Chad Stark and Ashley Stark Kenner of STARK and Ashley Stark Home: Disrupting Traditional Heritage Design Through Digital Innovation and Strategic Expansion

As a part of our series about 5 Things You Need To Run A Highly Successful Family Business, I had the pleasure of interviewing Chad Stark and Ashley Stark Kenner.

As a third generation design industry thought leader, Chad Stark joined the company as director of web development after graduating from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in 2011. Named CEO of STARK in October 2020, and President of Scalamandré in 2017, and Co-founder of Ashley Stark Home in 2022, Chad’s experience in the start-up and digital worlds combined with his deep understanding of his family’s venerable heritage brand have had a tremendous impact on the success of STARK.

Ashley Stark Kenner is the Creative Director of STARK, the force behind the influential @ashleytstark Instagram account which has more than 1.3 million followers, and the stylish namesake behind Ashley Stark Home. At an early age, she fell in love with the legendary carpet and textile company founded by her grandparents, which led to a life that immersed her in design, honed her eye, sharpened her sense of quality, and drove her desire to learn every aspect of the business from the bottom up.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Ashley: I grew up knowing I always wanted to be a part of STARK. My grandmother would take me to the STARK showrooms as a child to teach me about the different types of rugs and carpets and really nurtured my interest in the business. I started interning at STARK in college and have learned every aspect of the business from the bottom up.

Chad: I grew up in the business, playing hide-and-seek in showrooms and helping my father, who took over STARK from his father, calculate commissions on sales at the kitchen table. After college, I worked at a few startups but was eventually drawn back to STARK for many reasons. Ultimately, I knew I could apply what I had learned over the years to my family’s business and bring STARK into the digital age.

Can you tell us a bit about your family business and your role in it?

Ashley: As creative director, I’m involved with every aspect of the business. From designing and buying, to materials and production, to ensuring the business is growing with the ever-evolving industry, I’m involved with it all.

Chad: I run the day to day of the business which includes coordinating the efforts of every function of the business with our leadership team, and focusing on key areas like customer experience, the employee experience, as well as e-commerce, marketing and technology. One of my favorite aspects of my job is the time I spend doing client facing activities. Whether that be giving a presentation in a design office, or meeting a client in a showroom, it’s important to me to have face time with our clients. Our company has adopted this philosophy that feedback is king and no one knows our products better than our clients do. By continuing to engage with our clients and get their perspectives on different things, we’re able to make smart decisions that allow us to grow and continue to improve the customer experience.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this career?

Ashley: When I first joined the company, STARK had been run only by men, primarily my father and uncle, for many years. Early on, I had to convince my father to add softer colors like gray and lavender to the roster. This received a lot of push back at the time but today, gray is one of our best-selling hues.

Chad: In this industry, I think both designers and people on the brand side are often intimidated by technology. When I first joined STARK, there was a bit of push back when it came to the technological advances I was looking to introduce. Some people even thought I wanted to replace them with robots! From my perspective, I feel that if we can empower clients to do more on their end, that saves us time, and if we can empower our sales teams to spend time doing things that cannot be replaced by technology, technology makes them more efficient and everyone wins.

This push back changed in 2020 when the pandemic hit and we started updating some of our processes as our showrooms temporarily closed. I was getting ready for a conversation with our sales managers and designers about offering real-time quotes to clients and anticipated a lot of resistance. When the time came, everyone agreed to move forward with it. I was ready for an hour long conversation defending the decision, but everyone was on board and understood it would make the client’s life a lot easier.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Chad: In 2022, we acquired a company called Intersource Carpet in Minneapolis. I was so excited after the papers were signed because the team there lived our core values every day and we all knew joining forces would help us scale. To inform the organization of this exciting news, I emailed everyone but did not proof read the email well enough. “Intersource’’ auto corrected to “intercourse” and the email read “we are proud to announce Intercourse by STARK as our newest location.” I got 15 emails within the first 10 minutes asking if that is really the name. Good thing our team members have a good sense of humor and understood my mistake as an honest one. I’m grateful to the Intersource teams for laughing at me, not getting upset, but I don’t think they will ever let me live that one down!

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Ashley: Our grandparents, Arthur and Nadia Stark, founded STARK with the mission of providing the very best product to our clients and to make design industry professionals the heroes in their projects through world class service. As third generation owners, Chad and I are staying true to our founding principles by seeking out the best craftsmanship and methods of manufacturing for the most innovative and beautiful designs.

Chad: In an industry that likes to hold onto the past, our willingness to disrupt ourselves on behalf of our industry sets us apart. We are very future oriented and get excited by the prospect of change. There is more opportunity than ever before and we are ready to capitalize on it!

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

Ashley: In 2022, Chad and I co-founded Ashley Stark Home, a new destination for rugs, wallcoverings, tabletop, lighting, decor, and design collaborations. I had been approached by various people and brands to do different lines and finally, we decided we would do it ourselves. Ashley Stark Home is an extension of me and everything I like. There’s something really special about taking my inspiration and making it a tangible item people can have in their homes.

Chad: We often hear from newer interior designers who are earlier in their career that they do not have the clients who can afford STARK, which is actually a misconception as we have products at price points that allow almost any interior designer to shop with us. We knew there were designers who followed Ashley and loved her design aesthetic but were not STARK customers. With Ashley Stark Home, we have been able to combat those misconceptions and introduce more people to STARK who otherwise would not have been clients. We had a great first year with an amazing response from the interior design community as well as new clientele and we can’t wait to share more on what’s to come for Ashley Stark Home in 2023!

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Ashley: My great aunt, Iris Apfel, is someone I’m incredibly grateful for. From a young age, she taught me the importance of beautiful textiles and materials, and I still look to her for inspiration. She used to take me to buying meetings and taught me to always trust my instincts. She is fearless in her fashion choices and design and never listens to the naysayers which is something I admire about her.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Chad: With over 700 team members globally, we feel a deep responsibility to enable each and every one of them to be able to provide for their family. Our goal is to create an organization where our team members wake up inspired to come to work, feel challenged and supported throughout the day, and leave each day with a sense of accomplishment. While we support many charities like Kips Bay and Well Design, enabling our team members to provide an enjoyable, secure life for their families is what we’re most focused on right now. This is why every year we continue to invest in the items our team members ask for the most — like health insurance and benefits.

Ok thank you for that. Let’s now pivot to the main parts of our interview. How do you define a family business? How is a family business different from a regular business?

Chad: A family business is one where multiple members from one or more generations work together to build a company. Oftentimes there is a lack of professional management in family enterprises, whereas a regular business only has professionals. Family businesses can often feel more culture oriented and more cost conscious with cash conservation, but of course there are always exceptions.

In your opinion or experience, what are the unique advantages that family owned businesses have?

Chad: Family businesses have the ability to play in the infinite game of business, meaning they can stay focused on building a sustainable, long term business. Public markets and venture capitalists often require quarterly or annual milestones that sometimes might come at the expense of what is best for the business long term. For example, mass layoffs to hit financial projections to inflate a stock price is a short sighted tactic that some public companies use. As a family enterprise, we can keep people at the center of our decision making with an eye on the long term, not short term, prize.

What are the unique drawbacks or blindspots that family owned businesses have?

Chad: One challenge in family businesses with multiple generations working is that different generations may have different appetites for risk. One blind spot is when ego gets in the way and the accountabilities between family members are not clear. However, for us, we find these issues to be minimal. Ashley and I don’t see any significant drawbacks that family owned businesses have. We feel very lucky to be able to work together like our parents did and are so grateful for our amazing team who supports our vision and goals for the company.

What are some of the common mistakes you have seen family businesses make? What would you recommend to avoid those errors?

Chad: When I was in college, I was reluctant to join my family’s business because I wanted something of my own. What I realized after joining STARK was that I could build on the legacy my family has worked so hard to establish. I’m so grateful that I’m a part of this legacy with Ashley and that we’re able to grow our family’s business in ways our parents and grandparents dreamed of.

What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders of family businesses to help their employees to thrive?

Chad: I strongly believe in Richard Branson’s philosophy of “If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” As I mentioned, we’ve adopted this philosophy as a company that feedback is king and that includes employee feedback as well. We listen to all employee feedback and feel it’s important to let them know that we hear their concerns, while also being realistic and honest about our ability to execute on that feedback. As a result, the level of excitement about the future of our company is at an all time high. We communicate regularly with the company about our financial performance, our vision for the future, how we’re going to get there, and I believe this transparency and level of communication has built trust and confidence in our leadership team.

How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean with a story or example?

Chad: During the pandemic, we talked a lot internally with our team about The Stockdale Paradox which essentially is a technique for navigating challenging times where you confront the brutal facts of your reality while never losing faith that you will prevail. We felt it was important to be honest with our employees but also keep everyone faithful that we would survive and come out on the other end stronger than ever before. You cannot measure leadership but you can measure followers. Leaders exist at every level and the best leaders have the most followers — regardless of their title or rank.

Here is our main question. What are the “5 Things You Need To Run A Highly Successful Family Business”? Please share a story or example for each.

Take care of your employees. My goals haven’t changed since I started at STARK, but what has changed is that people now trust that I have their back, and whatever we do, their perspective will always be considered. When decisions need to be made, they’re made with empathy and transparency. Our team’s trust in my vision for the future has allowed us to get where we are today.

No one knows your product like your clients do. Listen to their feedback and concerns and they may just open your eyes to a new service to offer, or a solution you might not have thought of.

Adopt a mindset of innovation. To be innovative, you have to play to win. Often, this means shaking up how things have been done for so long and trying something new, even if that means you may be met with resistance at first.

Narrow your focus. There are always going to be a lot of opportunities and potential ways to expand your business but when the focus is more narrowed, you will see how much progress you can make in a short period of time.

Don’t be scared of digitization. If we did not take the leap to disrupt ourselves when the pandemic hit and our showrooms closed, someone else would’ve come along and disrupted us.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)

Chad: Simon Sinek — I am most inspired by his leadership teachings and hope to build an organization that would make him proud.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Ashley: Our mission is to deliver world class experiences to clients around the world, and for STARK to be the most well-known carpet and rug omni channel brand, as well as a company that enriches the lives of the people it touches.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Follow us on Instagram! @ashleystarkhome @starkcarpet

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.

About The Interviewer: Jason Hartman is the Founder and CEO of Empowered Investor. Jason has been involved in several thousand real estate transactions and has owned income properties in 11 states and 17 cities. Empowered Investor helps people achieve The American Dream of financial freedom by purchasing income property in prudent markets nationwide. Jason’s Complete Solution for Real Estate Investors™ is a comprehensive system providing real estate investors with education, research, resources and technology to deal with all areas of their income property investment needs. Through Jason’s podcasts, educational events, referrals, mentoring and software to track your investments, investors can easily locate, finance and purchase properties in these exceptional markets with confidence and peace of mind.

Starting with very little, Jason, while still in college at the age of 19, embarked on a career in real estate. While brokering properties for clients, he was investing in his own portfolio along the way. Through creativity, persistence and hard work, he earned a number of prestigious industry awards and became a young multi-millionaire. Jason purchased a California real estate brokerage firm that was later acquired by Coldwell Banker. He combined his dedication and business talents to become a successful entrepreneur, public speaker, author, and media personality. Over the years he developed his Complete Solution for Real Estate Investors™ where his innovative firm educates and assists investors in acquiring prudent investments nationwide for their portfolio. Jason’s sought after educational events, speaking engagements, and his popular “Creating Wealth Podcast” inspire and empower hundreds of thousands of people in 189 countries worldwide.

While running his successful real estate and media businesses, Jason also believes that giving back to the community plays an important role in building strong personal relationships. He established The Jason Hartman Foundation in 2005 to provide financial literacy education to young adults providing the all-important real world skills not taught in school which are the key to the financial stability and success of future generations. We’re in a global monetary crisis caused by decades of misguided policies and the cycle of financial dependence has to be broken, literacy and self-reliance are a good start. Visit JasonHartman.com for free materials and resources.