NETWORK MOVES
Self-discovery
Going Dutch
Managing culture
Support system
Exchanging Asia
used to this flexihility and I had to
reshape the way I was interacting with
people.' Then when he moved to
Ireland, Olguin had to adapt yet again
to the different approach to work.
Living overseas is exciting hut it's not
always easy. 'It is hard being away from
family hut it's an experience which has
enabled me to identify my own
strengths, weaknesses and capabilities.
Now I know ntyself- and what I can
achieve professionally - very well.
Working in a varicty of environments
also means I bring a different approach
to issues hecause I've been exposed to
other ways of working, problem-solving
and dealing with colleagues. It's reward-
ing to appiy the knowledge you've
learnt from one part of the organization
to another and this in turn has helped
me to onderstand the Rabobank culture
better, what we are striving to achieve
and why.'
Head of Operations for Group Treasury
Support (GTS), Kerry Peacock, re-
located from the UK to the Netherlands
with his family last year. He made the
move because the strategy of GTS was
to centralize core functionality in the
Netherlands. 'As the workload was
shifting from London, 1 was spending
more and more time with the team in
Utrecht,' he says. 'As operations there
increased, it made sense to he there on a
more permanent basis,' He now spends
one day a week with the team in London
and the rest of his time in Utrecht.
Working as a Manager in an unfamiliar
country presents its own unique chal-
lenges, as Peacock explains, 'Although
I was used to working with Dutch col
leagues, I had little experience of act-
ually working in a Dutch environment.
My hardest task when I took up my
post was to learn how to motivate and
stimulate people who come from a dif
ferent culture to mine.' Although the
British and the Dutch are close neigh-
bors, they have very different ways
of doing business and interacting with
management, as Javier Olguin points
out above. Peacock adds, 'It's not a case
of moving overseas with the attitude
"This is the way we do things at home
so this is the way we will do things
here" because it simply won't work.
People will resent that kind of behavior.
It was a steep learning curve for me and
1 worked with my team to find out what
it is that drives each individual, what
triggers them and how we can work
together effectively.'
In spite of the challenges, Peacock says
he and his family have settled into
Dutch life and his first overseas posting
is running smoothly. 'We've made good
use of the relocation agency the F.xpat-
riate Services Team (see sidebar, page
22) enlisted to help us settic in. They are
always on the end of the phone to ans-
wer questions like how to register with
the city authorities, how to find a doctor
- things that you can be too busy to deal
with while you are familiarizing yourself
with a new home and job. Unfortu-
nately, though, even they can't help me
to master the Dutch language.'
It was the Professional's Exchange
Program (PEP - see page 23) that en
abled Seth Morgan from the New York
office to spend seven months in
Singapore and Hong Kong working on
the Centralization of Asian Technical
Systems (CATS) project. 'For a Project
Manager, communication is key,' he
says, 'and because communication is
multifaceted, the first hurdle I had to
overcome was getting used to the
The Word I 21
