The Richards Group Emerges and Rebuilds After Last Year's Scandal

The Richards Group is finally coming out of the shadows following scandal and turmoil caused by the founder Stan Richards. In October, news leaked that in an internal meeting for longtime client Motel 6, Richards, who at nearly 90 years old remained actively involved with the company, referred to a campaign idea for the client as being "too Black" and implied that some of Motel 6's customers were white supremacists. The hotel chain parted ways with the agency as did other high-profile clients such as Home Depot and H-E-B, collectively equaling 40% of its total revenue. Richards Group leaders admit that after the fallout, they were surviving day-to-day, frantically trying to keep the lights on while simultaneously overhauling its internal culture. Like many within the industry, the agency was forced to reduce staff due to the Covid-19 pandemic, ultimately letting go of 15% of its employees. An additional 15% exited during the controversy. “If you asked me a year-and-a-half ago what our success was and why we had it, I would have said it was about the work,” Dady told Adweek. “Today, I would say it’s about our people. If they are challenged, if they are happy, if they know where they are going, the great work naturally follows.” The Richards Group is forthright about the unchecked bias at the top that was enabled by the founder's leadership style. The new leadership is a better representation of the entire team. “It is long overdue,” Dady said. He admits Richards traditionally surrounded himself with like-minded leaders: white, over 60, senior-level male creatives who frequently went on corporate retreats together to plan future strategies. Under Dady’s purview, the company has started to diversify teams across the board starting with hiring Nikki Wilson as chief talent and culture officer and Sue Batterton as chief creative officer, with both serving on the leadership team. "It is awesome to be part of a comeback story and to reshape the culture and help employees thrive and bring their authentic selves to work,” Batterton told Adweek, explaining why she returned to her old stomping grounds from agency BBDO Minneapolis. Wilson, former human resources and labor relations director at General Motors, aims to integrate initiatives into the entire agency’s culture and operations, act as the agency’s champion for all employee resource groups and lead all human resources functions. “As the agency continues to deliver great creative content, we also want to deliver a great employee experience,” Wilson said. The company has just extended its partnership with Do What Matters, an outside organization that specializes in DEI and prioritizes inclusion-first management over more numerical diversification. The Richards Group has also introduced different councils of representation across all career levels, added an employment engagement survey and launched an anonymous reporting platform as part of an ongoing active listening exercise. Damage control to transformation Dady also emphasized his attempts to redirect the agency under his vision. The stories of Stan Richards occasionally falling asleep at client meetings are sadly accurate, he said. “What do you do when you have a founder running the company who is so smart even when he is nodding off during some meetings?” Dady quipped. "We do not have to worry about that anymore." Richards removed himself from the business following the scandal, though Dady has had some personal interactions with him over the past six months. “In his own way, he is proud of where we are going and what we are doing,” he said. Looking forward, The Richards Group is still evolving into its new identity and vision which may even jettison its old moniker. An agency name change is “definitely still on the table,” Dady said. “There was a lot of pressure at the beginning because it was so emotional, but the pressure isn’t as much as from outsiders, but from internal stakeholder.” In the meantime, the changes within the agency have helped it secure new clients as well as expand current accounts. "Every client in America is multicultural and we are facing some new conversations, but we need to embrace inclusivity and promote more diverse perspectives and broaden the work to look for the human truth," Batterton said. "The issues we face within our organizations are the same issues clients are currently experiencing. It is the time we did work that helped, not hurt." Havas Group Releases Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Status Update