Don't let the revolution slip by: the president and CEO of Umpqua Holdings Corp., Ray Davis, explains the innovative marketing approach that propelled his bank's growth from six to 120 branches in 11 years.

• Author: Davis, Ray
• Position: Strategies - Cover story - Reprint - Company overview

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I'm a believer in revolutions. They are out there in the market you serve. And you need to find them before they find you. If they find you, it's way too late. Think of Marie Antoinette in France or Nicholas II in Russia. Think of Kmart, the old AT&T, United Airlines, Kodak, and other companies now struggling to regain their footing after the competitive landscape shifted.

Big companies can invest billions and start revolutions, as Toyota did with the Prius model. Start-ups can get millions in venture financing and, if they're lucky, create something revolutionary, as the founders of Google did. Visionary founders can sometimes revolutionize an entire industry, as Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman did at Nike. But even if you are just a small company without huge budgets for research and development or angel investors with near-bottomless pockets, you can take advantage of revolutions. That's what we tried to do at Umpqua.

Revolutions come in many guises

You don't need to create revolutions. Just go out and find those that are already happening. To me, a revolution is anything that is changing the industry you do business in, whether it's cosmetics or finance or pharmaceuticals. Advanced technology has obviously brought about many revolutions in recent decades. But many revolutions have nothing to do with technology. Design, for example, is a revolution that is going on in my industry and a lot of others. Changes in customer behavior cause revolutions, as do new business models, government policies, social changes and more. These changes can create opportunities for you if you pay attention to them--or threaten your existence if you don't.

Revolutions don't have a big "R" on their sweaters. They often start small and become overwhelming over time. If you see the revolution coming while it is still on the horizon, you can often take advantage of it. Our story at Umpqua is a case in point.

Before coming to Umpqua ... I ran a bank consulting firm and dealt with CEOs from all sizes of banks. I was struck by the lack of creativity in the industry. Banks were all the same--while other retail establishments were busy creating distinctive atmospheres for themselves. Many service companies were reinventing what quality service means--Ritz-Carlton, for example, the upscale hotel.... Retailers were creating a total customer experience in their stores, using music, lighting, and other design elements to project a particular image. You could walk into a Gap store and know that's where you were even if you didn't see the signs. Same with Banana Republic, Victoria's Secret, and so on. These were revolutions that were obvious in retail. But my industry slept on. Every bank you walked into was the same as every other. They all came in one flavor: plain vanilla.

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But I knew that the revolution affecting retail clothing stores could and probably would spread to our industry. So we started revamping Umpqua by looking at other retailers.... I think that it always pays to look at what is happening in other industries. Because revolutions can start anyplace, and it's often in an industry unconnected to yours.

After we implemented a lot of the retail and service concepts we learned from Nordstrom, Ritz-Carlton and elsewhere, people started to call us revolutionary. U.S. Banker, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, and other publications took notice and started writing about us. We didn't have to invest big bucks in research and development or find angel...