building up customer focus
Mm
relationship managers course
«sj:
wiss
WJeTa
l r
What'sNewS Issue 11 November 1998
Campina Melkunie is by far one of the leading players in the North and West
European dairy industry. It racked up 1997 sales of NLG 6.8 billion, it has
established a strong home market position in both the Benelux and Germany,
and is simultaneously spearheading a strategie expansion further afield.
Proactive approach
Presenting findings
Understanding challenges
KV
Positive dialogue
Expanding scope
Offering solutions
CAMPINA MELK
Campina might seem an
obvious and natural business
partner for Rabobank sinee it is
both a cooperative organization
and one that stands squarely
inside our core F&A. But it is
equally clear that we cannot take
^his cliënt relationship for
"ranted - its vitality is one that
depends not only on our ability
to add value and consistently
anticipate our customers' needs, but also
to maintain a frank and continuous
dialogue with the firm at every level.
Our F&A international relationship
managers course - the second class of
which recently began - was specifically
designed to help relationship managers
develop a new and more proactive
approach to providing customer value.
Built on the 'action-learning' principle, it
focused on global trends and develop-
ments in the F&A industry, and examined
a range of corporate finance and
investntent banking tools that help create
^Listomer value. But as Alain Cracau, a
Gember of the F&A team in Utrecht
points out, relationship banking is often
just as much about listening carefully to
the right executives as it is about coming
up with innovative new ideas.
Cracau, together with colleagues
Marianne Schoemaker and Joost
Verheijen of Utrecht, Philippe
Charbonnier of Paris, and Bas Nierop of
Hong Kong, formed a dedicated client-
focus team that studied Campina as part
of the pioneering F&A international
relationship managers course. They
focused intensively on Campina during
the whole of the nine month training
course. At the end, the team presented
their findings to Campina's CEO Bernard
^ijvoet and CFO Bas de Lange.
Certainly we went in there with a
number of sophisticated products that we
feit could be of benefit to them - things
like off-balance sheet financing of cheese,
Campina's Bas de Lange
project financing,
participation notes and so
forth,' says Cracau. 'But
what we discovered was
that they wanted to
communicate some even
more fundantental
observations about the
relationship as a whole.
As it turned out, our
presentation simply pro-
vided an opportunity for a more basic
exchange of perspectives, and it helped
to inject some new life into our ongoing
dialogue with their management.'
'ln general, of course, we are quite
satisfied with our daily dealings with
Rabobank and our relationships with its
top management, which is very close
indeed,' says De Lange. 'However, we've
noticed a certain tendency among all our
friends at the Dutch banks to behave
simply as technically proficient bankers
rather than as business
people who actually
understand the everyday
challenges we face.' De
Lange cites a basic
example of how an
appreciation of first
principles can make a
difference between a bankers' success or
failure with Campina. 'Look, we're a
cooperative organization with more than
8,900 members. We don't want to spend
a lot of time explaining why we're
uninterested in being quoted on the
Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Many,
especially the younger bankers, tend to
think of the cooperative ideal as
something like a dinosaur, and they
refuse to understand that our goals are
broader than just maximizing profit-
ability on the bottom line. We expect our
banking partners to understand exactly
what it rneans to be a cooperative. And
that means that sonietimes we value a
prompt response for a request for credit
much more highly than any number of
innovative new ideas.'
Looking around the world, De Lange is
impressed with the kind of customer-
orientation that has been developed by the
American banks. He ntakes no secret of
his belief that all of the Dutch players,
Rabobank included, still have a way to
go. 'No matter how professional you are
as a banker,' he says, 'it means nothing
unless you can put your knowledge into
the actual business context of the
customer concerned.' Flaving said that, he
is nevertheless positive about his dialogue
with the F&A team. 'This was a positive
encounter,' he says. 'We'11 continue
sharing information with our banking
partners so they can broaden their under
standing and better serve our needs. It
was a worthwhile exchange of views.'
This exchange comes at an important
strategie moment for Campina, which is
expanding its geographical and product
scope in such markets as Germany, the
UK, Austria, Spain, Poland
and Russia. To extend its
already substantial position,
it has focused on such
branded consumer products
as milk, cheese, desserts,
yoghurts and dairy drinks,
and on further extending its
market and product developinent in such
industrial products as whey derivarives
proteins, pharmaceutical lactose,
whipping agents, and fat concentrates.
'A number of complex financing
challenges are associated with this antbi-
tious growth agenda, and our meetings
provided an opportunity to explore these
strategie developments in detail,' says
Cracau. 'They also suggested areas in
which we can become more proactive in
offering solutions.' Remarks de Lange, 'as
with any intense relationship, you can
expect certain challenges.' Says Cracau:
'There is always room for improvement.
A frank dialogue with your customer is
the only way you can learn.'
"I
«3k*i
