TEAM WORK
20 ISSUE 26 AN RI WORLD
Another important element in this process is Rabobank's
ambition to become the leading Food and Agribusiness (F&A)
bank globally. Parker says: "I think in the past we were perhaps
more content with individual successes, but now our focus has
changed and we want to be leading in the F&A sector. This
forces us, as a bank, to be more systematic and work together
- the goal of sector leadership cannot be reached by one
product area on its own. The other slight twist is that the
types of roles and transactions we're now trying to undertake
are much more ambitious. We're defïnitely trying to take more
of a leadership role in the deals that we execute and for those
larger, more sophisticated transactions which pay better,
you have to be better aligned and better able to sell multiple
products. Where possible, we no longer aim to bash out
leveraged buyout on our own. What we're actually looking for
is an advisory role as well. And by approaching from that angle,
we're often able to increase not only our rewards but also our
chances of success as we are the ones initiating a transaction.
To carry out this type of deal successfully, of course, you need
to involve far more people, you need to ensure that they're well
informed and sharing information at each stage and you need
a lot of trust! And this means that we're now putting a lot of
effort into working with the M&A guys to further develop our
relationships in the F&A space - nearly 40 joint pitches this year
tells its own story."
So how will these changes affect clients? Cuppen says that the
main impact of the changes at Global Client Solutions will be
to the focus on Rabobank's core clients. 'There's been a shift in
our cliënt base, and we now deal less with fïnancial institutions
and more with corporates. Additionally, our way of working
has intensified, and we work hard to bring our knowledge to
bear on specific problems of our clients, whether they're in
