This week we talked to Joachim Strähle, CEO of Sarasin, after the bank presented excellent results. We asked him mainly about management issues. The topics we addressed were differentiation, brand building, management practice and change management.

Enjoy the webcast and learn from Mr Strähle’s management insights:

On the first question about how Sarasin differentiates, Mr Straehle answered that they have a clear focus on private banking and benefit from the triple-A rating as well as international presence of their majority shareholder, Rabobank. He stressed that for him it was important to have a clear and simple strategy that could be communicated throughout the bank.

We also asked Mr Strähle how a mid-sized bank like Sarasin could build an international brand in the face of larger competitors with deeper pockets. In his answer he admitted that they didn’t have the funds of larger competitors to give their brand the same visibility through advertising. To compensate that he emphasized the contribution of high quality people with good networks and high exposure to further build the already good Sarasin brand name.

Mr Strähle’s reflections on our question about sound management practices were particularly interesting. He first highlighted the importance of good and transparent management information systems and a fair approach to measuring people. He continued with the importance of having a strategy that is understandable to anybody in the organization in order to really get everybody aligned and create a momentum. Mr Strähle also insisted on the importance of personally communicating to his people and assuring their participation, for example by presenting his bank’s results to the worldwide management by phone just before the official press conference.

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