BRS Management Training: three teams from Ecuador get training at BRS, KBC and Cera

Kurt Van den Neste, Microfinancing Programme Coordinator: ‘13 board members and department heads from the three Ecuadorian organisations took part. There were workshops and presentations by managers and volunteer experts from KBC and Cera on a variety of topics, from processes to agrofinancing, from innovation to risk management. We at BRS attach great importance to the South-South exchange, where organisations from the same region, working in the same conditions, share their experiences.’ 
Therefore, we also invited two colleagues from our former partner organisation AMC from El Salvador to come and share their best practices.

Alejandro Benitez works as Manager Business Intelligence and Marketing at AMC, an El Salvador-based microfinancing institution with some 168 employees (and 17,000 customers). He came to the training week both as a trainer and as a participant. 
‘I gave a workshop on marketing. It was mainly about how to use marketing to position your company better and how to use data to strengthen your company’s reputation. 
In addition, I took part in the other training sessions myself, which was quite an eye-opener. We still work very traditionally in El Salvador, we need to learn to think more out of the box and embrace innovation. So I’m going to plan an innovation day for all our people, like the Surf Studio here at KBC does regularly. We obviously have fewer resources and people, which doesn’t make innovation self-evident. But the motivation among our staff is huge and that’s what makes the difference. 
What else stood out in the many presentations and workshops: the big focus on data analytics, including as a support for credit scores. I want to do more with that at AMC too.’ 

Martha Farinango is the CEO of Unión El Ejido, a savings and credit cooperative operating mainly in the rural north of Ecuador. They have 60 employees and some 15,000 cooperatives or socios.
‘What I particularly remember is the importance of clearly defined processes. These are needed to increase efficiency and keep risks under control. We are already working on this, but it still remains a struggle.  
It became clear to me from Alejandro’s workshop that marketing is much more than simply placing an ad, we need a marketing plan. We got a template during the training and I want to start working on it right away. 
As well as that, I also found the Human Resources sessions very inspiring. There is a big difference in corporate culture in this respect. In our country, the idea of the HR manager as ‘big bad boss’ is still very current. The openness at KBC - being allowed to express yourself, albeit in a respectful way - we still have quite a way to go as far as this is concerned. And I saw other cultural differences: our work is very much driven by rules and obligations of control bodies, which means we do not focus enough on our customers - a focus that is very much present with you.’

For this management training, BRS was able to count on the efforts of Philip Marck and Patricia Hollinger. Since their retirement from KBC, they have been working for BRS as advisers and helping to coordinate the cooperation with our partners in Latin America. For this training, they mobilised no fewer than 20 KBC colleagues to share their experience with the participants from Ecuador. 

Text: Marina Van Dyck