Management Consultancies in the Dutch Banking Sector, 1960s and 1970s

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes This research was financed by the CEMP project (the Creation of European Management Practice), a research programme supported by the European Union. The authors are indebted to Ton de Graaf and Stefan de Boer, corporate historians of ABN AMRO Bank and Rabobank, and to Jos van der Linden, Angela van Son and Jozef Vos (University of Utrecht). The usual disclaimer applies. See for a survey of the Dutch banking sector J. Barendregt and H. Visser, ‘Towards a New Maturity, 1940–1990’, in M. ‘t Hart, J. Jonker and J. Luiten van Zanden (eds), A Financial History of the Netherlands (Cambridge, 1997), pp.152–94. J.L. van Zanden and R. Uittenbogaard, ‘Expansion, Internationalisation and Concentration, 1950–1990’ in J. de Vries, W. Vroom and T. de Graaf (eds), Worldwide Banking. ABN AMRO, 1824–1999 (Amsterdam, 1999), pp.342, 349–50. K. Sluyterman, J. Dankers, J. van der Linden and J.L. van Zanden, Het coöperatieve alternatief. Honderd jaar Rabobank 1898–1998 (The Hague, 1998), p.66. The pioneering phase of management consulting in the Netherlands (1920–60) is described in P. Hellema and J. Marsman, De organisatie-adviseur. Opkomst en groei van een nieuw vak in Nederland 1920–1960 (Amsterdam, 1997). This section is largely based on L. Karsten and K. van Veen, ‘Management Consultancies in the Netherlands in the 1950s and 1960s: Between Systemic Context and External Influences’, in M. Kipping and L. Engwall (eds), Management Consulting, Emergence and Dynamics of a Knowledge Industry (Oxford, 2002), pp.52–69. Karsten and van Veen, ‘Management Consultancies’, p.66. J. Benders and P. Moers, ‘The Netherlands’, in M. Kipping and T. Armbrüster, ‘The Consultancy Field in Western Europe’, CEMP report no. 6, The University of Reading, June 1999, pp.79–95. Karsten and van Veen, ‘Management Consultancies’, p.68. The dynamics of the merger negotiations of 1964 have been extensively described by D.C.J. van der Werf, Banken, bankiers en hun fusies. Het ontstaan van de Algemene Bank Nederland en de Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank, een studie in fusiegedrag over de periode 1950–1964 (Amsterdam, 1999); see also D.C.J. van der Werf, ‘The Two Dutch Bank Mergers of 1964: The Creations of Algemene Bank Nederland and Amsterdam-Rotterdam Bank’, Financial History Review, Vol.6 No.1 (1999), pp.67–84. Van Zanden and Uittenbogaard, ‘Expansion’, p.351. ABN AMRO Historical Archives, Amsterdam (hereafter AAHA), Amro, inv.nr. 2139; letter of the Managing Board to the general managers, 15 Feb. 1967. AAHA, ABN, inv.nr. S298; secret minutes of Managing Board, 25 March 1972. Cf. R. Fincham, ‘The Consultant–Client Relationship: Critical Perspectives on the Management of Organizational Change’, Journal of Management Studies, Vol.36 (1999), pp.335–51. Karsten and van Veen, ‘Management Consultancies’, p.65. Van der Werf, Banken, bankiers, pp.227–40. C.F. Karsten, Het Amerikaanse Bankwezen (Rotterdam, 1952). A.R. Holmes and E. Green, Midland, 150 Years of Banking Business (London, 1986), p.282. P.J. DiMaggio and W.W. Powell, ‘The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields’, American Sociological Review, Vol.48 (1983), p.152. AAHA, Amro, inv.nr. 280; AAHA, ABN, inv.nr. S298; secret minutes of Managing Board, 9 and 17 May 1972. AAHA, ABN, inv.nr. D2538. AAHA, Amro, inv.nr. 2139, Memo of McKinsey & Company, Inc. 18 June 1968; AHAA, ABN, inv.nr. D 2538, ‘notitie Materiële inhoud van de opdracht te verstrekken aan het Adviesbureau zoals goedgekeurd in de vergadering van de Commissie van Advies d.d. 3 mei 1972’. AAHA, Amro, inv.nr. 68.3 and 2139. AAHA, ABN, inv.nr. S299, secret minutes Managing Board, 1973. AAHA, Amro, inv.nr. 76.1; van Zanden and Uittenbogaard, ‘Expansion’, p.355; C. Berendsen, ‘Global Ambitions, ABN AMRO Bank, 1990–1999’, in de Vries et al. (eds.), Worldwide Banking, p.456. AAHA, Amro, inv.nr. 280; memo of Karsten concerning McKinsey's role in the evaluation of the reorganisation process, May–June 1970. For a history of the savings banks in the Netherlands see J. Dankers, J. van der Linden and J. Vos, Spaarbanken in Nederland, 1817–1990. Ideeën en organisatie. (Amsterdam and Meppel, 2001). Nationaal Archief (The Hague), Archives Nederlandse Spaarbankbond, Minutes General Meeting of the Federation of Savings Banks, 12 Dec. 1968. Ibid., ‘Structuurrapport voor de Bondsspaarbanken’, part I, 1968, pp.49–51. Ibid., Minutes General Meeting of the Federation of Savings banks, 19 Sept. 1969, pp.25–7. Ibid., Report Berenschot (Part II). Ibid., Minutes General Meeting of the Federation of Savings Banks, 4 June 1970. Ibid., Berenschot Report ‘Rapport betreffende Rentabiliteit en continuiteit’, April 1975. Archives DNB, ha 2.4/2046, 9 Sept. 1975. See for the early history of the co-operative banking movement in the Netherlands, Sluyterman et al., Het coöperatieve alternatief, chapter 1, pp.17–55. See for the history of the merger of the Raiffeisenbank and the Boerenleenbank, ibid., chapter 3, pp.129–200. Together the Raad van Beheer and the Hoofddirectie were responsible for the tasks that at the commercial banks were combined by the Managing Board (at Amro Bank and ABN Bank called Raad van Bestuur), namely the management of the organisation and the bank issues. Ibid., pp.112, 159. Ibid., p.174. Archive Rabobank Nederland (hereafter ARN), Introduction, Final report of Berenschot (presented 5 May 1972). ARN, Documents concerning Berenschot, extract of minutes of meeting of the Raad van Beheer, 5 May 1972. Sluyterman et al., Het coöperatieve alternatief, p.185. Ibid., p.179. Ibid., pp.185–95. ARN, Documents concerning Berenschot: Minutes of meeting of Hoofddirectie and Berenschot (21 Sept. 1972); Minutes of meeting of Raad van Beheer and Berenschot (6 Oct. 1972); Minutes and Decisions taken at meetings during weekend retreat (9–10 Nov. 1972); Final report ‘Structuurontwerp voor de Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank W.A.’ (17 Dec. 1972). ARN, Documents concerning Berenschot, report of meeting of Hoofddirectie concerning the final report of Berenschot, 2 Feb. 1973. ARN, Report Berenschot ‘Herverdeling van taken van de leden van de Hoofddirectie’, 12 Dec. 1974. AAHA, Amro, inv.nr. 2139; ARN, Documents concerning OTW project

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• The managerialization of banking

  Matthias Kipping, Gerarda Westerhuis•Management & Organizational History•2014

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