The 7 Cs that will shape tomorrow’s CMOs, according to Rishad Tobaccowala

New Delhi: What does it take to stay relevant in an industry being reshaped by machines, metrics and mindset shifts? Rishad Tobaccowala, Senior Advisor to Publicis Groupe, offered a compelling answer to this.

In a candid conversation with BestMediaInfo.com, he unpacked the deep structural changes unfolding across the world of marketing; from the need to reimagine leadership and work culture to the rising value of creativity, curiosity and character in the age of AI. 

For today’s CMOs, he said, the challenge is not just about keeping up, it’s about thinking differently.

Watch the full interview here: 

Read the excerpts below:

Leadership must shift from control to influence

Tobaccowala called on Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) to rethink their roles and leadership style in a world increasingly shaped by automation and decentralised workforces. “We’re entering an age that requires less classical management and more improvisation - like jazz,” he explained.

This shift, he said, demands that leaders move beyond traditional roles of allocating and measuring to mentoring and guiding. As companies move toward operating with more distributed, non-permanent workers, leadership anchored in influence and creativity will become critical.

Skillsets for the future: From cognition to character

Outlining the essential qualities for future CMOs, Tobaccowala laid out what he called the six Cs - cognition, curiosity, creativity, convincing, collaboration, and communication. At the top of the list was cognition, which he defined as “the ability to continuously learn and reinvent oneself.”

“Give me someone who is constantly upgrading their mental operating system, and I can make sure they stay relevant,” he said.

He also stressed the importance of character, which he considers the seventh ‘C’. For Tobaccowala, the two most defining traits of character are trust and integrity. “Integrity, to me, is when what you say, what you believe, and what you do are the same thing,” he noted, warning that inauthentic leadership is eroding credibility across companies.

Machines will do the heavy lifting, but inspiration will remain human

In the marketing ecosystem, Tobaccowala believes that while machines will take over most of the hard work, the creative spark must still come from humans.

He illustrated this with an anecdote from writing his book. Tobaccowala used AI to generate early versions of each chapter, not to use directly, but to spark better ideas. “I treated it as a stimulant. The real work came after,” he shared.

In a future driven by powerful tools, it is human discernment, creativity, and values that will set leaders and organisations apart. “Everyone will have access to the same machines. The real differentiator will be what we do with them.”