Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data

by Rishad Tobaccowala

Overview

From old-fashioned bricks-and-mortars to cutting-edge startups, businesses are moving into uncharted territory as they determine how to move from an analog past to a digital future effectively. How can you make sure not to leave human instinct behind?

Businesses are leaving behind traditional meetings in favor of virtual ones, transitioning from surveys and studies to analytics and algorithms. The startling and often unacknowledged truth is that the promise of digital transformation can only be realized when we find a way to balance it with the promise of people. In the end, it’s the people that matter, and companies must never forget the soul that drives them.

In Restoring the Soul of Business, business leader Rishad Tobaccowala teaches you to:

• Understand how to unleash the significant benefit that can be realized by combining emotion and data, human and machine, analog and digital.
• Spot the warning signs of data-blinded companies: cold cultures with little human interaction, poor innovation stemming from discouraged employees who don’t contribute ideas, and poor customer service due to automated, robotic processes.
• Explore how organizations of various sizes and from different industries have successfully reoriented their thinking on how to fuse technology and humanity.
• Gain skills to become an expert in connections critical to growth and success, including the connection between being creative and using technology.
• Everyone working in an organization will find penetrating observations and guidance about how and why establishing the proper balance between human intuition and creativity and data-driven insights can lead to increased revenue, profitability, retention—and even joy—in their careers and business.

Restoring the Soul of Business provides practical tools and techniques that every organization can and should implement, and challenges you to move forward with the kind of balance that capitalizes transformation and produces one great success after another.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781400210541
Publisher:	HarperCollins Leadership
Publication date:	01/28/2020
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	316,646
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Rishad Tobaccowala is the Chief Growth Officer at Publicis Groupe, an advertising and communications firm whose 80,000 employees worldwide are dedicated to delivering marketing and business transformation. He is responsible for supporting the leaders of Publicis Groupe’s largest global clients, to help these organizations grow in a revolutionary time for all businesses. For his pioneering innovation, BusinessWeek named Tobaccowala one of the top business leaders, and he also was dubbed one of five marketing innovators by TIME magazine. He regularly presents keynotes at industry conferences and speaks at well-known global organizations, such as Kellogg’s, IBM, Amazon, Google, and Facebook.

Table of Contents

Foreword Ken Auletta xv

Introduction Why This Book? xvii

Section I The Challenge: Carbon-Based, Analog, Feeling Humans in a Silicon-Infused, Digital, Data-Driven World

Chapter 1 Too Much Math, Too Little Meaning 3

Chapter 2 Managing the Dark Side of Bright Screens 20

Chapter 3 The Quest for Meaning in the Modern Workplace 34

Section II Counterbalancing Machines, Screens, and Data: Seven Keys to Staying Human

Chapter 4 Talk about the Turd on the Table 53

Chapter 5 Address the Reality That Change Sucks 66

Chapter 6 Unleash Creativity by Inserting Poetry into the PowerPoint 84

Chapter 7 Recognize That Talent Does Not Work for Companies but Rather Companies Work for Talent 97

Chapter 8 Diversify and Deepen Time Usage 114

Chapter 9 Schedule More Meetings 127

Chapter 10 Upgrade Your Mental Operating System 142

Section III Fusing the Story and the Spreadsheet: Soul for the Machine Age

Chapter 11 Robots Compute. People Dream 157

Chapter 12 How to Lead with Soul 171

Conclusion: Thriving in the Third Connected Age 186

Acknowledgments 207

Notes 211

Index 227

About the Author 235

Editorial Reviews

'A brilliant synthesis by Rishad on how to bring balance to human elements and technology usage in managing a modern enterprise. A must-read for everyone for both personal and professional development and satisfaction.' —Alok Choudhary, Henry and Isabelle Dever Professor, EECS Department; Professor, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

'A fantastic guide for leading and succeeding in today's world, Rishad eloquently demonstrates the exponential power in combining math and human connection and provides useful ways to do so.' —Norman de Greve, Chief Marketing Officer, CVS Health

'This is a book of wisdom. A book that should be passed down with compassion, care, and grace from CEOs to their teams and from parents to their children. It is not a business book; it is a book full of hope and optimism about the beauty and possibility of the future—tethered to technology but anchored in the 'Soul' with empathy and compassion. I loved this book, and am so grateful that Rishad chose to share his brilliance and insights with all of us.' —Mark Achler, Managing Director, MATH Venture Partners

'We are living in extraordinary times. While our digitally connected world creates remarkable opportunities for businesses, employees are facing tremendous stress from a wide range of sources—a contentious global political climate, concern for the environment, regular reports of mass shootings and natural disasters, the impact of economic inequality, and how the emergence of artificial intelligence will impact our lives and livelihoods, to name just a few. In an era of such broad-based disruption, Rishad Tobaccowala's Restoring the Soul of Business and its higher-order thinking on improving the balance of our business communities, enhancing the humanity and generosity of our workplaces, and prioritizing EQ over data in decision-making makes this book essential reading for today's executives.' —David Carey, Chairman, Hearst Magazines

'You know that person who seems to always be ahead of the curve? The one who chooses to zig while zagging is obviously the thing to do? But then, zigging DOES become the thing? What makes Rishad a special man is that he was that person thirty years ago, and he has only gotten better. So, READ THE BOOK, and learn from THAT guy!' —Tom Collinger, Executive Director, Medill IMC Spiegel Digital and & Database Research Center, Northwestern University

From the Publisher