- Was at Zappos.com before, during, and after the Amazon.com acquisition
- Helped the company grow from 1200-1700 people (50% growth)
- Developed the Zappos life coaching program
Robert Richman is a culture strategist and was the co-creator of Zappos Insights, an innovative program focused on educating companies on the secrets behind Zappos’ amazing employee culture. Robert built Zappos Insights from a small website to a thriving multi-million dollar business teaching over 25,000 students per year. Through his work, Robert has been helpful for improving the employee culture at hundreds of companies.
As one of the world’s authorities on employee culture, Robert is a sought after keynote speaker at conferences around the world and has been hired to teach culture in person at companies like Google, Toyota, and Eli Lilly. He has pioneered a number of innovative techniques to build culture, such as bringing improv comedy to the workplace.
His book, The Culture Blueprint, is a systematic guide to how a workplace can help people grow, inspire amazing service, and ultimately drive revenue through amazing culture.
Robert graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in film, as well as from Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching Program. He is a member of the Transformational Leadership Council, and he is based out of San Diego (though he’s on the speaking tour most of the time).
Culture Hacking a way for anyone at any level to shift the culture. As Culture Strategist for Zappos.com and the manager of Zappos Insights, Robert learned how to create change fast by using the power of hacking for good and applying them to culture. Robert leaves the group with three high leverage tools that can be used immediately to create long-term change. Audiences are excited to become culture hackers and often report making changes the very next day.
“I was one of 4000 store managers and corporate employees who saw Robert Richman speak and I was blown away. His insights and humor were so engaging, and he surprised us by giving us the entire Culture Blueprint audio book for free. I immediately listened to it on the way home and I’ve already started thinking like a culture hacker. I realized the importance of leading by example and I’m empowering my team to act as culture hackers, with the culture hacking framework… The Store Managers in my area who are listening to the book are sharing stories about how we’re putting our company’s values into action.”
“I was simply blown away. I read the Culture Blueprint and it transformed the way I think about my companies. I brought Robert in for a speech, and he gave us an experience that became a catalyst moment. The teams not only saw the importance of a strong culture, they are now excited about it and realize it’s everyone’s responsibility, not just mine as CEO. Any company could benefit from Robert’s wisdom. However, if you’re a growing company, it’s imperative that you speak with him immediately to harness the chaos, catalyze the vision, and stabilize for the future.” –
“After Robert Richman delivered his keynote speech to our manager’s strategy session we realized it was really BEYOND great and more like WOW!… Robert not only shared the Zappos culture, but also deeper insights about how culture and service work together. Our team was highly engaged and we had to cut people off because there were so many questions. While Toyota already has an excellent culture and award-winning service, Robert’s inspiration gave us ideas to take it to the next level.”
“We have been working together for 3 years now. You pushed me in ways that I was uncomfortable with, but in hindsight it was exactly what I needed. You taught me how to ask the right questions and to look at the business in a very different way. You have helped me become a better leader than I already was. And my success is in no small part due to what we’ve done together.” (Click here to see the video) Jonathan Green –
“What a fantastic experience it was learning about Zappos culture from Robert Richman. He gave tremendous insight into what makes their culture work and also gave practical applications of how we could be even more effective at Whole Foods Market. And our culture is very deep already! His examples of service and how to make immediate impact on the team were awesome… I can’t recommend Robert enough!”
