RabobankAcademy:
EMBRACING A HUMAN
CHALLENGE
14
human resources
WHAT'S News Issue 9 October 1997
In the knowledge-based, relationship-driven world of 21st century
banking, inspired management of human resources will be the central
element in competitive success. An organization will only prosper if
3
its people can establish and cultivate superlative customer
a
T3
relationships. Against this background, What's NewS reports on an I
O
important new initiative in our ongoing human development effort.
Our decision to become a global player in
the world of Food and Agri (F&A),
outlined in the Strategy Plan 1996-2000,
has presented the organization with a new
and fundamentally human challenge. We
need to rapidly reorient our global F&A
professionals to deal with the greater
responsibilities they will shortly face.
According to the managing board, this
will involve nothing less than embracing
the 'dramatic mentality change and
behavioral change needed to transform
Rabobank International into a customer-
driven organization.' Responsibility for
designing this course has been assigned to
the RabobankAcademy. The program will
involve several outside institutions -
including Harvard Business School and
Kellogg University in the US - in a
remarkably innovative and dynamic
approach to staff development.
SHARPENING COMPETITIVENESS
By now, the Academy is a familiar element
in our organization. At the outset, it
focused on addressing the pressing needs
of our local bank network. Once we
embarked upon an ambitious phase of
global transformation and growth, it was
clear that Rabobank International's
Pieter van Gent helping transform
professionals into experts.
expansion would also involve associated
human challenges that would require a
dedicated center of competence as well.
The Academy has since evolved an
extensive curriculum - with programs
ranging from the general to the highly
specific - intended to sharpen our
individual and collective competitiveness
throughout the whole Rabobank
organization. These have been developed
both in-house and in conjunction with
outside experts. The Academy was
therefore the natural choice to coordinate
the latest and perhaps most highly
demanding and critical task of retraining
F&A relationship managers.
TRAINING EXPERTS
It is interesting to note that the F&A
training program is being developed under
the pressure of especially tight deadlines:
the launch date for the first class is set for
the start of next year. 'We have been asked
to design a prototype program that will
rapidly enable both our account managers
and our product specialists to operate in a
completely new way,' says Henny van de
Schraaf, project coördinator, who is
working closely with both Gerrit
Broekstra, a professor of organizational
behaviour and a director of the Nijenrode
Centre for Corporate Renewal, as well as
with Pieter van Gent, of management
development. 'Essentially, the challenge is
to transform sales-oriented professionals
into expert market consultants. We have
to learn to place the sale of products and
services in the context of an even more
overriding priority. To cultivate enduring
and profitable cliënt alliances, our
relationship managers will need to take a
more global perspective on the F&A
market as a whole, and to cultivate a
talent for dynamically matching our
capabilities to specific and long-term cliënt
needs.'
Henny van de Schraaf (right) and Gerrit
Broekstra working closely together on the
new training challenge.
HIGH STAKES
If this sounds like a tall order, the stakes
are equally high. The significance of the
F&A training programme - initiated by
Henk Gentis and Hans Megens of the
policy committee Food Agri - is
reflected in the total USD five million
budget that has been allocated to it. This
translates into an investment of some
USD 10,000 per participant - excluding the
costs of travel. Classes are being designed
to promote functional and geographic
networking throughout the organization.
Each class of 25-30 participants will
include both account managers and
product specialists selected to form a
representative cross-section of offices
throughout the world.
ACTION LEARNING
The course will consist of three intensive
three-day 'action learning' sessions - each
at a different location - spread over a
period of six months. The 'action learning'
element will include dividing each class
into six or seven smaller sub-groups. At
the outset of the course, each subgroup
will be invited to identify a real-life
company, approach it, and attempt to
establish an ongoing research relationship
with that firm. At the same time, the
intensive first module of the course, which
is being designed together with Ray
Goldberg, a noted industry consultant and
Harvard Business School Professor, will
consider a series of case studies intended
to enhance understanding of the F&A
market worldwide. The second phase, will
look to the other side of the 'hourglass'
namely, general and specific developments
in the world of banking and corporate
finance. The last module, which will take