RICO - regional exchange
central and eastern europe
i
i
In the run-up to the global
Rabobank International
Conference (RICO) slated for
early June in Antwerp, the
regions are busily organizing
more local events to hammer
out issues relating to their
particular area and business
environment. In March
representatives from Latin
America and the Far East came
together, in April it was the turn
of our people in Central and
Eastern Europe (CEEC).
What's NewS sits in on the
country presentations and
reports on some of the pressing
issues confronting these
operations.
Listening action
Network structure
What sNewS Issue5* May 1998
It may come as something of a
surprise, but Turkey (see page 3) has
also been clustered with our people
from CEEC - Poland,
Hungary, Ukraine and
Russia - so five operations
were represented at the
two-day conference. The
reason is that it has many
characteristics of an
emerging market and in
geographic terms shares
borders which are at least
interesting for potential Rl
activity in the region. But,
comments Hungary's
Tamas Simonyi, even
though all have a number
of commonalities, the
countries represented at the RICO are
also very disparate in terms of
development stage, business environment,
market requirements and so on. These
differences should not be underestimated.
What they share in terms of challenges
was key to the conference agenda.
Staffing, systems, capitalization - all were
raised as issues crucial to not only further
development, but also survival in some of
these markets. Hanno Riedlin who has
Tamas Simonyi
Hanno Riedlin backed by the Polish team
become responsible for the region
following the management board
reshuffle, was there to listen and, CEEC
Rabobankers hoped, to
respond to their needs
with, among others,
stronger head office
support for very specific
prevailing circumstances.
Riedlin sketched briefly
the recent history, not
only of growth in CEEC
as background to the
introduction of the
customer focus strategy
and our conimitted
emphasis on a knowledge-
driven approach.
While many of the CEEC Rabobankers
stressed our late arrival in the region
and its consequences for building cliënt
bases, they were reminded that only three
years ago we had no more than a single
rep office and three staff in the Hungarian
capital. 'Six years ago,' adds Riedlin, 'wm
were also a single product bank. Now, v\W
are a multiple-product bank - although
not yet always a good one.' All of these
changes, and the introduction of what is
sometimes called a 'matrix' organizational