Umpqua Holdings Corp.'s chief executive, Raymond P. Davis, has always considered himself a retailer and a marketer, not a banker.
The Portland, Ore., company's branches are called "stores," and at any given time a customer can grab a coffee, surf the Internet, and even download music there.
This approach to banking has earned Mr. Davis a reputation as an innovator. Other banking companies often have sought him out for advice on retail strategies, and he frequently speaks at industry conferences.
Now bankers — or executives in any industry — can get advice from Mr. Davis by going to their local bookstore and buying his new book, "Leading for Growth: How Umpqua Bank Got Cool and Created a Culture of Greatness."
In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Davis said the book describes how business leaders can create distinct cultures to distinguish themselves from competitors. The main thing a leader needs to remember is to communicate personally — and continuously — to employees where the company should be headed and then show them the way, he said.
"The challenge of leaders is to take the motion picture that's running in their head and articulate it the best way they can to the staff," Mr. Davis said. "The individual who is leading has also got to have the self-discipline to be the catalyst that pushes staff up the hill."
In his book, Mr. Davis wrote that he learned this lesson from an employee "really far down in the chain of command" who scolded him in an e-mail for not following his mantra to measure the effects of new initiatives. The e-mail said Mr. Davis had not personally visited her branch to review its own measurements and, hence, was not properly holding branch employees accountable.
But communication needs to flow both ways, Mr. Davis wrote. Now he holds focus groups with employees on the "front lines" — without their managers — to learn their perspective on ways the company can improve.
Mr. Davis took over Umpqua in 1994, when it had just $140 million of assets. Today, it has $7.3 billion and more than 130 branches, in Oregon, Washington, and California.
Umpqua began to draw notice in 1996, when it unveiled its store concept — branches with Internet kiosks, Umpqua-branded coffee, and sales associates who walk the floor. The idea was that it would attract more customers by making its branches more inviting.
In 2003, Umpqua began rolling out its "next-generation" stores, where customers can check out laptops from a concierge desk, download music from local artists on to compact discs, attend poetry readings, or view exhibitions by local artists.
In 2005, Umpqua let Microsoft Corp. film a promotional video in one of its branches, touting technologies the Redmond, Wash., company may develop that could transform how people bank. Last year Umpqua released its first compact disc featuring recordings of musicians in its Pacific Northwest market and made it available on a Web site it launched in May, UmpquaMusic.com.
The company's unorthodox marketing strategies have helped create a brand customers have said is "cool," Mr. Davis said. In his book, he wrote that people walking into one of Umpqua's branches for the first time often exclaim, "Is this really Umpqua Bank?" and then hang around long after they are done banking.
Of course, acquisitions have helped raise Umpqua's profile, too. It has bought six banks since 1998.
The book will be on sale in bookstores and in the bank's branches starting March 23. A portion of the proceeds will benefit early childhood and family education programs.
