Restoring the Soul of Business: Staying Human in the Age of Data
Rishad Tobaccowala
HarperCollins Leadership/An imprint of HarperCollins (January 2020)

How and why great companies achieve an appropriate balance between their data and their story

Machines do not possess souls but I believe that people who use them do. Opinions vary about what the soul is — and isn’t. According to Merriam-Webster, “1 : the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life. 2a : the spiritual principle embodied in human beings, all rational and spiritual beings, or the universe.”

Then I checked out quotations that focus on the soul. Here is a representative selection:

o “And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.” Plato

o “When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.” Mohandas Gandhi

o “Find out who you are and be that person. That’s what your soul was put on this Earth to be. Find that truth, live that truth and everything else will come.” Ellen DeGeneres

o “Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.” Oscar Wilde

o “Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.” Charles Dickens

A soul cannot be located surgically or electronically. It has no DNA. That said, I am among those who believe it exists.  A sixth sense enables us to become aware of it, to feel it, both within ourselves and when in the presence of others. In the business world, it is often in the form of hospitality. A company’s customers and employees who interact with them feel appreciated. Direct reports feel it when a supervisor has authentic empathy…or doesn’t. When people brag about where they work and the people they work with, they usually describe an organization’s soul.

Maya Angelou describes it this way: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Rishad Tobaccowala points out that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years. Great companies achieve an appropriate balance between their data and their story. That is a balance that requires constant attention and may require frequent modification, based on the given strategic objective.

He wrote this book for those who feel dehumanized, who have become what he characterizes as “data myopic.” He explains how to establish and then sustain “equal distribution of resources between math and meaning.”

These are among the subjects of greatest interest ansd vaue toi me, also listed to suggest the scope of Tobaccowala’s coverage in Section I:

o Different Types of Data: Math and Meaning
o The Problem with Being Data Myopic
o What Meaning Looks Like in Action
o A Contrast Between Then and Now
o Seeing Technology from a Human Perspective

o Different Ways Measurement Diminishes Meaning
o The Link Between Meaning and Highly Productive People
o The Four Keys to Retaining and Motivating the Best Talent
o Finding Meaning: The Opportunity for Improvement
o Finding Meaning: Deeper Connections

Tobaccowala makes brilliant use of several reader-friendly devices, notably a “Key Takeaways” list at the end of each chapter and heavily annotated “Notes”(Pages 217-231). I strongly recommend highlighting key passages as well as having a lined notebook near at hand in which to record comments, questions, page references, and details for implementation of key initiatives (i.e. WHO will do WHAT by WHEN…and HOW progress will be determined).

Some of the most valuable material is provided in Section III (Chapters 11-12) as Tobaccowala shares his thoughts about how to “find ways to marry the math and the magic, the silicon, digital-driven landscape with the analog, carbon-based, feeling souls that fill the universe,” and, “ensure leaders accentuate the positive while minimizing the negative” with a better understanding of “whom they work for and how both of them behave in different circumstances.”

I agree with Tobaccowala that we need to prepare for working with breakthrough technologies — that is, preparing for “AI that allows us to see five years down the road and the new, emerging markets and changing customer preferences. In our enthusiasm to embrace these technologies, we also need to take a step back and think about how they will affect the human elements of our business.”

Presumably he agrees with Alvin Toffler’s prediction in Future Shock (published in 1984): “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

With all due respect to the advances in science and technology that will be achieved, Rishad Tobaccowala reminds us that human beings and their dreams made them  possible — and will make countless others possible in months and years to come. “Companies must never forget the soul that drives them.”