In Person: Columbia Bank's Dressel Tries to Balance Growth and Local Focus by DeSilver - Article Example

The paper "In Person: Columbia Bank's Dressel Tries to Balance Growth and Local Focus by DeSilver" is a good example of a business article. The news article is about Melanie Dressel, the CEO of the Columbia Banking System (DeSilver, n.d.). It tells of the rise to success of Dressel that led to her being named for the fourth time, by the American Banker as one of the 25 most powerful women in banking. She was also named as Business Leader of the Year for 2010 by the University of Washington Tacoma's Milgard School of Business. Dressel is instrumental in the growth and success of Columbia Banking which is now 10 times the size since they started. 

The article gave a brief background of Dressel, tracing her roots from a little girl who helped in the jewelry and gift store of her parents to someone who wanted to be a politician. Dressel revealed that banking was not her first career choice because her early passions were drawn towards politics. She graduated from UW with a political science degree hoping to apply in law school. She, however, took a job at the Bank of California, Tacoma branch, which she taught would be a short term thing but lasted for 14 years. This marked the start of her banking career which eventually brought her to Columbia.
The success of Dressel is attributed to her management style. According to Bill Philip, Puget’s retired CEO, Dressel is “a good administrator and has good people skills. She gets along well with the staff, the customers and the outside world" (DeSilver, n.d.). Dressel does not want Columbia to be considered as the other banks which do not give the personal touch to their clients, instead, she wants “to take care of people in a community-bank style” (DeSilver, n.d.). This is what differentiates Dressel from the other CEOs of big banks and this is what led to her and Columbia’s success. Read More