Rishad Tobaccowala: Succeeding in Business With Soul
Marketing strategist, author and senior advisor to Publicis Groupe Rishad Tobaccowala shares how the successful transformation of any organization, during or after a global pandemic, lies at the intersection of human intuition and data-driven insights — “marrying the math and the magic” — and how specifically to navigate that transformation.
“Marketers at very good at trying to catch whatever the latest fashion is. I try to explain to people, that’s great, but do they have a grand unifying theory of the future? What are you betting your company on?”
As one of the top strategists in the advertising industry, Rishad Tobaccowala’s suggestions on thriving in today’s marketplace are welcomed lessons. Drawn from his three decades of experience, they also inform his new book, Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data, about business transformation and the imperative of integrating “digital tools with analog people.” Published mid-pandemic but written before business-as-usual plans were shredded the entire world over, Tobaccowala’s book is proving to be more relevant than ever, providing guidance on building resilience and an effective workforce. Here he shared some of the things that COVID-19 didn’t change, as well as what businesses still must change.
You wrote your book in the “Before Times.” Is there anything you would change now?
Six of the 12 chapters in my book are COVID-19 optimized. I even have a chapter called “managing the darker side of screens” which is about distributed workforces based at home -- which we're all living through. I have another chapter on how to lead under the pressure and on how to manage change. In fact, it's become so popular I’ve started a training course for HR departments. I now teach online, because there is a hunger for some of these topics.
... [But] I would write something about how to think about COVID-19 in new way based on what I've learned from my book. I did that in different blog posts and then put it in a booklet. It’s called The Great Re-invention. In 12 pages I try to make sense of the world and what to do next.
What are the most critical challenges facing marketers today?
How to think about the future. Marketers at very good at trying to catch whatever the latest fashion is, or they read a lot of trend reports, from Forrester, Gartner, McKinsey. I try to explain to people, that’s great, but do they have a grand unifying theory of the future? What are you betting your company on?
To me there are three key forces: globalization, demographic shifts, and technology. The first, globalization, is unstoppable. Don't listen to all this talk about nationalism and borders and building walls. The second is that demographics matter. We’re all talking about behavior and all of this other stuff, but demographics matter. What tends to happen is you're seeing a bifurcated economy, one built for young people, one built for old people. If you're building a plan, make sure you build a plan in the United States that accepts two things: Number one, the country particularly under 30 has become multiracial. Second, businesses have to recognize that as we all fixate on young people the country is growing older, and every day 10,000 people turn 65 in the United States and 60% of the wealth is owned by people over 60 years old.
You talk about making change suck less. How do you do that?
Everyone talks about change, but what do you think change is? Change is not a press release, it’s not bringing in a new person, it’s not launching something on TikTok. That’s veneer, lipstick. Nobody wants that. What you actually have to do in this change is, number one, ask ‘are you changing your incentive plans?’ You pay people to do the new things versus the old things. You promote your best people to the new, small stuff that might be losing money, right? So, do you have the right incentive plan? Second, are you communicating to people why this is good for their growth? You forget the human aspect. If I care if I grow, if I grow, the company grows. The third is training. How do you expect people to get to the new stuff? Do you expect me to suddenly wake up knowing all the new skills I need? People have forgotten incentive plans, communication and training. They just think about press releases, aligning with new things. It makes no sense.
The old scale was very simple: you manufactured at scale, so you got price. You bought media at scale, so you got discounts. You distributed at scale, so you were at Walmart and you got shelf space, and you had a large company, so you could attract talent. Those are important.
However, there's new scale: the scale of data, scale of networks, scale of ideas, scale of influence.
So, how can marketers succeed through change?
This is true across everything in business, but particularly true in marketing. How do you lead with soul? Most of our CMOs are really, really good, but they're scared out of their minds. No one has taught them how to lead. What are the characteristics of leadership? What should they be working on? What is a good boss? What is a bad boss? How do they understand that in themselves and recognize that being a good or a bad boss has nothing to do with being a good or a bad leader? If you want to manage change, you have to be a good leader.
What is the future of brand building?
You have to combine what I call the old ways and the new ways. Both matter. Many brands were built with what was known as scale economics. And the old scale was very simple: you manufactured at scale, so you got price. You bought media at scale, so you got discounts. You distributed at scale, so you were at Walmart and you got shelf space, and you had a large company, so you could attract talent. Those are important. However, there's new scale: the scale of data, scale of networks, scale of ideas, scale of influence and talent.
What does that translate to?
It’s L’Oréal vs Kylie Jenner. Jenner created a billion-dollar company with 55 employees, Shopify, and an Instagram account. Coty eventually spends a billion dollars to buy 40% of her company. The idea is, how do you meld the old and the new? Because if you just do new brand stuff, you can’t build scale. And if you do only older brand stuff, you can't actually build cultural context. Marketers are struggling with scale, new ways of building brands. They're struggling with business models. So, if you're in a company that is a Gillette, you struggled for a long time to figure out how to beat a Dollar Shave Club.
How can marketers ensure their future?
Over the years, marketers have lost a lot of talent who have either gone to the tech companies or to startups, as have agencies. We haven't trained the talent. The only way you can upgrade a company is to upgrade the people. The only way you can transform a company is by transforming the team.
What do brands do next?
I talk about fragility: fragility of business, fragility of human beings and fragility of society. I believe people will look for safety and for security and for companies who do good for society, which is, ‘do I feel safe? Do I feel secure? And what is the impact on society?’ So I basically tell companies that whatever you're doing, think about safety, security, and society.
December 1, 2020
