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Interview with Dr Johannes Ortner
meantime, Dr Ortner has acquired the offshore certificate as well.
Navigating on a turbulent sea per se, then, is not foreign to him.
Weighing up risks and taking on challenges are essential not only
on the water, but also at work. We spoke to this native of Salzburg,
who came from Vorarlberg not only with a lot of experience, but
also with a slightly altered dialect.
You recently said that you would like to have founded a bank
yourself. Why did you ultimately remain loyal to Raiffeisen?
Dr Johannes Ortner:
The year 2009 with the financial crisis was a
matter of great concern to me personally because an entire indus-
try was put under general suspicion just because of a few bad ap-
ples. I began to wrangle with the sense and meaning of my work
and had the feeling that I was losing my bearings – always being
depicted as ‘evil personified’ in public without actually having done
anything wrong personally.
I had always been in favour of the cooperative idea, the collabo-
rative spirit, and in Vorarlberg I even taught cooperative studies at
the university of applied sciences. I think that, these days, offering
someone co-ownership and giving them co-determination rights is
a very strong signal. This notion made me think about the founda-
tion of a new bank – a bank on a greenfield site that does nothing
but bank people’s savings on the one hand and grant loans on the
other. I had managed to build up a strong network over the years
and was certain that entrepreneurs would invest in it and the pro-
ject would be a success. Then I realised that Raiffeisen already has
precisely these ingredients – the ones it needs to be successful.
In an age of profit maximisation, one might think that the co-
operative as a corporate form was old-fashioned or obsolete.
What is your view on that?
If you’d asked me ten years ago, I would probably have agreed.
Today, with all my experience, I am of a different opinion. It’s about
a spirit of cooperation. At the end of the day, we’re all in the same
boat.
With its many independent units in the region, Raiffeisen con-
veyed precisely this archetype that I intended to realise on a
greenfield site. We must bring the original purposes of the Raiffei-
senbank back into the public eye. My personal objective is there-
fore to enhance Raiffeisen’s image still further and strengthen its
values, also in the eyes of the public.
The Tyrolean Raiffeisen banks have been in existence for more
than 125 years yet remain young and modern. What does tradi-
tion mean for you in general and for the bank in particular?
I believe that we must actually live the values that Friedrich Wilhelm
Raiffeisen provided us with at a very early stage. And I’m not sure
whether or not Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen would be turning in his
grave if he saw what we have sometimes done with his idea. To-
day, banks are generally quite far removed from the original idea of
fostering a sense of community. I’d like to give more emphasis to
that again, because it’s exactly what Raiffeisen stands for. For me
it’s about the basic idea of dealing with themes together – not for
the overriding goal of making individuals rich, but in order to return
something positive to society with our business endeavours. These
are values that I would like to carry on as a tradition. These values
appeal to a lot of people and are completely in line with the spirit
of the times. In the process, though, we must naturally also get to
grips with current developments. But rather than being contradic-
tory, that – in my opinion – is extremely complementary. It is possi-
ble to live these values and be an ultra-modern banking organisa-
tion at the same time.
Raiffeisenbank is deeply rooted in the regions – probably even
more so than other banks thanks to the cooperative principle.
In an interview, one of your predecessors said: ‘We do busi-
ness we can do with people we know.’ On the other hand, reg-
ulations are making the banking business more mechanical.
How much humanity is there still room for?
The banking business works with relationships and therefore
needs humanity as well. I was always a market person and now
I’m a market-oriented chairman. And as a result, I fly the flag for
the market. It’s not only the external regulations that are intensify-
ing; the internal rules are starting to proliferate as well. That costs
a lot of time that one is obliged to spend behind the desk rath-
er than being out where the people are. I see my task as a kind of
counterbalance in the interests of the customer. Of course, we will
meet all of our legal requirements, but we must also remain entre-
preneurs and have appropriate entrepreneurial freedoms. If our
job was simply to do more monitoring, I wouldn’t enjoy that at all.
That has never driven me. I would rather be on customers’ prem-
ises getting to know new people and entrepreneurs. I find that
much more interesting because I want to render a good service
for them.
Bankers have to cope with their image. How do you feel about
being a banker today?
I have often asked myself the question: am I a banker at all? Of
course I am, because I work in a bank. At the end of the day, I’m
more of a relationship manager than a banker, and as for the rest
I’m a Raiffeisen man. My job is to satisfy and delight my custom-
ers. Of course, we also have to work profitably, as that is our cor-
porate task, but the interesting part of my job is to build up a trust-
ful customer relationship and cultivate it well.
To what extent is a chairman of a bank of this magnitude really
still close to customers?
To a great extent, I hope. I have set myself the objective of using
my working hours very much in the interests of our customers and
in the interests of the bank’s external image to represent the bank,
and to maintain and expand relationships.
What do you like about Tyrol?
What I like very much about Tyrol is its service mentality. That is
by no means a given, and it’s no accident that Tyrol is such a suc-
cessful tourism region. This positive attitude towards people is in-
fectious.
Generally speaking, I can do a great deal with the possibilities that
Tyrol offers me. I’m a great nature lover, ever since I was a child.
I’m a hunter – in Tyrol you’re still allowed to say that. I’m also out-
doors a lot with the children. I have three sons who are active on
the mountain with me and share my hobbies – skiing, and now
sailing as well. At the moment, my family is still in Vorarlberg, but
we have found a wonderful place to live in Innsbruck. And occu-
pationally, too, I have the feeling that I have arrived in a very good
team. Arriving at the office and then coming home are a real plea-
sure.
‘We must bring the original
purposes of the Raiffeisenbank
to the fore again.’