f ft 05
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®Talking Turkey
New look budget
cycle
Services provided
Historical associations
Framework
Plan approval
Budget translation
What sNewS Issue 5* May 1998
Out Istanbul branch will begin an important new
phase in its operations this month when it moves
into new premises in a prestigious quarter of the
require that we open our office by this
summer, the majority of our time is being
devoted to basics: recruiting qualified
staff, preparing the office to receive
clients, and getting our information
technology systems on-line.'
management team in place, Istanbul can
now concentrate on bringing itself fully
up to force, with the number of employees
slated to rise from 10 at present to about
25-30 by year's end. Istanbul has also
arranged for new office space in the
prestigious Besiktas quarter. Now being
redeveloped, the area is seeped in the
history of the old Ottoman court. Turkish
associates like the fact that we've moved
here,' Adams says. 'It seems to have strong
and positive historical associations.'
Istanbul will provide corporate banking
and finance services, with particular
focus on M&A, structured trade finance,
tax-driven and cross-border deals. On the
investment banking side, there is a huge
need for structured funding solutions that
can address the financial risks of working
in a high-inflation environment. 'Turkey is
quite self-sufficient in food production,
but the processing industry is still rather
undeveloped and on the verge of
enormous growth. We are also actively
preparing to capture opportunities in
private banking. Last, though certainly
not least, there is a growing pool of
middle-class people who can afford high-
quality medical care. We are very actively
involved in seeking local health care
partnerships that will address this fast-
growing market,' Adams says.
Turkish capital.
Having been
granted a
regulatory green
light to open a full
branch office ahead
of Schedule, our
Istanbul colleagues
are now working
full-tilt to get the
operation up and
gunning in time for
its formal
inauguration in a
few months time.
'We originally
thought the approval would take as much
as a year. However, our application
received a rather positive reception and
the whole process, including the required
ratification by the president, was finalized
within three months. In the meantime, as
a temporary representative office, we've
been able to start some limited marketing
activities,' says general manager Henk
Adams. Nevertheless, 'since authorities
The Istanbul team outside the new premises, left to right: Halil Albayrak,
Yesim Yesiltepe, Dilek Özgören, Nazli Bayindir, Davut gelik, Sibel Namli,
Yat^in Uyaroglu, Henk Adams, Dilek Can (missing Sinan Yal^in)
Adams is somewhat modest about
Istanbul's accomplishments to date. In
point of fact, he has already successfully
recruited 10 staff members including the
management team consisting of: David
Celik, assistant general manager, Sinan
Yalcin, treasury manager, and Nazli
Bayindir, operations manager. With this
Until now, business plans have
appeared in a wide variety of forms,
9'ith varying lengths and entphases. The
new budget cycle, which takes effect
immediately, has been designed to intro
ducé consistency in this format. Moreover,
it will also clarify the relationship between
the 3-year business planning cycle (on the
one hand) and the coordination of those
plans with the annual budgets (on the
other). 'Timing is the key,' says Bert
Bruggink, head of control RI. 'If we want
to effectively integrate our customer focus
strategy and the associated business plans
into our budget development, we need to
make an earlier start.
Thus, by the end of every April, the man
agement teams and policy committees
will be expected to have their draft busi-
»ess plans fully completed. Since these
'ill serve as a basis for the plans that will
be submitted by the individual offices at a
later date, they will henceforth be consid-
ered and approved by the managing board
before summer's end. During this sarne
A major initiative aimed at streamlining the
annual budget cycle has now been launched, and
the new process will differ considerably from the
one that has prevailed to date.
initial cycle, the managing board will
approve a Consolidated financial frame
work for these broad business plans.
The framework, together with a detailed
guideline on the issues that need to be
covered in the individual business plans
and financial budgets, will be generated
by our control department in time for
RICO, which takes place from 9-11 June
this year. Together, the business plans and
financial framework will provide a foun
dation upon which the offices can build
their own plans that address the specifics
of their local markets and customer bases.
Individual offices are expected to prepare
their detailed 1999-2001 business plans
during the months between June and
September. These plans will be subject to
an intermediate check by the global policy
committees and the management teams,
and will be approved by the managing
board before the end of September. The
actual budget calculation will be tackled
in a second phase of the new process,
which will take place during the last
quarter, after the results of the first three
quarters have already become clear.
The offices will be expected to prepare
their new annual budgets, within the
broad frameworks discussed above, dur
ing the months of October and November.
'Assuming the office did a proper job with
its 3-year business plan, it should have no
trouble translating it into a budget pro-
posal during the course of the summer,'
says Bruggink. Under the new plan,
the RI managing board will produce a
clear disposition on these budgets by the
end of November, so that the entire bud
get will be sent to the executive board of
Rabobank Nederland for final approval
before year's end.