organization
*resh ideas on fruit
Feedback through mentoring
Task allocation
Fostering relations
Random pairing
What sNewS lssue5'May 1998 1
Frankfurt played host to the first European fruit relationship meeting aimed at improving how we
approach this important segment. Account managers and product specialists from western Europe met
to specify targets, assign tasks and
define action in a push to build
corporate banking team in Frankfurt.
'The paper contains a cliënt listing and we
are now enhancing the existing database
by sharing knowledge.'
cross-border networking.
What the organizers
were aiming for at
this first meeting was the
establishment of a constant
program of networked
cooperation rather than a
single meeting without
follow-up. Following the
publication of Rl's
^ositioning paper on the
fresh fruit industry last
November, European
Rabobankers have been involved in
milking every marketing advantage from
it. Acknowledged as an extremely useful
instrument, the positioning paper is not a
Attending the first European fruit relationship meeting, left to
right: Michael Abel, Mariano del Vescovo, Alain Cracau, Gonneke
Heerkens, Andrew Aitken, Jacqueline Pieters, Rob Schots, Harald
Presto and Arend Heijbroek
nteans in itself but represents a strategie
tooi in discussions with top corporates in
the sector. 'You have to work with a tooi
like that,' says Michael Abel of the
Clients have been rated according to the
action needed. Priority one customers
(including Dole, Chiquita, Capespan)
tend to be those where a relationship
already exists with one or more
Rabobank office or where account
managers see possibilities to improve
service on a cross-border basis. 'By
meeting on a regular basis,' Abel argues,
'we can coordinate our offerings to these
clients.' For example, tasks such as the
preparation of a strategie action plan for
one customer and a business plan for
another have been allocated and results
will be presented at the next meeting of
this fresh new group in Milan next
autumn. For more information
concerning this meeting please contact
Michael Abel in Frankfurt directly,
telephone +49 69 792 06 435
ew employees are expected to
effectively contribute to meeting our
business needs as soon as possible. But in
order to do so, they have to be integrated
into our culture and history as well. Our
Singapore operation, the model of a high-
growth office pushing into both new
markets and new products, has adopted a
new concept for managing these
hallenges and meeting our corporate
oals. It is called mentoring. 'All of us can
remember when we were newcomers.
During our first three months at the bank,
we feit awed and overwhelmed, and
needed guidance,' remarks Neville Kiang
of human resources in Singapore. 'Every
time someone gave us the benefit of
their experience and perspective, it was
appreciated. It helped us integrate -
anchor our roots in the organization.
On a more organized level, this is what
mentoring is really all about.'
The goal of the Singapore administration
department is to give new officers a
confidential contact within the senior
staff. He or she can help them to more
quickly adapt to our goals and working
■nvironment, to better understand the
ynamics of the organization together
with the opportunities within it, to get
feedback on their own goals and how they
should best develop them, and finally to
encourage networking within the
One of the most important and delicate challenges facing any large organization is to successfully oriënt its new
employees. The task, to ensure that they quickly become an integral part of the workflow, is especially crucial
during phases of rapid growth like our own, with a broad diversification of our geographical and product range
underway. Singapore launched a new initiative that addresses some of these concerns.
organization overall. By meeting regularly
with new employees over a six-month
period, mentors can play an important
role in cultivating their effectiveness,
simply by listening, asking questions,
offering insights, and giving feedback.
The relationship runs much deeper than
the formal junior/senior officer ties: a
mentor is expected to open himself
personally as well as professionally and to
exchange ideas and insights of a more
confidential nature as well. The mentor is
not responsible for appraising
performance or for giving performance
feedback to the mentee's manager.
The program was inaugurated in
Singapore last summer, when new
officers joining the bank were paired with
the heads of various operations depart-
ments. Apart from a rule that mentors
and officers cannot corne from the same
department, the pairing was essentially
random. After the first six months,
virtually all of the participants, both new
officers and their mentors, expressed their
Making the most of mentoring, left to right
(standing): Chan Lai Ham, Hanneke Stemmann,
Diane Gan, left to right (seated): Goh Wee Nee,
Neo Lee Hong and Neville Kiang
satisfaction with the program and its
benefits; good administration must insure
that officer and mentor are well matched
so that they can form a rapport. While the
initial program used departmental heads,
more senior officers need to be identified
as future mentors, not least because of
the suggestion, now under consideration,
that the program be extended to cover
a wider group.