It
was under these conditions
that Jan Hommen became the CEO of one of the largest banking and insurance
group in the world, ING. Given the fact
that he had only been with the company for around 4 years some were a bit
skeptical with his appointment. It didn’t help that prior to joining ING he
didn’t actually work at another financial institution but with companies in the
heavy industry and electronics. He had previously been working with Alcoa and
then at Philips Electronics.
He
took on the job through and he acted quickly. There were three main tasks that
had to be done as he later stated: correct and strengthen the financials,
reduce the number of business interests and reinforce franchises in the
company’s core markets. Moving
decisively, he acted to have the group exit from 10 of the 45 countries it
operated in. The goal was to become a bank focused on Europe once again while
keeping some smaller operations in strategically global locations.
The
results of the changes led to a net loss of only €712 million for the first
three months of 2009 as compared to a loss of €3.7 billion in the same quarter
of 2008. The banking division also
recorded a profit of €132 million as compared to a €1.84 billion loss in the
same quarter of 2008.
Other
changes included the restructuring of the management team of the insurance
division and partial sale of some assets.
All in all Hommen’s reforms have helped ING get back on its feet. There
are fewer doubters now that he has shown result. Hommen became chairman of the
Supervisory Board on January 2008. His
current positions
are CEO, chairman Executive Board ING Group, Management Board Banking, and
Management Board Insurance.
When
the going got tough for ING they were fortunate to have leader who acted
quickly and decisively.
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