SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Rightmix
Working worldwide
Mature advice
Making a mark
Building blocks
The approach is simple: research the
problem, offer suggestions for practical
solutions, assist implementation and
provide ongoing support. 'When we take
on a project, we think of it as a recipe,'
explains RIAS Director Gerard van
Empel. 'You bring some of the ingredi-
ents with you, such as know-how and
best practice, and mix them with local
ingredients - local circumstances, culture
and business practices - to make a better
product or solution that works.' It's
about ensuring the right people are
available for projects and RIAS draws
upon the Group's wide knowledge pool
to get expertise to where it's needed at
the right time.
Over the years, RIAS has worked all
over the globe, front Albania to Zim
babwe. This year, in Turkey, strategy
advice is being offered to Ziraat Bank,
the country's largest rural bank. A new
endeavor is the creation of entities which
are competitive in the world market.
In Russia, RIAS established a sugar
cooperative which is now growing over
5000 hectares of sugar. 'In association
with the Inter-American Development
Bank we are also making an inventory
of all cooperative banks in Brazil,' says
Van Entpel. 'And in Egypt we are
involved in a tltree-year contract to
assist financia! restructuring of the
government rural bank.'
However, it's not just the enterging
markets that RIAS is talking about.
Many cooperative enterprises in mature
markets are still based on old
International Cooperative Alliance (ICA)
rules, operating 011 a 'one man one vote'
system and utilizing inadequate eapital-
ization structures. Based 011 these
structures and rules, cooperatives are
weak business organizations for their
menibers and are not economieally
viable, especially when they are involved
in capital intensive activities such as
food processing.
'The Milk I.ink project recently com-
pleted in the UK involved changing the
governance and voting structures as well
as the capitalization mechanism of a
milk collection cooperative,' explains
Van Entpel. 'RIAS suggested a pricing
mechanism and capitalization structure
linked to each member's production
volume, which generated a substantial
amount of capital. This enabled Milk
I.ink to make major acquisitions in order
to shorten its supply chain. It is now the
LIK's fourth largest dairy producer.'
Another example of RIAS' involvement
is the mediation of a nterger between UK
cooperative Zenith - which was restruct-
tired by RIAS - and Milk Group, a public
limited company (plc). They are now
collectively known as Dairy Farmers of
Britain and operate successfully as a
cooperative.
Although RIAS was not set-up in order
to generate profit, RIAS projects do
create interest in the Group. In some
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