August 11, 2020
Rishad Tobaccowala, Author, Speaker, & Fortune 100 Advisor
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On this episode of Reboot Chronicles I had a no BS conversation with Rishad Tobaccowala on how we can stay human in the data-driven age, and what it means to be human in light of all the technology and data that’s flying around us. Named by Business Week as one of the top business leaders and top five marketing innovator by TIME, Rishad uncovers insightful secrets in his book Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data about how balancing the analytical and intuitive sides of business can lead to increased profitability and even joy!
As most of us have plunged deeper and deeper into digital-data-driven worlds, the power of originality, storytelling and genuine human connections has never been more critical. But as data has become more available and we are more depended on it, common sense and empathy have often been discounted with negative results. So I wanted to know: how do we stay human in the age of data and can CEOs actually reboot or restore the soul of their businesses?
“What I began to realize over the last five years is that industry marketers, companies and CEOs were tilting more towards the data, which I call the spreadsheet side of the business. They were ignoring the story side of the business – the values, the purpose, the talent, the culture. I did some research and discovered that companies fixating on the spreadsheet eventually ended up doing poorly in terms of revenue and market capitalization” says Rishad.
He notes that since the rise of technology and data, more companies were focusing on the left-brain part of work – math. When you emphasize on numbers, you become short-term oriented. A successful company has to combine data, technology and emotion. “The hidden key to successful transformation in any organization lies between human intuition and data-driven insights.”
The Humanized Second Machine Age
According to Rishad, if you have a person versus a machine scenario, in most cases machine will beat human. However, if you have a combination of machine and individual concentrating on what each does best, then it will eventually exceed results. We are seeing this across industries like the cobotic automation work being developed by 3D Plartform in partnership with Oak Ridge Labs or Revieve’s AI Selfie technology that empowers consumers to make more informed decisions. Simply implementing the newest technologies and automation tools won’t be enough. Success will depend on whether companies acquire and develop the human capital to do so. Further, Rishad believes that organizations are beginning to realize how fragile their businesses are and how dependent they are on people.
‘The hidden key to successful transformation in any organization lies between human intuition and data-driven insights’ RT
Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal, is the perfect example of what can be done in that respect. After surveying his employees last year, he discovered that 60% of employees were struggling to make ends meet each month. Those of us that have lived in Silicon Valley can relate to this. He directly responded by raising salaries, cutting health insurance costs, giving stocks to all employees and offering them financial education, notes Rishad. “We underestimated how important people were in the company’s success. Dan putting employees first will ultimately benefit his other stakeholders” says Rishad.
There is a lot to unpack here, so listen to our talk and check out his book, Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data, to explore the balance needed to catalyze transformation by combining emotion and data, human and machine, in our analog and digital world.
