'LEADERSHIP IS LISTENING. REALLY LISTENING' HANS TEN CATE IN THE LIMELIGH Just before his retirement on July 1RI's Chairman Hans ten Cate tells what he has learned from his long career in banking. D What was your very first job and what didyou leam from it? 0 What ivas the greatest opportunity in your career "It's been nearly 35 years since I got into banking. That's a long time to devote to this beautiful business. And it's a business that's gone through lots of changes, since the relatively simple times of the 70s. Amro was straightforward then; it was already an international bank,yet with a solid national focus. This all changed in the early 80s with the emergence of structured products and derivatives. Operating across borders made matters more complex, in particular when it came to accounting. In Dubai, in '77 we started doing swaps at Amro. The Executive Board actually told us to stop until the firm feit confident about the accounting side." 'The paceoffinancial innovation across the past two or three decades has been formi- dable. In such an environment, experience becomes invaluable and I have always said that 'my nose knows.' Back then the specialist didn't exist. The dealing room at Amro's Head Office comprised of 28 people; it was another world. "At the very start of a banking career, trainees were seated on upside-down rubbish bins nexttoadesk. It was January 1974 and I was working at the Special Collections unit, at Amro. This is what bankers also call the 'hospital unit'. For any young person, it is an excellent place to build-up experience and for me, the timing was perfect. It was in the wake of the oil crisis and the portfolio was huge. "I recall speaking at a personnel meeting of one of my clients back then. I told them that if they didn't sell more, then they'd be out of business. My managers pulled me back; reminding me that I was not the entrepre neur. I was a banker and a banker maintains 'appropriate distance.' Bankers could and should have ideas and can advise based on those ideas and experience. But you're not the owner. You must not stipulate the direction a company should take." "In all honesty, if bankers were to charge for their advice based on hourly wages, like con- sultants for instance, it would become very transparent as to what is the real added-value of the advice. It can be done. I have done it. Back in 2000, during a short hiatus between jobs, I took on a banking advisory task; an arbitrage. I agreed to do it for an hourly wage. They accepted and paid in full for my advice. We should all aspire to this level of service. When a cliënt has to pay for what we advise, then it should be crystal clear how good we truly are. Certainly this is a better measure than the current bonus system, which has got out of hand. Yes, we should pay people for hard work. But the bonus has become the Standard, instead of a high Standard earning the bonus." "Opportunity isn't quite the right word. Offer is more like it. Positions come across one's path. Looking at it this way, Rotterdam was a great period; Amro was well-positioned in the market and there was a lot to do. It's a good place to bank and a nice place full stop. 1 like boatsand water." "Rotterdam was in huge contrast to my time in Dubai. Amro was unknown and we had to be aggressive. We made a lot of noise to 1 issue 16 THE WORD

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