What Law Firm Partners Can Learn From Former Saatchi & Saatchi Chairman Kevin Roberts

“I’ve been getting dirty money; Jordan Belfort.” — Wes Walker & Dyl

Last Friday, Saatchi & Saatchi chairman Kevin Roberts gave a revealing interview on his cloudy thoughts regarding the stormy debate over gender diversity. For those unfamiliar with Saatchi & Saatchi, it is a leading global communications and advertising agency, with 130 offices in 70 countries.

Many people now know about Kevin Roberts because of his recent incendiary diversity remarks, but I was quite familiar with him already. In many ways, I considered Roberts a role model. It just so happens that he authored one of my favorite advertising books of all time, Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands (affiliate link), as well as another great book I recently finished, 64 Shots: Leadership in a Crazy World (affiliate links). Needless to say, he seems like such a conscientious person. How could he be guilty of such off-putting diversity remarks?

To fully understand the context of Roberts’s comments, I recommend taking five minutes out of your day to read the complete article by Lara O’Reilly of Business Insider, Saatchi & Saatchi chairman Kevin Roberts thinks the gender diversity in advertising debate is ‘over’. Roberts has some interesting thoughts (e.g., citing Darwinism) on why women aren’t progressing to senior positions at a better rate in Saatchi & Saatchi.

Kevin Roberts thinks that people who attend diversity conferences, like the 3% Conference, are debating an issue that isn’t really there. As Roberts told O’Reilly:

[T]here is no point in being brilliant at the wrong thing — the f**king debate is all over. This is a diverse world, we are in a world where we need, like we’ve never needed before, integration, collaboration, connectivity, and creativity … this will be reflected in the way [our company] is….

We have a bunch of talented, creative females, but they reach a certain point in their careers … 10 years of experience, when we are ready to make them a creative director of a big piece of business, and I think we fail in two out of three of those choices because the executive involved said: ‘I don’t want to manage a piece of business and people, I want to keep doing the work.’

In his interview, Roberts said he doesn’t spend “any time” on supposed gender issues at his agencies at all — saying the issue is “way worse” in sectors like financial services, where there are “problems left, right, and center.” How true is Roberts’s statement?

Let’s analyze some statistics on the back of a napkin. Only 11.5% of creative directors within ad agencies are female, according to a survey conducted by the 3% Conference in 2014, while women represent close to 30 percent of senior management at financial firms, according to an April 2013 report issued by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. As for the legal industry, women account for only 16.5% of equity partners (and only 5.4% are minority), according to an April 2014 NALP Bulletin.

In other words, gender diversity at the top is a systematic problem for all these industries. However, contrary to Roberts’s statement, the financial industry not only has more gender diversity at the top than the advertising industry, it has more gender diversity at the top than the advertising and legal industries combined. Sad!

Until his resignation, Kevin Roberts was chairman of Saatchi and Saatchi and head coach of its parent company, Publicis, the world’s third-largest communications group. I can’t help but wonder how such a smart man made such a foolish PR blunder. But then again, Publicis CEO Maurice Levy, who wished Roberts the best and said he hopes Roberts learns from the unfortunate incident, doesn’t believe gender discrimination is a systematic concern in their industry either. If it truly starts at the top, this isn’t a very good sign.

Roberts begins his most recent book, 64 Shots, with this passage:

Remember 1964? It was a landmark year that changed the world in many ways. The Beatles held the top five positions on Billboard, headed by “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Bob Dylan recorded “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” The Rolling Stones released their first album. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and President Lyndon B. Johnson enacted the Civil Rights Act.

Roberts may do well to also realize that in 1964 the prohibition on sex discrimination was added to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was created. 1964 was a landmark year for progress, but it was hardly a panacea for discrimination in the workplace; it was just the beginning.

Times are indeed a-changing, and past mindsets may not fully appreciate today’s business climate and social culture. What was dogma during the Mad Men days may not necessarily be en vogue today. Roberts planned to retire from his chairmanship in May of next year, but it just so happened his time at Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis ran out this week. Even a man with amazing vision can have a few blind spots.

To claim workplace discrimination doesn’t exist or that the debate is over is quite bold, to say the least. Maybe Roberts can update his book and add a 65th piece of leadership advice to his compilation: Beware of your privilege. It can be invisible to you and blind you to others’ realities. You can carry this invisible privilege around like a dollar bill crumpled up in your pocket, never knowing it is there until you reach deep down and discover it. Even with all the tips you may give out, you’ll still have this crumpled-up dollar bill in your pocket, never knowing it is there until you reach deep down. It may be you who needed a leadership tip all along.

For those who’ve read Roberts’s most recent book, the section in Chapter One titled “Shot 3: Don’t make assumptions” could also be good review. In this section, he writes:

Here is a rule of thumb: the less you assume, the more you explore, the better the outcome. Never assume; investigate. Be curious, pose questions, go to the source, and course correct. This is Genchi Genbutsu, aka “Getcha boots on.” It’s a key part of the legendary Toyota Production System. It means go and see for yourself…. If you want to understand how a tiger hunts, don’t go to the zoo, go to the jungle. Toyota tracks back to the root of a problem through a process of asking “Why?” five times. No problem can sustain that kind of pressure….

Don’t assume based on data. Data leads to false facts. Data reads the lines, but people live between them.

We would all be wise to review these words when attempting to solve the diversity crisis in our respective professions.

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Renwei Chung is passionate about writing, technology, psychology, and economics. You can contact Renwei by email at [email protected], follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn.