Priscilla Zalm explains how to run a bank. Photo: ABN Amro screen dump
Gerrit Zalm, 61, the former Dutch finance minister and chairperson of the state-owned ABN Amro since 2009, is a cross dresser!
He went on stage – dressed in blue, with ginger hair, red lipstick and extravagant glasses and assumed the identity of Priscilla Zalm, a fictional brothel-owning sister – to teach his employees the lessons they can learn from operating a whorehouse.
“You have to start with three core values: trust, expertise and ambition,” she told an audience of around 7,000 bank employees, explaining the parallels between the banking and prostitution businesses”.
She added: “We offer a warm welcome, we’re experienced and, most of all, we always satisfy the customer.”
Zalm showed off his ample bosom and said: “You must have a good ‘front office’ and I’m also told that I have a magnificent back office!"
Then she advised: “You must take young talent and train them. And women must also be able to reach the highest positions. In our business, the woman is indeed very often on top!”
The bank posted a video of the speech on its YouTube channel – see below:
“You have to start with three core values: trust, expertise and ambition,” she told an audience of around 7,000 bank employees, explaining the parallels between the banking and prostitution businesses”.
She added: “We offer a warm welcome, we’re experienced and, most of all, we always satisfy the customer.”
Zalm showed off his ample bosom and said: “You must have a good ‘front office’ and I’m also told that I have a magnificent back office!"
Then she advised: “You must take young talent and train them. And women must also be able to reach the highest positions. In our business, the woman is indeed very often on top!”
The bank posted a video of the speech on its YouTube channel – see below:
Priscilla concluded her speech with some advice for her colleagues.
“Treat customers honestly, manage risks responsibly, be transparent, don’t let bonuses be too big and most of all, the customer is key!” she said.
“We’ve been doing it for centuries, you can do it too!” she said to thundering applause.
A spokesperson for ABN Amro told Bloomberg News that Zalm delivered six performances as Priscilla for the bank’s employees. Referring to the ribald jokes, the former added that the show “fits in with the Dutch sense of humor”.
Zalm evidently shares with Richard Branson, another confident corporate boss with a record of occasional public cross-dressing, a keen sense of what humor can achieve.
The setting was important, too. ABN’s Dutch employees at the annual new year’s cabaret represented a sympathetic audience, for whom this broad humor is part of a cultural tradition. It is difficult to tell how many cringed and how many howled with laughter, but they were already primed to expect something entertaining from Zalm (who had played his “brother” in previous years’ skits).
What they got was a lecture –- complete with infusions of what the Dutch call zelfspot (roughly translated as self-mockery) – on values, dressed up in a way few will forget.
A valuable lesson in the use of humor as a vehicle for a serious corporate message!
“We’ve been doing it for centuries, you can do it too!” she said to thundering applause.
A spokesperson for ABN Amro told Bloomberg News that Zalm delivered six performances as Priscilla for the bank’s employees. Referring to the ribald jokes, the former added that the show “fits in with the Dutch sense of humor”.
Zalm evidently shares with Richard Branson, another confident corporate boss with a record of occasional public cross-dressing, a keen sense of what humor can achieve.
The setting was important, too. ABN’s Dutch employees at the annual new year’s cabaret represented a sympathetic audience, for whom this broad humor is part of a cultural tradition. It is difficult to tell how many cringed and how many howled with laughter, but they were already primed to expect something entertaining from Zalm (who had played his “brother” in previous years’ skits).
What they got was a lecture –- complete with infusions of what the Dutch call zelfspot (roughly translated as self-mockery) – on values, dressed up in a way few will forget.
A valuable lesson in the use of humor as a vehicle for a serious corporate message!
