RICO - Enabling
MORE COOPERATION
GPM -
Integrated F&A
I
WORKING
NOTES
O
8
special
WHAT'S News Issue 11 December 1997
What the global
product managers
have in store in their
various business
proposals is what
you've been waiting
for. But the density
and scope of these
plans (in spite of the
fact that some of the
new IB recruits have
only been in the bank
for five minutes) is too
great to cover
adequately here.
In coming issues of
What's NewS we'll be
talking to each of the
GPMs in depth and
reporting back to you.
Hope your appetite is
whetted by this brief
summary of main focal
points.
Michael Ice - Global
fixed income and
derivatives (FID)
Michael Ice
This GPM was very up
front about just how
competitive his specific
field is. The ambition
statement is clear -
global FID aims to be
amongst the most
Arthur Arnold
It wasn't all fun and games, of
course even though the
program gave a lot of
attention to team-building
activity, such as the afternoon
spent crawling through,
absailing down and
mountaining biking round the
former I 9th-century
fortifications at IJmuiden,
just up the coast from
Noordwijk. The idea was
sound, especially in view of
the underlying message at
RICO: teams are not just the
immediate group you work
with in your own office.
Teams can include anyone,
anywhere in the network with
some added value to offer in
creating solutions for
customers.
LOTS OF BUSINESS
The now traditional final
dinner with executive board
special guest, welcomed Rik
van Slingelandt, former head
of the international division.
'You've really used the last
two years extremely well,' he
confirmed. 'And in fact
banking today is not really
too difficult. What will be
harder is the creation of a
financial services environment
that will take us into the next
century. At the rate you're
going, that won't be too
difficult. You've started to use
solvency, but more
importantly, you've started to
organize and manage it.'
TOTAL SUPPORT
The only hard point Van
Slingelandt had to make was
the fact that no more cost
overruns would be accepted.
But these are not principle
issues, he said, 'these are
clearlv matters that can be
worked out if you come to
grips with them. And for the
record, the whole executive
board is right behind all your
efforts, especially in RI's
strong entry into investment
banking. We support you 100
percent, no exceptions, no
doubts, this is definitely the
way forward.'
BRINGING IN IB
This brings us neatly to the
hottest issue on the RICO
agenda - investment banking,
investment bankers, and how
the very smooth sounding 'Rl
- corporate and investment
bank' will work on the work
floor. There has been a lot of
coffee machine discussion on
IB. The talk does not concern
Rik van Slingelandt
food and agribusiness )-
The message from the F&A people at RICO through
business manager Peter Greenberg was loud and clear -
integration, integration and more integration. Positioning
was also a priority along with puiling to the surface all the
tacit know-how that exists in our organization. A brief
overview of the arguments.
One of Greenberg's main themes
would be the need for overlap -
overlap between F&A clients and
prospects and the search for
financial solutions to their needs
and the primary players who can
achieve that - (senior)
relationship managers, senior
bankers, APFT, FAR and product
managers. Every single
international Rabobanker,
whatever his or her area of
expertise, wholeheartedly
advocated the rapid introduction
of the product ranges the people
in IB will have to come up with in
the very near term. Greenberg was
no exception and in fact his
presentation emphasized the
interdependency between the
various players. As IB is still
something of an unknown
quantity in the sense that there
are clear plans and strategies on
the table, but it will take some
time before we see the practical
