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For evidence of the direction Kevin Barth is taking Commerce Bank, checkout bank employees' Friday attire. Commerce this month adopted a corporate casual dress code - a move that Barth half-jokingly called "one of my first big policy changes."
Barth said he wants to put his bank's customers at ease because most have adopted similar wardrobe rules. But don't mistake casual for careless; all of Commerce's staff that works with the public, including Barth, wear shirts bearing the bank's logo.
"We need to let customers know we're still thinking about the bank," he said, "thinking about them."
This orientation, which pervades all of Barth's thinking, explains his climb at the largest commercial bank based in Kansas City. He became president and chief operating officer of the bank's Kansas City region in April, 16 years after joining Commerce.
Jonathan Kemper, chairman of the bank's
Kansas City region, said Barth's success in building commercial business propelled his rise.
"In the future," Kemper said, "he has the ability to define his own expectations."
Making a difference
Barth's ascent to a big office on the top floor of the Commerce Bank Building in downtown Kansas City represents a giant leap from his roots in Lamoni, Iowa, a small town on the Missouri border.
While growing up, he regularly visited Kansas City with his mother, Roberta, who ran a ladies' apparel store and would take her son on buying trips to clothing companies in the Garment District.
Barth began thinking about a career in banking after working as...