Man ON THE MOVE - THIS TIME TO INDIA 11 16 talking heads WHAT'S NewS Issue 10 November 1997 Following stints in the US and Singapore, Hans Hannaart is on the move once again. His latest challenge is our new operation in India. How does management change from country to country, and how easy is it to adapt to new business cultures? Hannaart has some of the answers. For someone who hoped to be a chemist, Hans Hannaart has had a lot of banking experience. In the past, he worked for the Dutch central bank and the International Monetary Fund. For Rabobank he has spent almost six years in New York before taking on Singapore some three years ago. The reason why he ended up as a banker and not a scientist surrounded by bubbling test-tubes and bunsen burners is simple: 'I managed to cause a fire in the laboratory,' he grins, betraying some of the student that was responsible for the explosion. 'I was trying to distill alcohol but forgot I'd left the experiment running. When I came back, the lab was damaged.' He quickly changed majors and took up econometrics which proved to allow his explosions of a different nature. Was science's loss the financial sector's gain? Hannaart can't help laughing as he recalls a story from his IMF days. 'When I was with the IMF, Turkey was facing similar problems as some of the Southeast Asian economies at present,' he says. 'I was part of the IMF team working on support for the Turkish economy and one recommendation was to lower inflation by curtailing growth in monetary expansion. My job was to develop an econometrie model based on the latest probability theories. I was so proud of my model - it looked great. Then the second oil crisis hit and nothing happened in Turkey. There was absolutely no effect on inflation. My boss came storming in asking what was going on. When I reexamined all the data that had been used, I discovered the price indices for energy were based on 1928 figures. The Turks didn't use oil then. Energy was supplied by wood and manure - time to become an agribusiness banker.' It was all a very long time ago, of course. There are lots of responses to a story like that, but one thing is clear, Hannaart laughs again, our man in Istanbul Henk Adams is not calling him on a daily basis. The people who are calling Hans Hannaart very regularly are the people who will form the new India team. Three of them are experienced bankers in the sub-continent and they form 60 percent of the five-strong management team that includes Anton Nillesen, currently in Frankfurt, and Hans Hannaart. 'We've never launched an operation with this structure before,' he says, 'but we've never moved into a market like this before. In terms of structure, we've certainly done joint ventures in the past. But that was always with other financial institutions. This time, we're joining up with individuals. These guys are all old hands in the Indian banking industry. Anton and I are old Rabobank hands with some Asia experience. It's going to be a real adventure.' Hannaart is circumspect about just how much 'Asia' experience you build up when working in sophisticated markets like Hong Kong and Singapore: 'Anton was in Hong Kong, of course,' he adds. 'If I look at it from the perspective of someone used to a western business culture, then Singapore is Asia for the beginner, at least superficially. It is very technologically advanced and business practice here is very international. India, in contrast, is probably Asia for the advanced student. It is hugely spiritual and spirituality is a part of public life. That will take some getting used to.' Again, Hans Hannaart entering the fascinating market of India, 'with an open mind. Hannaart talks in terms of adventure, excitement. He is not worried about tackling a totally new business environment because, he believes, he is going into this fascinating market with an open mind. 'When I arrived in Singapore,' he says, 'a professor of sociology at the university here was doing a trial to discover success factors in expatriate managers. One of the things he explored was our perception of other cultures, other races - whether you have preconceptions, fixed ideas about people. The conclusion of that trial was that people who have an open mind, who a tend to see people as individuawP are more likely to succeed. I was very gratified to see that I don't have a tendency to put people into boxes, but it's useful to keep in mind that you may have to make adjustments in how you manage to ensure you're communicating. If your management style is very fixed and you're not prepared to adapt, then you could get into trouble.' There should be little chance of that in India. Hannaart's wife Marjolyn has long been fascinated by the sub-continent and has made a number of trips there to explore some of^fc the great variety of cultures and regions. 'She is really excited about the move to Mumbai,' he says, 'this will give her a unique opportunity to pursue her love of India. For myself, I'm certainly doing homework in that I'm reading up on recent history - economie and political - and on the religious and social mores of the country. But most of the books available are written by Westerners or at least non-Indians. So I don't want to piek up too much on the perceptions of others. I'd much rather do my own learning.' RI's long-term plans for and significant investmen^^ in the Indian sub-continent should allow Hans Hannaart to do a lot of very intensive education.

Rabobank Bronnenarchief

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