Episode Transcript
Adam O'Leary (00:01.22)
If you are a founder currently thinking about what the future looks like, Rashad is about to give you a simple win you can implement today. Rashad helps people see, think, and feel differently about how to grow themselves, their teams, and their business. So welcome to the show, Rashad. So excited to have you on with me.
Rishad (00:19.854)
Thank you for having me on, Adam.
Adam O'Leary (00:21.604)
Absolutely. So when you're going into an organization, I guess tell me what are some of the first things that you look at? The second that you come inside, how do you start identifying problems?
Rishad (00:32.866)
The most important things I look for in an organization is number one is, the company willing to have honesty and truth with each other? I call that the turd on the table, which is if you sit around a table and the leadership sits around the table and there's something brown and moist in the middle of the table and everybody pretends it's a brownie when it's a piece of shit, that's the first indication you got yourself trouble.
Right? So that's one indicator. The second indicator is when they become very internally focused versus being as much attention to the external world.
So if you just focus on your internals or you focus on your existing category or your existing competitors, you probably aren't seeing threats from where they're coming or opportunities where they may be going. So what is the lack of open, honest communication? Second is an internal focus or a focus on existing category dynamics are the two things that I basically look for. And the third, which I also look for, is the ability that they have in their
retention rates to attract and retain talent. So if they got very high turnover of good talent, that also is an indication that something is wrong.
Adam O'Leary (01:52.826)
love that and let's start with the truth because I think that's a very important thing to talk about. How do you actually identify if leaders in an organization are being truthful with one another?
Rishad (02:04.513)
The way to think about it is if somebody gets into trouble for speaking up, I'm not talking being disrespectful, but speaking up.
or if people have to prepare for a meeting in another meeting so they rehearse what they have to say, those are indications there's something really wrong. So the more times you prepare to have an internal meeting, not a client meeting, but you prepare to prepare for an internal meeting, you have to always prepare for meetings. If you're going to go see the chairman or the CEO, you have to prepare, obviously. But if you...
Play act every single move. If they say this, we say this. If they say that, we say this. That's an indication there's trouble. Preparation is, let's make sure we got to act together. have what we are likely to be challenged on and asked. But not like, if she says this, what will I say? If the CEO says this, what will I say? That makes no sense.
Adam O'Leary (03:08.517)
Absolutely, and when we look at the next part you were talking about the internally focused or the externally focused How do you go ahead and determine that because I mean I feel like that's hard especially when you're going in and talking to leaders
Rishad (03:19.703)
So what I basically ask them is very simply this, which is, can they define their current category and can they define who they believe their existing competitors are? And they will do that. And then I say, can you tell me how you expect your category might change or how your existing competitors might not be these, but might be somebody different? And the answer to the second one is,
I don't believe that's true or I don't know. That's when I know there's a problem. So any good company basically runs a bifocal perspective. One focus is on existing competitors, existing category dynamics, and existing deliverables. Very critical. If you don't do that, you don't have a business. But the other eye, so it's almost like the eye is looking at two different directions. I call it bifocal, right?
So one is short distance, the other is longer distance. So longer distance is how will the category dynamics change and will my competitors be someone else? So what I mean by this is this. The competitors for the newspaper industry wasn't other newspapers, it was Google. The competitors for magazines weren't other magazines, it was Instagram.
Okay, and your inability to understand there's an Instagram coming and refusal to consider that they could be a competitor. That's what I mean by basically, okay people, you are not understanding how the dynamics change. So what I often tell businesses is your biggest threats and your biggest opportunities come from where you are not looking.
Adam O'Leary (05:07.547)
I totally see that right there. 100%. I mean, that is crazy to think like that because I do, think a lot of people, stay focused and we're like, oh, these are our competitors, but these are our competitors right now, not down the road.
Rishad (05:18.763)
Yes, not down the road. Obviously you've got to pay attention to the current competitors, although your clocks will be cleaned. But you need to think about other things clearly too.
Adam O'Leary (05:24.859)
For sure, absolutely. And when it comes to top talent, how do you go ahead and identify if there is a churn of top talent?
Rishad (05:34.669)
So the way to look at it is to basically ask.
you know, who do you believe, just like, okay, what is your turnover rate relative to the turnover rate of the industry? Or whatever turnover meaning, know, retention rate. So, every industry has a different thing. So let's say in the advertising agency business, it's sad, but it's about 25 % is the turnover rate. So every year, 25 % of the people who work in advertising leave. It's really high, that's 45%.
So if you end up basically being at 35%, okay, that is a problem. On the other hand, if you end up at being at 5%, oddly that's a problem too. If the category is at 25%, at 5 % means maybe you're not getting any new talent which you need. At 35%, you got yourself a problem.
Right now 25 itself is too high, but at least you want to benchmark against the category So there's no immediate number because there's a reason for advertising being that way It's young people people coming in out of the business, etc, etc, etc if you were having that, know in in retail like at a retail store The turnover rate is 50 to 70 percent a year Okay, and
The Lewis and they do a really good job of people like Trader Joe's and Costco, which are in the teens versus 50 or 70%. So those are the things you wanna basically sort of look at, which is why is it that I'm losing so much of my talent so fast? The other one is to also look at quality of talent, which is when someone leaves, how many of the people who leave do I really regret?
Rishad (07:31.382)
like people who live on their own volition, not that who I help leave. How much do I regret? And if you're losing a lot of people you regret, that's another issue. And the other one is your ability to attract world-class people. So those are the things that I always basically ask, is my stuff is, tell me the last stars you had, the last stars you lost, and what's your retention rate versus other people.
And they're very measurable. Very quickly, people can give you that number.
Adam O'Leary (08:05.69)
That's amazing. And once you kind of look at this, how do you tie it all together? So how do you go about saying, okay, these are the three elements and let's bring it together to kind of create a plan so we can actually help this company scale.
Rishad (08:17.677)
So the way I basically most do it is all those three speak to, when you look at the ability to speak honestly, talent, and...
who your competition is, short term and term. That really is the entire business because if you think about it, with the exception you've got...
By focusing on your competition, you're focusing also on your consumers. How are your customers and consumers changing? Because that means your competition will change. Your competition doesn't change because they just decide to change their clothes. They change because customers have different demands, right? And they are meeting those different demands. Or there are new technologies that allow them to satisfy those customer demands in different ways. So by focusing on competition, you're also somewhat focusing on consumers or customers.
By basically looking at talent, you're basically looking at your ability to attract and retain world-class people, which gives you both a competitive signal, but also it helps you improve the company. And by this honest conversation, it basically means you're looking at the culture of a company.
Right, so when people basically talk about culture, said like culture is not a spa. If people speak honestly in a company, if you can attract and retain world-class talent, and you can change with the future, that's culture. It's not gathering in the room and singing songs to each other. That's not culture at all. Right? And so those things are that. But eventually, it's all about what I specialize in or used to specialize in, which is...
Rishad (10:03.255)
How do you reinvent your company so it can continue to thrive in the future? And those are the key ingredients. They're not the only ingredients, but they're three very critical ingredients, Understanding category dynamics, making sure you have great talent, and speaking honestly are three things that actually help you thrive in the future.
Adam O'Leary (10:26.924)
And if we actually do focus on company culture, what sort of results have you seen from your clients getting from actually spending that time focusing on culture? Because I feel like it's a very over-missed, overlooked element.
Rishad (10:38.869)
Yes, so there is, so I'm not a culture specialist, but I've been talking to culture specialists. So there are people who basically have shown me that the difference between two organizations who have the same things on paper, about the same size, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, the difference between one to the other in performance, half of it is due to culture.
So 50 % of a company's superior performance than another company is based on culture. And what they've identified is in those cultures, there are two key metrics that they measure in those cultures. So the one metric they measure is a metric called belonging. And another metric is...
attraction, promotion, and modeling of difference makers. So what I mean by that belonging is do I believe that I am being heard, listened to, and belong in this organization? And difference makers is in every company and it's not necessarily senior people, it can be across the company. 10 % of the company
drives about 50 to 60 percent of the company's value. Do you know who those 10 percent are and are you supporting them, promoting them, getting people to model against them? Which is Adam is a difference where Rashad sits around, he's like, like, idiot. Adam's the guy we want.
Okay, Rishad's not that much of an idiot because if was an idiot we should kick him out. But Rishad's a good performer but Adam, he really is interesting. He does some very interesting things but Adam is three levels below Rishad, doesn't matter. We'll make sure that Adam is given resources and Adam is promoted or Adam is, everyone said, people said go talk to Adam. So then you let your difference makers
Rishad (12:47.345)
scale across the company by talking to other people and then you make sure that the Rashads of the company who are good, senior but good, not troubling anybody, performing, they also can learn from the Difference Makers. Maybe then we can become Difference Makers but we just don't say be like Rashad because he's senior.
Adam O'Leary (13:10.916)
No, that's awesome, super cool. what type of clients should come ahead and reach out to you? So what problems is typically somebody experiencing when they should make the move to reach out to you?
Rishad (13:21.367)
So because of the little that I do do, the key is if you would like to have either your leadership team or your parts of your organization or your department, be provided with like an hour or two of information and inspiration that they can act on.
which basically gets people to literally see, think, and feel differently. So my basic belief is if you give me 60 to 90 minutes with the team, obviously with briefing before, so I think I come in cold. I have sort of a track record of...
getting the organization to become 5 % more productive at the end of the 90 minutes. Okay, I don't have the exact 5 % productivity thing, but people say, hey, I'm doing things faster, better, very differently than I was doing before. And as long as a few people do that, it has a big productive.
In thing and so a lot of what I basically explain to people is here are the things you want to actually focus on? Versus spending all your time focusing on 50 things. These are the things that really drive change in your industry This is why you yourself are going to have to change and Here are some ways that you can change immediately without spending any money Right, so that gets people all excited because their own stuff is
I'm overwhelmed now you're telling me what to focus on. You're reminding me that companies don't change, people do. And then you're providing me ways that I can do so without having to talk to you or spend a whole bunch of money. And you're doing that all in 90 minutes. That's great. Now you can go away and we'll carry on. Thank you very much. That's what I do.
Adam O'Leary (15:12.665)
That's amazing. And where can people go to learn more about you?
Rishad (15:15.479)
So it's my website which is simply rishatabaccolla.com
Right, and you'll see a lot stuff there And then I write a free sub stack which is at rishad.substack.com which is read by 33,000 people So for people who basically say we don't have the time nor we have the money to hire you I'll say fine. You can get most of my stuff for free read about it here You can use it if you want, right? And people say how come you're giving such good stuff away for free So I sell you know, I give the crack away for free so I can sell the cocaine Okay, but the crack the crack better be good
Adam O'Leary (15:47.007)
Hahaha!
Rishad (15:49.839)
So it's high-quality crack, so you may never need the cocaine again making no fun of drugs, but that's just an analogy.
Adam O'Leary (15:58.137)
I love it. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for, Sean. So glad to have you on.
Rishad (16:01.918)
Absolutely. Thank you very much, Adam.
Adam O'Leary (16:03.958)
Absolutely, and thank you all for listening and I will see you on the next episode
