effie
Building cooperatives
that every
cooperative
starts with
savings, not with
donations, because
ultimately it's about
creating economie
prosperity and economie movement. "As with our
other businesses, we aim for a participatory business
that's integrated into an economie model," he says.
According to Bruce Dick, strong cooperatives are
created by building strong structures that can
support high-quality standards and can operate as
stand-alone businesses. 'Three important elements to
remember about a cooperative are: together you can
do more than you can alone; be transparent, because
that's the basis for trust and for financial control; and
strive to improve and develop your organisation's
education, standards, products and research," he says.
"Looking at Rabobank, you have to remember that
it's taken over a century to get to where we are at the
moment and so it's a process that grows organically."
Dick Hak agrees and believes that to build cooperatives
abroad, it's important to concentrate on cliënt
involvement and excelling at what you do. "We need
to be close to our clients and we need to be leading in
our markets, whether that's within specific areas in the
Netherlands or as a leading F&A bank internationally.
Within Rl and our daughter organisations we have
experience in engaging with our clients, with the
communities we are involved in, and in being a market
leader. These are the cooperative values that we can
export to our operations outside the Netherlands and
it's Rl and our subsidiaries that are the vehicles for this."
Pruijs explains that the bank is on a journey with no end
goal and says that this is a natural reaction to the way
global business operates. "A great number of our clients
are active abroad," he says. "It's a global market, not a
local market, and many of the themes that keep us busy
have a global scope - whether they're related to water,
renewable energy, or bringing parties together who are
dealing with the mismatch of food supply and demand.
This means that the bank - and our values - have to
rally around that set of themes. No matter where you
are in the world, everyone recognises the importance of
control oftheirfinances and urge them to wake up
their lazy money." Also in the rural business there
was a clear indication ofcustomer recognition as
Rabobank Australia was named, for the sixth year,
the best agri-business bank by the independent
Merrill Lynch Business Banking Review.
In the US positive customer feedback resulted
in an excellent achievement of Rabobank,
N.A.'s with its ranking of "Highest Customer
Satisfaction with Retail Banking in California"
by J.D. Power and Associates. As pointed out
by CEO Ronald Blok: 'The Rabobank brand
symbolises standing by our customers over
time, and this ranking shows that our
customers throughout California appreciate
BV J.D. POWER AND ASSOC IATES
our devotion to meeting their needs now
and in the future."
Although winning awards is not an objective
in itself, it does reflect the voice of the
customer, which is a cornerstone in building
a truly customer-centric bank based on
the cooperative roots and values of the
Rabobank brand.
ISSUE 29 in )BER Rl WORLD
