ABN AMRO and Queen Máxima step into the breach for women entrepreneurs

Masterclasses to promote organisational development

F€mpower Your Growth is a partnership between ABN AMRO, ING, Rabobank, Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO, Better Future and The Next Women. The programme aims to promote female entrepreneurship and greater access to finance for women in business. Entrepreneurs and bankers take masterclasses to help them betterunderstand each other’s environments and to promote healthy growth and development of the businesses. Due to the coronavirus crisis, this year’s programme was held online.

Understanding is key

The final meeting was devoted to the programme’s key takeaways. ABN AMRO CEO Robert Swaak and ExCo member Daphne de Kluis attended the meeting on behalf of the bank. Robert Swaak: “There are still relatively few women entrepreneurs in the business world. It’s important that bankers and women entrepreneurs understand and help each other. We can only do that if we strengthen ties and commit to enduring relationships in which we identify,acknowledge and learn from our subconscious biases. Networks such as F€mpower Your Growth are incredibly important in achieving lasting change.”

Queen Máxima  

Queen Máxima is a member of the Dutch Committee for Entrepreneurship and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA). In this capacity, she works to promote secure and affordable access to financial services for all.

Subconscious biases and personal branding

Piloted in 2019, the F€mpower Your Growth Programme has turned out to be a great success. The programme is designed for businesses with annual turnover exceeding 500,000 euros. At this second event, 45 entrepreneurs and 30 financial specialists took masterclasseson subjects of interest to both groups, such as healthy growth and negotiation, subconscious biases and personal branding. One of the masterclasses focused on setting up a financial plan and organising multi-year financing. Banks often have insufficient insight into the specific financing needs of women entrepreneurs. Mentors helped participants to identify exactly what was needed to help their company grow.

Key takeaways

A key takeaway for financiers is that they need to take a more relationship-driven approach rather than a transactional approach to business relationships. Women entrepreneurs learned that false modesty doesn’t serve them. They need to make their presence felt and show they’ve got what it takes. And finally, alongside programmes like this one, it’s important to devote attention to differences and subconscious biases.