Advancing FAR
a day at the office
I
6 What'sNewS
The concept of research as an occupation for the singular inhabitants of ivory
towers is a far cry from the reality of F&A research (FAR). As Buenos-Aires based
F&A researcher Alejandro Reca's typical day shows, the kind of dedicated
business 'studies' carried out by our people and the products they generate are
increasingly key components in RI's push to add value.
On assignment
Informed decision
Cross-selling options
Complex study
Expert perspective
Issue 11 November 1998
Typically, Alejandro Reca's day begins
on the Avenida del Libertador with a
quick e-mail check. While Argentina was
sleeping, colleagues in Europe have been
hard at work and it is not uncommon to
find an urgent request for information
needed in a cliënt presentation or a
question on a specific sector issue. 'The
time difference,' says Reca, 'means you
have to use the periods when you can talk
to people in, say, Utrecht, very effkiently.
We're in continual contact with North
America and Brazil, hut time is not such a
problem there. Asia is a little more
complicated.' The reason he places so
much emphasis on contact is that FAR
people work in anything hut a vacuum -
they have to be in constant interaction to
achieve the kind of results clients - both
external and internal - demand.
At any given time, someone like Reca is
engaged in a variety of commissions,
assignments and ongoing research for
global, regional and sometimes national
sector studies. Currently, he is working on
a number of consultancy projects for
clients. 'One is a consultancy job in the
corn sector,' he explains. 'Argentina is a
significant exporter of corn as raw
material, but does little in semi-
manufactures. What we've been asked to
look at is opportunities for wet corn
milling. This process produces corn starch
that can be processed into high fructose
corn syrup, a substitute for sugar in the
soft-drink industry, and increasingly
important in the paper industry. This
could very well become a growth sector -
Argentina is a highly competitive corn
producer and local demand for soft drinks
is increasing. We are also looking at corn's
transformation into animal protein.'
Like many of the projects handled by FAR
teams, this job came through the client's
relationship manager. 'Essentially,' he
continues, 'the RM saw the opportunity
and we made the pitch together. Our
working relations with the front office
people are very close, they have to be. We
depend on them especially for identifying
opportunities where we can come in and
reinforce the relationship.' In turn, that
opens up chances for cross-selling and
bringing in other expertise, such as APFT,
corporate finance, M&A. 'I think we see
that as part of our role - creating an
environment in which we can provide
knowledge to the customer so that he can
Argentina's Alejandro Reca, knowledge
reaching FAR
make an informed decision. The customer
also gets a taste, an impression of the
range of expertise we have in the bank
because we, as FAR, have access to it.
That means potentially everyone can be a
winner here.'
If Reca is not working on wet corn
milling, he's busy with the dry version.
This is another cliënt mandate won
through relationship manager insight -
the RM concerned feit there was a market
opportunity for this particular customer.
'Now they have asked us to advise on
whether or not they should go into a new
market and to identify any prospective
openings in that market. I can't say much
more than that at this time because the
assignment is confidential, but it is
another example of how this can work
very well in terms of cross-selling.'
Talking to Reca, you get the impression
that this piece could easily turn into a
listing of mandates won. This year, he has
worked on an M&A deal in the beef
sector, on a number of other corn-related
projects - and so on. But what is also
impressive is the range our FAR people
have to have.
It is easy to be a specialist in one area.
Yet we appear to demand that our
researchers are not only sector specialists,
but also generalists with expertise and gm
insight into the whole range of F&A
sectors. When we spoke to him, Reca
was also working on the global sugar
study currently under preparation by an
Utrecht-based team as well as identifying
key aspects for inclusion in the regional
special on Brazil. 'Sugar is a very
interesting sector, especially in Latin
America,' he says. 'If you look at
Mercosur, you see that all products and
sectors have been deregulated, except
sugar and automotive. For automotive,
there are some arrangements. But sugar
has been left out of the negotiations
altogether. That makes it a very complex
subject that people will want to
understand in detail.'
Exploring and analyzing the sugar secto^J
facilitated another priority project for
Reca this fall. Following the FAR team
days in September, he travelled on to
Spain for a presentation on Mercosur.
'I was invited to do this by our people in
Madrid. They wanted to give their
customers what is essentially the bank's
perspective on the Latin American
internal market, and specifically on
opportunities in F&A. While F&A trade
between Spain and Mercosur is relatively
small, foreign direct investment in the
food sector is basically non-existent.'
Perhaps surprisingly, RI's perspective on
Latin America is considered useful by
Madrid's clients in spite of the fact that
many of the region's biggest banks are
now Spanish owned. Perhaps less
surprisingly, Alejandro Reca and his
colleagues will continue to build on that^|
perspective, proving that R! is indeed
what it claims to be: a knowledge-driven
bank with a single-minded rather than
singular focus on customers.
