The Polarizing Ways Stan Richards Ran an Agency

It was only last week that The Richards Group found itself embroiled in controversy due to racial remarks made by its founder, Stan Richards. But the Dallas-based agency’s rapid, downward spiral has brought a new level of attention to its culture and the leadership style of Richards, who at nearly 90 years old, remained actively involved with the agency until “firing” himself days ago. While many agency founders essentially become figureheads in their later years, letting new generations of leadership shape the organization, Richards is described by former employees as someone who continued to insist on being in creative reviews, though he also had a reputation for occasionally falling asleep during them. Most visibly, he maintained an uncompromising focus on timeliness, including mandatory daily check-ins by 8:30 a.m. and financial penalties for late time sheets that one ex-employee described as a form of "communal shaming." Some appreciated the order and punctuality that Richards' priorities brought to the agency. But the impact of his leadership style could also be seen in places outside official policy, such as how some former employees felt he would offer different opportunities to employees based on gender, only inviting men on fishing and skiing trips that offered valuable networking time with leadership. Richards was in the national spotlight last week for referring, in an internal agency meeting, to a multicultural campaign concept for longtime client Motel 6 as “too Black” and implying that some of the company’s customers are white supremacists. He subsequently said in a statement to Adweek that he was trying to suggest the campaign idea wasn’t “multiculturally inclusive enough” because it only included African Americans. On the white supremacist aspect, he later told Texas Monthly, “The point was simply that our client doesn’t need to be losing any of its current business, even if it was white supremacists who chose not to do business with them.” Richards stepped down and left the reins to his previously named successor, but not before extensive damage had been done to its client roster. Motel 6 quickly fired the agency after learning of Richards’ statements, and other clients—including The Home Depot, H-E-B, Keurig, Dr Pepper and Salvation Army—followed suit. As his 44-year run at the agency comes to an end, Adweek spoke at length with five former staffers of The Richards Group, each of whom painted a picture of an agency founder who kept a firm grip on the company and fostered a very particular (and peculiar to some) working environment. That's certainly not to say employees were consistently unhappy at The Richards Group. On Glassdoor, the anonymous site where people are asked to rate and review their experiences with employers, The Richards Group generally scores high marks, with an average rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars from 240 reviews. The Glassdoor reviews consistently praise the "good people" working at the agency and the caliber of clients that teams get to work on. But a quick glance across the reviews also shows the polarizing aspects of the agency's policies and Richards' personal role in enforcing them. "Great work-life balance, nice people, decent-to-good ads of all kinds and all clients. Accounts run like well-oiled machines," notes one Glassdoor reviewer under the upsides of working for the agency. The downsides? "Really different culture, especially for ad creatives, including signing in by 8:30 every morning, and Stan Richards' other rituals and personality traits that everyone has to deal with." The Richards Group declined to provide comment for this article or discuss any of the workplace details outlined by former employees below. A spokesperson said the agency is “not going to engage in this. Stan has stepped down.” The gatekeeper For outside observers, one question that might have arisen from Richards' controversial statements is simply, "What was the agency founder doing in an internal creative review?" Such meetings at large agencies rarely involve the highest levels of executive leadership. [Stan Richards] sat in every creative review, basically. If he liked the idea, it went forward. If he didn’t, it was dead.Former art director, The Richards Group But for Richards it was a longstanding practice. Each former employee interviewed by Adweek mentioned that the founder was heavily involved in the creative development and review process, especially when it involved key clients like Motel 6 and Chick-fil-A (which dropped Richards Group in 2016 after 22 years). An employee who worked as an art director at The Richards Group roughly 10 years ago said Richards had a “shit ton of sway” at the agency and was “very, very involved” in meetings, particularly creative ones. “He sat in every creative review, basically,” the former art director said. “If he liked the idea, it went forward. If he didn’t, it was dead.” This person, who’s now a creative director at another business, said Richards fell asleep the first time he and a partner presented to the founder—an occurrence several former employees said was somewhat common. “We [presented] all our stuff. Someone else starts talking and he wakes up and goes, ‘I didn’t like any of those other ideas.’ But he was just asleep for them,” the former art director recalled. “Later on, I learned that that’s kind of a thing everyone is aware of.” A person who once worked in the agency’s media department called Richards “the gatekeeper of what creative was presented to the client,” noting that there “wasn’t a single piece of Chick-fil-A creative that went out the door that he didn’t see and sign off on ahead of time.” Things weren’t much different at the agency’s multicultural arm, according to a source who’d spent time working there. The former employee said Richards was “involved in every creative pitch and every creative review.” “It’s very different than many other agencies,” he said. “When [Richards] says or does something, there’s nobody else to turn to. It’s all him.” Stan Richards addresses his staff in 2017. Gender dynamics Most of the former employees Adweek spoke to mentioned Richards’ annual skiing and fishing trips, on which he'd invite some staffers to come along. According to these sources, these trips were male-only, though it's unclear if women had been invited. The Richards Group declined to clarify for this article. “One of the ways to get Stan to like you, it was known, was to go on his fishing or ski trips,” the former art director said. “It’s not a relaxing trip. You ski until he stops skiing. You eat until he stops eating. You have one drink and you’re in bed by 9 p.m. It’s very regimented and based on his personality and what he wants to do.” It’s not a relaxing trip. You ski until he stops skiing. You eat until he stops eating. You have one drink and you’re in bed by 9 p.m.Former art director, The Richards Group He said he was told by colleagues to go on one of the trips if he wanted to “get promoted,” but ultimately decided not to join the trip. “I did not go because I felt it was really weird to go on something that was denied to someone else because they were born as a female,” he said. “That’s just weird.” On Glassdoor, several anonymous reviews mention the trips as a source of frustration, especially for women. "Only 'the guys' go skiing, fishing with Stan," one reviewer wrote. "Yes, it's his plane and his house in Deer Valley and he can take who he wants and the guys all claim it's not work related, but in a firm where everything is at Stan's whim, the trips are access to opportunities that are denied to almost all the women in the firm." A woman who worked at the agency earlier in her career as a business manager told Adweek she was not asked to attend any of the outdoor trips Richards planned. “I’m a female and I was never invited," she said, "but should have been on many occasions.” A 2012 staff photo of The Richards Group Obsession with lateness Most of the employees Adweek talked to brought up Richards’ obsession with tardiness. They said employees were expected to clock in at 8:30 a.m. each day, and late arrivals were tracked. People who were consistently late were docked money from their end-of-year check that came courtesy of the agency’s profit-sharing plan. At the agency’s holiday party each year, they said, Richards would list the names of people who’d been late the most and share that these employees lost money from their annual check because of it. “Everyone would applaud,” the former art director said. “It was some sort of weird communal shaming.” The person who worked in the agency’s media department said this resulted in staffers scrambling to get into the building on time to avoid being late. “People would park in handicap spots, park on the side of the street," he said. "You’d have people rushing in trying to check in." However, the agency's culture of timeliness did have its upsides, this person said, noting that it was one of the few agencies where timesheets were filed promptly and coworkers could be counted on to be at work on time. They take care of people. They pay well. They want people to be there a long time.Former media staffer, The Richards Group “It would really be nice to be working somewhere that wasn’t a raging dumpster fire all the time, and [The Richards Group] wasn’t when I was there,” he explained. “They take care of people. They pay well. They want people to be there a long time. A lot of their creative heads have been there forever. There’s a structure there.” He also said the agency was generally transparent with aspiring employees about the particulars of its day-to-day processes. “They’re pretty up front when you’re interviewing about what the expectation is,” the former media staffer said. But for some others, The Richards Group's atmosphere—and especially the top-down practices enforced by Richards himself—made it an uncomfortable outlier in the world of ad agencies. “It’s the weirdest place I’ve ever worked. It’s a cult,” a former group creative director at the agency said. “I’ve had a full range of the good, bad and the ugly, but this place was totally unlike anything else.” Adweek's David Griner contributed to this article.

Leadership & Talent

Stan Richards' Crisis Put a Spotlight on His Polarizing Way of Running an Agency

‘It’s the weirdest place I’ve ever worked'

Minda Smiley

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