'Can't you call it Simple
talking heads
Of all the reluctant Talking Heads we have had in the past, APFTs Niek Streefkerk
is perhaps the most reticent.'Why would anyone want or have to know about me
as a person or about my private life? I'd rather talk about the team...'
What'sNewS Issue 8-August 1998
The first time this reporter ever saw
Niek Streefkerk, he was making a
presentation on APFT to general
managers. Rather than piecharts and
overheads, his props included a baseball
cap showing the logo of Dutch rock
group Normaal and background music -
lyrics in Dutch dialect - provided by the
same band. Normaal produces the kind
of rural pop that relies greatly on heavy
base lines, simple, pounding rhythms but
also energizing guitar licks. Asked why
Normaal after the presentation, he
shrugged in characteristic style, replying:
'they've just sat through three days of
presentations. I wanted to make sure
they wouldn't forget us, a very small and
new team in the bank.'
At the time, he wasn't joking. Today, the
40-strong APFT is often held up as a
blueprint for the kind of successful matrix
structure crucial to full implementation of
the customer focus strategy. Only five
years ago, Streefkerk was pretty much a
new kid on the F&A bloc and his team
was less than a handful of people who
spent much of their time travelling to far
away developing countries. A far cry front
the marbled halls of the IMF which had
lent Streefkerk to Rabobank to support
Third World debt restructuring. 'In the
end,' he says, 'I opted to stay at Rabo
bank because though the IMF is a very
professional organization, it was also
very hierarchical and bureaucratie.
My feeling was that it could not reach its
full potential because it was too rigid.
Definitely too rigid for me.'
Streefkerk had come to believe that a
different type of structure - flexible and
flat with a healthy influx of partnering -
was the way ahead. What Rabobank was
offering after the debt work out period
was a chance to start a project finance
team from scratch and put that or-
ganizational structure into practice on a
global scale. 'I have strong views on what
makes for a healthy and performing or
ganization,' he says. 'It involves a
complex of elements - personal leader
ship, creativity, personal and group
learning, responsible entrepreneurship,
knowledge, experience, discipline, trust,
willingness to support each other and
commitment, all in the context of clear
and dynamic strategie and business
planning.' Add to this the creation of best
practice and the application of smart
knowledge management tools and
excellent interpersonal Communications,
an intolerance of functional silos and
knowledge monopolization and the
interview threatens to become an object
lesson in organizational theory.
If APFT wasn't actively, consistently and
most importantly profitably applying all
of these tenets, you could easily dismiss
them as no more than the latest
management fad. But talk
to any of the team and
they will explain there is
nothing faddish about
breaking down the
barriers of vested
interests, entering new
markets and developing
new knowledge nuggets.
While it may sound
Bolshie, it is seen by
Streefkerk and his people
as a means of creating
something that resembles
more a commonality of
purpose, a sense of
community that makes for
a better work
environment. All centred around the team
concept, which in his view is the type of
organization in which most people would
like to work if they had the choice and
the opportunity.
If that sounds even more Bolshie, then let
us disabuse you immediately: the under-
lying thinking is quite capitalist. 'A
commonality of purpose comes from your
own culture, your identity as an or
ganization that evolves around a good
business strategy,' he says. 'After all, we
want to do profitable business around the
globe and to improve our profile and
competitive strength in the market.' It is
perhaps this belief that has given him
what appears to be a passion for food
and agribusiness. However, contrary to
what many people think, this interest is a
relatively new one. 'Yes, I am fascinated
by F&A on an intellectual level because
of its dynamics and Rabobanks
international position in this sector,' he
explains. 'But may 1 just state for the
record here that I am not an F&A
fundamentalist; I'd never worked in this
sector before I joined the bank.'
What he is, he says, is a focus hard liner.
'Within RI, my dedication has more to do
with a conviction that you have to be
focused in order to survive and thrive.
Put it this way, I don't mind if we decide
tomorrow to focus on Martian landing
equipment. I don't mind as long as we
make sure we give it everything we've m
got, all the knowledge, all the
commitment, all the creativity, all the
necessary investment and make it
profitable. To be frank, we've yet to put
the full force of our commitment behind
the focus. We're still too
product focused - just
look at the names we
give to our
organizational units:
investment and
commercial banking,
corporate finance
instead of health care,
F&A and international
corporates. The current
organization allows
substantial scope for
lack of alignment. That
has to change to make i^j
the
ong run.
A modest Niek Streefkerk
With his colleagues in
APFT, Streefkerk is trying to support that
change. Sharing knowledge and
facilitating access to know how are both
key to how the team operates. By year
end, they will have added a new and
powerful element in the collective learning
and knowledge management so close to
his heart. 'Working with Renaissance
Consulting Worldwide, we're building a
desk-top based knowledge management
learning tooi that will minimize waste and
help joint learning around the team,' he
explains. It should roll out early 1999.
Streefkerk claims he currently has no
plans to support the roll out with either
special headgear or pop music. However,
his parting shot is typically tongue in
cheek: 'But if we do, and because many
things are less complex than they appear
at first sight, it would be Simple Minds,
rather than Talking Heads...'