A Conversation With Page-Turner Rishad Tobaccowala

With over 25 hectic and groundbreaking years of marketing and strategy experience across a wide breadth of clients and companies behind him, Tobaccowala is busier than ever these days. Indeed, he simultaneously serves as both CEO of Denuo - a futures "think-do" company that helps clients like Hewlett-Packard and DuPont get to the future first - as well as Chief Innovation Officer of Publicis Groupe Media - a management board that oversees two major media networks: Starcom MediaVest Group and Zenith Optimedia. He does, however, have a spare 12 hours a week - spent mostly in airports and planes - which he devotes to reading anything he can get his hands on.

What's the most thought-provoking book you've read this past year?
The Black Swan. [The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb]

Does it apply to your career?
It basically says that often the big shifts come when the unexpected happens - à la declining real estate prices - and since Denuo is in the disruption business, it helps us explain to clients why the outrageous things we say about how to do things moving forward are only outrageous because of status quo thinking.

What notable concept, theory, or pattern have you distinguished in your reading lately?
The best books now have not only a distinguishing voice but a new way of expressing the voice. For example: Bottomless Belly Button, which is a great new graphic novel, tells a story of family and loss in comic book form; or White Tiger - the Booker Prize-winning novel speaks about India in ways I have never read. The key is to be authentic and differentiated. One needs both.

Do you have fears about reading being replaced by a more multimedia experience?
Reading is being replaced by a more multimedia experience and it is not a bad thing per se - go see penguin.co.uk for new ways to tell short stories - if the multi-media adds to the story versus the story itself. I do believe however if you have an imagination, words on paper can be a multi-media experience.

Do you own a Kindle?
Yes, I do. I am a reader and I like knowing what is going on. I use it for sampling books - first chapters can be downloaded for free. But I read the book if I buy it in hard form since I love the smell and feel of new books and a physical artifact like a book helps me recall stories when I see them in my library.