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Inspiring growth - Day 1 Leveraging associations and networks
- 1. Other Tag-line options: • IBIS 15th Anniversary Series for the Curacao Goal-getter • IBIS 15th Anniversary Series celebrating the future of Curacao
- 3. Preparing to Leverage Associations and Networks “ Entering a market I grew up in, from which I speak the language, know my way around, knew people and offered a great product, should be a walk in the park….” “I was terribly wrong and unprepared!”
- 4. Leverage Associations and Networks • No walk in the park. • New markets cannot be conquered from behind your desk. • Copying the “back-home” strictly business approach didn’t work. • Trust and a personal relationship is key for doing business in the region. No matter how big or small your product.
- 6. Partner-up and Networking • Partner-up with IBIS Management! • Similar vision and believe in the services we wanted to bring to market. • Invest to show your services expertise, capabilities and knowledge to prospects. • Gear up to offer the services.
- 7. Partner-up and Networking Results Basel II Awareness Briefing, Central Bank Aruba - 11/2009 Basel II Training , Bank Nederlandse Antillen - 11/2009
- 8. Partner-up and Networking Results Prospect Visits Surinam - 02/2009 Caribbean Association of Banks Conference - 11/2013
- 9. Picking fruit from your Networks and Alliances • A new innovative idea, market, product (Fuze) and client type (Trust Companies). • Access to new markets across the Caribbean and Central America. • First Alchemy client in the Eastern Caribbean.
- 10. Picking fruit from your Networks and Alliances Greenlight Launch Interview CBA TV - 08/2014 Greenlight Launch Event Central Bank 08/2014 Greenlight Launch Event Central Bank 08/2014
- 11. Managing your Networks and Alliances • Networks and Alliances needs maintenance and attention to be kept alive. • Be aware of changing conditions that may require additional attention.
- 12. Side Effects of Networking and Leveraging Alliances • Leveraging Associations and networks may cause unexpected results. • Don’t be discouraged. • Stay focused. • Chase your dreams and not the competition. “Chaos Theory Image”
- 13. Closing Notes Thank you for your attention and good luck with your venture!
- 14. Other Tag-line options: • IBIS 15th Anniversary Series for the Curacao Goal-getter • IBIS 15th Anniversary Series celebrating the future of Curacao
Editor's Notes
- I joined Ibis officially in 2014. I say officially because I know and have done business with Ibis since 2009. Before that, I had a business in the Netherlands where I was basically providing the same services (Bank Risk & Compliance) to the financial sector. Just as I’m doing today with IBIS Management. As an expert in the financial services industry, I always had through my clients a very close look at how bad or things were. This was also the case in 2007/ 2008, the time of the Credit and Financial crisis. With that information in mind and the Economy in Europe shrinking rapidly, I decided to start exploring new markets and opportunities. With my roots being in Curacao and considering that I wanted to go back in some point in time, I started to Investigate what were my options with regard to this market.
- Shortly after we started to contact potential clients from Holland we realized that this was not going to be a walk in the park. Email were not answered and or returned. That’s when we realize that we needed a different approach. And as such we started to make cold calls to see whether we could spike some interest in a different way. Through cold calling we managed to contact both a number of banks and the local regulator. Accordingly we scheduled a number of appointments and made the trip to Curacao to pitch our services. Once here we were received very well but the strictly business approach that we were used to from our home market did simply not work. People were very polite though but at the end we realized that this was not going to work. After we left we tried to keep in touch with the parties we visited, but basically, there was not much happening. From that trip we drafted 1 proposal that at the end did not crystallize. I was very much frustrated about this but was certainly not ready to give up. As such I planned another visit where I tried to contact friends of mine hat were locally in business. In one way or another, a lot of people liked the story but no one we spoke with was willing to work or partner up with us. During that time I also realized that being able to get on that level would required a different type of investment and networking. Geared up with a different approach, we now had a new goal, find a partner or party to get the ball running. Selling our services became secondary at this point in time.
- It took me 2 years and quite some effort but in 2009 we finally managed to get a solid partner which also shared our vision and truly believed in what we had to offer. To convince the market about the new services, and expertise in the Banking Risk and Compliance area, we decided to organize sessions and trainings to convince the market of the importance of the new regulations with which they had to comply in the future. Simultaneously we also geared-up to be ready to eventually service the clients when required. Directly gain access to local contacts (clients) and networks (groups of interest) Directly gain access to local market mechanics Directly generated prospects and eventually business
- From these trainings and briefings, some were investments, while for some we managed to generate some income. Bottom line however was the for a greater part this remained an investment. An investment not only cash wise but this also brought us the contacts from which we later managed to land some significant deals.
- In the years that followed we also slowly started apply the same approach was also applied to look into and explore new markets. As such we also started to visit clients and prospects of IBIS in other jurisdictions. Some of these visits were directly to existing clients while others were to conferences to potentially grow the Banking Risk and Compliance unit of IBIS.
- I just mentioned a number visits and ventures that we managed to realize based on the broad networks and alliances that IBIS Management has managed to obtain over the years. But did these really bring the results as you would expect? Sure thing: Alliances with CIFA (Curacao International Financial Services Association) STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) CAB (Caribbean Association of Banks)
- Years later down the road we also clearly understood from our peers, being the our network and alliances that there is a market for more than only our services. A potential solution, product could also be one of the items we can bring to the market as long as the timing is right. Accordingly we collected all the possible information we could possible could form the market while servicing and working with our clients and came with a state of the art solution, Greenlight that we launched in August 2014.
- As long as your Networks and Alliances are maintained you will be able to profit from them for a long time. You should specifically be aware of changing conditions that may require extra attention in the Future. CBA - Mungra Story.
- As I just mentioned Leveraging Associations And Networks has proven to be very fruitful to us and I’m sure that you will also be able to apply this approach in whatever sector or market you want to enter. Note however that some parties may consider this as a thread or will question your ideas or offerings. This is inherent to the non-linear effect or ripple effect that may be caused by a new market player especially if your bringing something completely new to market. In my time with IBIS there is one particular moment that I clearly recall where a presentation where we were informing the financial sector about newly to be introduced banking regulatory reporting guidelines led to something unexpected and unforeseen. It was before 10-10-2010, the date the Netherlands Antilles ceased to exist. In our presentation we presented the most likely banking supervision scenarios after 10-10-2010. The Central who also was present during the presentation took notes and was in one way or another not amused that we were already telling the financial sector how the banking supervision was going to be after 10-10-2010. We were informed about that shortly after the presentation by phone. Subsequently we were notified that we (Clark and I) were summoned to the CBCS to clarify hour statements and to indicate where we got our information from. Now we didn’t believe that we did anything wrong and so decided to go to the CBCS. Once there, I felt like we were in court. Except for Mr. Tromp, the whole CBCS board was there. I don’t know how Clark experienced this but for me just starting in a new market this was pretty scary. A number of scenarios’ crossed my mind….. However I just addressed the situation as a professional standing behind what we said and explained why we did that. At the end… we ended up agreeing to discuss these matter with the CBCS prior to other presentations moving forward. As such we managed to get on a different network level with the CBCS. Something that till today we still profit from. I don’t know how Clark