'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