The ING where Steven van Rijswijk became the boss last summer is not only struggling with the effects of corona. “One thing is certain when you talk to customers: there will be real blows”.
As a top executive of an internationally operating bank, how do you manage your 53,000 employees remotely and represent the interests of some 40 million customers? In normal times, Steven van Rijswijk, who is an Erasmus School of Economics alumnus, had been to the offices of the bank every day, in the Netherlands and abroad, to run things from there. But because of corona, everything is different.
The man who says he has never worked from home for a day since he started at the bank in 1995 is now there most of the time. Behind the make-up table of his wife and daughter. And meanwhile, he tries to shut himself off from his two teenage sons who complain out loud that the Wi-Fi is really bad ("they're right"). Asking for coffee does not help, because "he knows very well where the coffee machine is located". And every day he walks the dog for a walk to make some business calls or ask colleagues how they are doing.
Despite the fun sides of working from home, Van Rijswijk has to adapt. “Over time, you miss physical proximity. Everything is super efficient, I love that, but you will miss the informal contact with people. It is only about the content and no longer about people”. What he has been doing throughout his career and has continued to do in recent times, is approaching people directly when he has a question or doesn’t understand something. “Frustration is my motivation,” he says, “and I want to understand things before making a decision.”
Van Rijswijk was interviewed by NRC about his career, the money laundering fine and the effects of corona. To read the full interview, click here.
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Steven van Rijswijk studied Economics and Business Economics at Erasmus School of Economics. He graduated in 1994.
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