Gerrit Zalm, the CEO of Dutch nationalized ABN Amro and a former Dutch finance minister, addressed the bank’s staff at an annual assembly dressed like a brothel’s hostess. The recording of the boss’s speech has been posted on YouTube.
Mr. Zalm dressed up in a striking blue dress, wig, big eyeglasses, and ball gloves, came out on stage pretending to be his fictional sister Priscilla and giving advice to her mediocre banker brother. Being a successful entrepreneur, Priscilla explained "her" experience running brothels. The audience raised a loud cheer as Priscilla went on to say that brothel values include trust, professionalism, and ambition just like the bank's core values and business principles. In particular, the top manager advised to make use of one’s merits, "We offer a warm welcome, we’re experienced and, most of all, we always satisfy the customer."
Specifying the ins and outs of a brothel business, customers should be provided with “a good front office and an excellent back office.” “Where has ‘putting the customer first’ been the motto for centuries?” he said as his alter-ego. “In my industry. Those banks have discovered it only recently.”
62-year-old Gerrit Zalm signed a labor contract with ABN Amro in 2008. He served as Finance Minister in 2003-2007. ABN Amro was acquired by the syndicate headed by the Royal Bank of Scotland and, in effect, broken up shortly before the financial crisis. The takeover deal is considered the largest bank merger in the world worth $100 billion. But when the financial crisis ripped through the industry in 2009, the Dutch government had to bail out the remaining parts of ABN Amro from the new owners.
