Strategie update
F&A at work
What's in a logo?
didyou know?
io What'sNewS Issue 7 November 2000
lt has been four months since 60 relationship managers, product specialists and
support staff met together to brainstorm on how we can carry our F&A activities to
a new level of focus and excellence. We promised to keep you up to speed on
progress. This report covers the most recent gathering.
Muscular targets
Busy year-end
Meeting needs
It seems to be a time for gath-
erings - the M&A offsite has
just finished and FAR gets to
gether as we go to press (more
on both next issue). For partic-
ipants in the seeond F&A
brainstorm session held in
Maarsen, the Netherlands in
October, the key issues were to
monitor progress on decisions
and datelines set in July and
work out new action plans to
carry forward the whole process. Accord-
ing to Hans Megens, the results of this
meeting show hard choices will have to be
made. 'We need a very clear blueprint for
action that has to be taken, the milestones
we need to reach, and, perhaps most im-
portantly, establish who is accountable for
what in this evolution.'
The targets set for F&A over the next five
years are tough. Revenues of EUR 400
'"tr
Where are RI's F&A activities going
Wouter Kolfftakes the floor
million, growth
ra te of 12.5%
CAGR, pre-tax
ROE of 25% and
an income/cost ra
tio of 2:1 are the
goals based on de-
liverables which in-
clude lean and
ntean lending, cor
rect risk pricing
and origination.
'We also need to develop a distinctive
value proposition,' says Megens. 'This
means coming up with smart corporate fi
nance solutions and creative deployment
of, say, FARM, M&A and other knowl-
edge-intensive prod-
ucts. Basically, we
need to cut fat and
build muscle.'
Most of you have never seen it,
except perhaps in history
books, but this used to be our logo...
I -& 100
Banned rigorously from use almost
six years ago, it seems we weren't
quite as thorough as we thought - as
you'11 see, this old-style logo was
still being cranked out of our stamp
ing machine in Hong Kong in Janu-
ary this year - anybody know
whether it has been changed yet?
Deadlines have been
placed on actions
plans for all defined
moves needed to
achieve those targets.
By I December there
will be a response on
the delivery of
unique capabilities. Year-end has been
slated for an integrated origination model
involving RMs, product managers, sector
specialists and support people. Another
key component - cliënt segmentation and
prioritization, which applies a modifica-
tion of the highly successful US model -
has also been slated for year-end. Simi-
larly, geographic locations will be defined
as white, grey and black. White is suffi
ciënt scale and profitable; grey are strate
gie but not yet profitably; and black is nei
ther. A blueprint for this segmentation
must be ready by year-end.
Quarter 1 will be equally demanding for
people working on implementation
Facilitating a definite blueprint:
Hans Megens discusses a plan of action
Taking F&A to a new level - participants at the
brainstorm take a moment to network and
trouble-shoot
programs. Product organization must be
focused and an overall blueprint must be
ready by the end of this first quarter. Says
Megens: 'It should reflect a hub and spoke
structure and we have to invest in prod-
ucts.' As yet, the nuts and bolts of actual
implementation of these plans and pro
grams have still to be defined and clear
tasks and accountability allocated. Ac-
cording to Mark Lobo of Rabo India, who
worked on the final presentation, the
meeting was very useful in that there had
been time to digest the
information exchanges
of July and a number
of positive steps had
already been taken to-
wards change. 'We
now have a definite
plan to move this
whole process along,'
he commented. For
FAR people, the
process has really
taken off in that they
are far advanced on re-
structuring their re
search offering to mesh with airns and tar
gets - see What's NewS 6/2000. InSight is
also well on its way to meeting informa
tion needs. Again, we'11 keep you posted
as deadlines are met.
TMI, or global telecom, media
and Internet - was officially rec-
ognized as a focus sector for R1 on
2 November. The TMI team is
working on a strategy and business
plan - we'11 get back to you with
more in our next issue.
