WHAT'S NewS Issue 7 July 1997
customer focus
13
the process along, intensive training courses
•or relationship managers will be
naugurated later this year. In order to
safely assume greater levels of risk
associated with high-yielding and more
innovative projects, we will have to
mobilize our knowledge carefully. The
China deal mentioned above is a good
example of how this can be done.
Arranging project finance for a hospital in
China was unprecedented. Risks had to be
balanced against the clear upside potential
of a break into an important new market.
Success very much depended upon being
able to assemble a group of partners with
reliable track records and relevant
expertise.
CONFRONTING CHALLENGES
Knowledge is also important in helping us
recognise that the challenges confronting
•ïealth care providers in each geographical
egion are unique. In some areas, the
family doctor, or general practitioner, is
increasingly serving as gatekeeper for
provision of medical services. In others,
there is a proliferation of service models
ranging from integrated HMO's to
uncertain regulatory prospects, plus
evolving policies for medical claim
reimbursement all bring associated
challenges for financial flow management.
INSIDE INFORMATION
These discontinuities will bring new
opportunities and risks - both for the bank
and potential clients. To organize and
deliver dedicated solutions in a cost-effective
way, we have to carefully choose high
quality customers. We have to be methodical
about the way we accumulate knowledge
about 1specific sectors within the Health
Care industry and (2) the wider political
and technological contexts in which our
customers operate. As our knowledge-base
accumulates, the range of customers to
whom we can profitably serve will widen as
well. Already, our dedicated Health Care
staff already includes former general
practitioners, a dentist and a hospital
administrator, all of whom bring an 'inside
perspective' into the industry and reinforce
a commitment to customer intimacy in this
knowledge-intensive sector. As part of the
effort to further extend existing expertise,
an active policy of know-how acquisition
Operating on Health
Care finances.
decentralized 'virtual' health care
networks. Hospitals, nursing homes, and
retirement communities all confront
unique issues defined by the types of clients
they are expected to serve as well as the
political relativities on their home markets.
LOOKING TO THE U.S.
Already, it seems clear that developments in
the US market, with which we have
considerable experience, will prove topical
for providers and policymakers elsewhere
in the world. Everyone in the industry is
concerned about permutations in
traditional 'delivery systems', (for example,
with a growing emphasis on home care),
parket consolidation, with the application
of statistical techniques in pursuit of cost
containment, with the increasing cost of
high technologies, and changing modes of
treatment. New hybrid provider patterns,
through recruitment will be given a very
high priority.
TAILOR-MADE SOLUTIONS
Teams will synergize a mix of banking and
health care industry expertise, and will be
led by a new-style relationship manager.
There shall henceforth be three grades of
relationship manager defined by ascending
levels of expertise. The credibility of the
relationship manager to the customer is
key. He or she must be able to offer
sectoral and financial knowledge that is at
least comparable to that possessed by the
financial director of the cliënt company.
Solutions must be tailored to the clients
needs - and it is not inconceivable (for
example) that a relationship manager
might organize credit products from other
financial institutions when this appears to
be in the customers best interest.
GEZOND BELEID
IN DE BANK
Vorige maand is het
nieuwe gezondheidszorg
beleidsplan goedgekeurd, een
ontwikkeling die past binnen ons beleid
dat gericht is op het vinden van
oplossingen voor onze klanten, en niet
alleen op het verschaffen van traditionele
kredietprodukten. Gezien de coöperatieve
achtergrond past aandacht voor de
gezondheidszorg daar goed bij. Rl is van
plan om een grote rol te gaan spelen in
deze internationaal cruciale sector.
SPREADING RISKS
Among the types of product expertise that
need to be developed further for use in the
Health Care context are Securitization,
Syndication and (perhaps at some point in
the future) Credit Derivatives. All of these
help spread acquired counterparty risks
and solvency requirements. Moreover, to
further develop full and rewarding
relationships, we must elaborate Health
Care-specific solutions in structured
finance, project finance, M&A, leasing,
private equity, equity and sub-debt
placement, equity research and
bond/commercial paper/medium term note
placement. Profitably managing
information flows will also be a crucial
task. It is not enough to acquire knowledge:
we need to mobilize it in forms that are
directly useful to our clients. Henceforth, a
knowledge manager will therefore be
responsible for channeling Health Care
expertise to the relationship manager, with
whom he will work in close partnership.
FIELDING THE TEAM
One of our unique selling points is that
Rabobank International can field a global
Health Care team - and synergize global
perspectives to meet local needs. The core
network of knowledge managers will
initially consist of professionals in Brazil,
Germany, the US, the UK, the Netherlands
and Singapore. These countries have been
designated as 'Health Care Competence
Centers', and will offer
regional support to
other offices in the
network. The
network will
likely widen as
business expands.
