The most important
element is transporting
bestpractices to other
areas within the bank
S You have enormous experience of F&A
banking in Australia New Zealand. How
did you envisage using this knowledge
to benefit Rabo AgriFinance's strategy?
0 You've been on RAF's board since
mid-2010. What have been some of the
main highlights or challenges of your
involvement so far?
0 Sharing managers' skills across the
organisation through 'active collaboration'
seems a simple yet effective way of
spreading best practices, yet this is the first
example of its kind in Rabobank. Why is that?
0 What are the benefits to Rabobank
of this type of 'active collaboration'?
What do you consider most valuable?
A "When I was given the opportunity by [Executive Board
member, ed.] Berry Marttin, I had little insight into RAF's business
and was unsure if my experience could be transferred across
usefully. However, I discovered fairly rapidly that the strategie
modelling used within RAF was based on a similar model that
we used within our operations in Australia and New Zealand.
This focus on developing the F&A market and concentrating on
leading producers meant that the experience and knowledge
we had built up at Rabobank since the mid-1990s would be
directly helpful to RAF. My first step was to look at what we do
well in Australia - we have a very strong reputation within the
agricultural sector, we're market leader in a number of F&A areas,
and we've managed to retain our core people and the core
values of Rabobank - and then look at the elements that would
work within RAF. The management team could then integrate
the ideas into their own strategie planning as needed."
A'The highlights are easier to list than the challenges, to be
honest! One of the strongest elements is the strength of RAF's
management team in the United States, led by John Ryan, who's
enormously experienced and a very professional F&A banker. If
the team didn't mesh or wasn't able to work together properly,
then that could have been an issue. The second highlight was
discovering the strength of RAF's strategy, and their focus on
organic growth. I've learnt that if you have a good strategy, you
really need to have the confidence to invest earlier rather than
later. And because we had successfully developed and reached our
strategie goals in Australia and New Zealand, I was very confident
that they would achieve the same success at RAF. A lot of what
we discussed at our original strategy meeting has already been
taken on board, and it's simply a pleasure to be involved, even to
a relatively small degree, in a process that is beginning to return
such positive results. The third highlight was how much I learnt
about the business in the United States. Spending time studying
the business in another region can be tremendously rewarding.
The main challenge is simple - the distance! It's probably around
a 25-hour trip door-to-door, and travelling there for four board
meetings a year took a bit of getting used to. Flowever, this has
been amply offset by the enjoyment that I take from working with
a team of colleagues on the other side of the world. You realise
that you're helping save time and effort, by shortening the distance
to their objectives, by making available your own experience."
A "There have been cases of skills and knowledge transfers within
countries, however unfortunately this has not been strategically
formalised. As an organisation I think we need to make it simpler
- in other words, identify who can add value from within the
business, and make it easier for them to cross-fertilise within the
regions. So far I don't think the bank has really thought of itself as
a growing retail organisation, so understanding that we have all
of this knowledge and experience that can be shared is part-and-
parcel of the bank's development and growing pains. I think the
change stemmed from when Berry Marttin was in Australia - he
understands how the business is managed out here, and he had
the vision to say 'we need to translate that knowledge to other
parts of the business'. In this region we've moved staff between
Australia and New Zealand, and it's worked very well, so this is
the natural next step up in geographic terms. Perhaps money
and understanding the complexity of retail banking have been
hurdles so far - it takes a great deal of time to build up a brand
and reputation within the retail market."
A 'The most important element is learning from successes, and
then transporting best practices to other areas within the bank.
This helps you make decisions faster, helps you eliminate mistakes,
and allows you to achieve your strategie goals ahead of time. If you
move quicker, but more intelligently, you'll enhance the values
of the organisation which ultimately leads to an increased profrt on
investment. And that's a great driver. A second - and very important
- benefit is the wonderful opportunity afforded to staff, as they not
only have the chance to pass on their knowledge and experience,
but they also get to learn from their colleagues. One of the real
benefits to Rabobank is that it'll quicken the pace of change - it's the
transfer of success from one area to another, and that's priceless."*
RI WORLD
