Success Story Risk Management - Rabobank – Trompenaars Hampden-Turner

Regaining market share in the USA by implementing a risk culture change compliant with the Dutch regulations

About Rabobank

The client challenge

Rabobank is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Utrecht, Netherlands. It is a global leader in food and agriculture financing and sustainability-oriented banking. The group is the second-largest bank in the Netherlands in terms of total assets and comprises 89 local Dutch Rabobanks (2019), a central organisation (Rabobank Nederland), and many specialized international offices and subsidiaries.

The client challenge

Rabobank has partnered with THT to pilot a risk culture change initiative within the USA, specifically focused on Compliance. The aim was to help Rabobank to adapt to regulatory changes, to strengthen and support the Risk Management Function regionally and locally within the US. We also wanted to increase self-awareness amongst all employees on the balance needed between risk taking and return. This initiative also aimed to improve the overall business performance, delivering excellent customer service and increase transparent communication, by creating alignment on the desired culture and implementing concrete action points to establish it.

Our approach to Risk Management

Recognize

Clearly define and articulate the culture story by validating the hypotheses and underlying assumptions with senior leaders to promote alignment of developed desired culture and vision, Stakeholder plan, Priority intervention plan and Aligned Leadership Team. Identification of key data points and high-level dilemmas to draw conclusions on the As-Is cultural characteristics using interviews and surveys.

Respect

Agree on the challenge, identify the interventions and levers and begin to build the employee engagement approach. Includes Critical roles Journey and Empathy Maps and implementation plan to embed interventions. Detailed employee engagement plan including comms and leadership interventions.

Reconcile

Interactive introduction to Dilemma Reconciliation and work on the risk and engagement dilemmas, focusing on what does it mean for Rabo USA. This phase was concluded by a discussion on how to cascade this down to other levels of the organization. Implement and embed the engagement approach using key interventions.

Realize

Organized town hall meetings with clients to communicate about compliance needs and how to improve the quality of the rules. Reward and performance management processes in place; updated/new Compliance policies; updated organizational structure and roles; capability programs and refine metrics for measurement.