'My ROLE IS
TO SUPPORT...'
16
talking heads
WHAT'S NewS Issue 2 February 1998
His passion for Asia was born as Roelf Hagoort was - in
Indonesia and it has left Singapore's brand-new general
manager with a fascination for the whole region.
'People who know me say l'm more Asian than Dutch,'
he says. 'I certainly can't get enough of it.' As he finishes
his tenure in Hong Kong, Hagoort reflects on the changing
role of the general manager and the shift towards a
generalist approach that seems to suit his particular
style of management.
When Roelf Hagoort was given
his first international assignment
back in the 1980s - for Amro
Bank in Singapore - the
excitement of taking on a new
job, new responsibilities was
sharpened by the anticipation of
returning to a region that feit
like home. The son of career
expat bankers, he was born in
Indonesia, spent some years in
Uganda, and lived for a period
in Hong Kong. Although he
came to love Africa, Asia never
lost its compelling attraction.
'When I went back, and
especially when I went to Hong
Kong for Rabobank, I realized I
had never been able to shake
Asia loose,' he says. Hagoort is
anything but mystical, he's far
too pragmatic for that. But
there's no hesitation or self-
depreciation when he says: 'It is
like predestination.'
Becoming an international
banker was not quite so definite
when Hagoort went to
Rotterdam's Erasmus University
to read business economics. 'I
liked the idea of working outside
the Netherlands and so did my
wife Inge who I met at Amro.
For a while I thought it would
be great to work in other parts
of the world.' It was not to be.
'Soon after I joined Rabobank,
they said: Asia. Quite frankly, I
had no problem with that
whatsoever,' he says with almost
British understatement.
The passion for all things Asian
has a lot to do with the kind of
cross fertilization Hagoort tries
to build into his management
team. It is more prosaic perhaps,
but just as important. 'If you ask
what l'm passionate about, then
another thing would be getting
the team to run like a well-oiled
machine,' he says, 'with this
difference: a machine is
unemotional. We want to have
fun. As a general manager you
can't have an indepth knowledge
of every area. You're what your
title says you are - a generalist
with a responsibility for
managing. In Hong Kong, my
role was certainly control and
risk management, that kind of
thing. l'm not there to run
corporate finance or operations.
Each unit works very
independently. My role is to
support and stimulate
interdepartmental cooperation.
My job is to make sure that our
corporate finance people can
and are getting the best out of
the operations resources, that
kind of thing. Through that kind
of coordination, you achieve a
focus.'
One of the most disputed
aspects of implementing the
customer focus strategy has been
the problem of the global
balance sheet. In basic, very
human terms, people are
justifiably concerned about
seeing their hard work and
effort disappear into another
branch's ledger. 'That's not only
a new problem for the
organization as it moves
towards a matrix system,'
Hagoort says. 'It can be an
internal issue in an individual
branch. What we have done in
Hong Kong, with Cindy
Kwong's people doing a great
job, is come up with a cliënt
profitability system which shows
us exactly what we are earning
per customer. Obviously, our
aim is to improve what ever that
figure is. So we have brought
everyone together to see how
they can contribute.'
Okay, you may be thinking:
well, what's so new or great
Roelf Hagoort: l'm more Asian than Dutch'.
about that. It's exactly what we
do? What makes the Hong M
Kong system different is that
everyone 'not just relationship
managers, but also
administration people, like
billing officers', is also
responsible or has some value to
add, some piece of knowledge to
input. 'Our aim is to get more
and more people in touch with
the customer. This system means
we can monitor ourselves
regularly. We can see how much
business we've done with each
customer. Which products the
cliënt has taken that year, what
he's interested in. Has income,
especially fee income, increased?
How we can do better. These are
all kinds of indicators for our
people. And when they see its M
successful and the customer
appreciates this effort, then our
own enthusiasm grows. All you
have to do is get over that initial
hurdle.
But it is also something that the
manager has to pursue and
support, he argues. 'It's no good
just announcing this is how
we're going to do it from now
on without backing that up with
real and consistent action.' It
will be in this frame of mind that
he started work in Singapore.
'You don't start shaking the
whole place up the minute you
walk through the door. My style
is more to impress upon people
that my door really is open. fl
What he is hoping for is that his
arrival will mean a lot more
cooperation between the two
branches - Hong Kong and
Singapore. 'As I see it, both have
been very focused on their own
region. I think it's time to change
that now and pull together
much more cohesively.
Intraregional business will
become more and more
important as the customer focus
strategy and the new global
product approach takes firm
root. Both branches will become
a kind of product and services
supermarket for the other
offices. The whole region will bc^
looking to us to provide these
enhanced services so that they
can develop their own market.
That's the challenge and we have
to be ready for that.'
