this kind of shake up. It shouldn't worry people - okay, at Rabobank and specifically RI we are currently in the process of a far-reaching cultural change. But this kind of environment can be extremely exciting. I like the focus strategy. If we can all pull together, then it can work for us. That's how I see my job. I'm there to try and motivate people. I also think I'm a realist - no organization is made up exclusively of prime-movers. What you have to do is look at your people and identify the core group. If you can reinforce that group from time to time, with people who really want progress and to tackle the issues - both positive and negative - then you'11 achieve something and enjoy the process.' While on a personal and business level, Van den Houdt hopes he is pursuing aims and goals in this focused way, he also thinks he fails a lot. 'One of the things I don't always do at the right time is say: "Well done, you did a good job." Time constraints are my only excuse,' he srniles ruefully. 'You know, I remember my first ever job. I'd finished my military service and we had got married. Kredietbank, a big Belgian commercial bank, had taken me on in their Antwerp port branch. At the end of my first year as trainee, I knew I'd done quite well because everyone kept telling me that. We were hoping I'd get a pay rise; "all" I got was a pat on the back.' Laughing at the memory, he adds that rewards should take both forms - recognition and financial. 'That means you have to make time to know what is going on in the bank. I like to walk around - though I don't do it enough yet - to find out what people are thinking. If you don't know what they are doing, then it's hard to recognize their achievements or where they need extra support. On the other hand, I do have a tendency to get bogged down on details. Just how far you can allow yourself to be tempted depends on the job you're doing. In my position at present, I need the big picture as well as the detail. That requires discipline, self-imposed discipline. When I was younger, i played basketball at semi- professional level. That means a five-man team puiling together. You see, I'm back at that "pulling together" concept.' Sharing, whether on a personal level at home with the family, or at work makes life much more fun, according to Willy Van den Houdt. Fun is important, enjoyment in the job, but he also claims that this depends to a major extent on discipline. 'What I'm saying is that corporate life can learn a whole lot from team sports,' he explains. 'If you look at a successful soccer team, then you see it's usually due to having the right person in the right spot. That takes judgement, but also discipline in decisions. You hav to make sure people feel responsibility, feel ownership for what they undertake. That's what I'm saying.' Willy Van den Houdt: 'I like the focus strategy. If we can all pull togetherthen it can work for us.

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blad 'What's news' (EN) | 1997 | | pagina 16