Welcome to the Church of Rishad

🎉 Welcome back, friends, enemies, and silent Slack lurkers.

We’re back for Season Four of The ADOTAT Show, and we are not here to tickle your inbox with mild insights and vibes-based career tips.

We're here to burn down the house.

Or at least, the part of the house still pretending open-plan offices are a culture strategy.

This time I sat down with a man so sharp, he could cut through HR buzzwords with a spoon: Rishad Tobaccowala.

Or as I like to call him, the Digital Dalai Lama, the Marketing Madonna, the one-name philosopher-warrior who makes business strategy sound like beat poetry and makes you question your entire org chart over coffee.

☕️ And yes, mine was cheaper than your current CPM.

This conversation? Not TED Talk-deep. Not LinkedIn-deep. This was “staring at your ceiling at 3AM wondering what the hell you’re doing with your life” deep. We didn’t just talk shop—we dismantled the damn store.

⚰️ “Hybrid” Is Just Corporate Code for Fear

Rishad doesn’t sugarcoat it. He says that hybrid work isn’t a bold new chapter—it’s fear disguised as flexibility. It’s what companies say when they don’t trust you unless they can watch you sit in a chair.

Executives may talk about culture and collaboration, but let’s be honest—they want you back in the office because they’re terrified of losing control. Not productivity. Not collaboration. Control. They slap on words like “togetherness” and “synergy,” but what they really mean is “I can’t lead unless I can see you blinking at your screen.”

🧘 The Age of Debossification Is Here

People aren’t resisting the office—they’re resisting their bosses. The problem isn’t geography. It’s power.

Rishad calls this moment the age of debossification. Employees are rejecting the outdated command-and-control model. They don’t want a manager who tracks screen time and checks digital presence—they want a leader. Someone who understands people aren’t robots and Slack isn’t a personality test.

The reality? Most of the reasons leaders give for wanting people “back” don’t hold up. Training? That happens at events. Creativity? That happens offsite. Relationships? That happens at bars. The office isn’t where the magic happens—it’s where the printer breaks and no one knows how to use the coffee machine.

💼 Work Isn’t a Spa—But It Shouldn’t Be a Trauma Center

Let’s get something straight: no one is saying work should be a spa. You don’t get paid to feel fabulous. But if you enjoy your work 70% of the time, you’ve basically won the cosmic lottery.

Rishad points out that work should be meaningful, not miserable. The goal isn’t utopia—it’s doing work that fits into life, not the other way around. And no, that doesn’t mean always working in pajamas. It means having the autonomy to choose how and when you’re most effective—and being trusted to deliver.

That’s the radical concept most companies still don’t get. They’re so busy forcing everyone into the same mold, they forget that talent isn’t plug-and-play. It’s human. Messy. Brilliant. And it doesn’t thrive under fluorescent lighting and badge scans.

🧱 Welcome to the Era of the Company of One

If you’re still treating yourself like an employee and not a business, Rishad says you’re falling behind. He believes everyone should operate as a Company of One. That doesn’t mean going freelance or starting a Substack. It means thinking like an entrepreneur inside your own life.

You need a craft people will pay for. A reputation for being collaborative and generous—your own internal API. A growth mindset that keeps you relevant as the ground shifts. And most importantly, you need to understand that your résumé isn’t what’s on your hard drive—it’s what shows up when someone Googles you.

Rishad updated his LinkedIn just weeks ago to reflect this mindset. He removed the fluff, reframed his narrative, and ensured that AI systems like Gemini and ChatGPT surface the version of him he wants the world to see. He’s not looking for a job. He’s looking to remain discoverable, useful, and ahead.

That’s not vanity. That’s survival in a world where digital reputation is professional currency.

🤖 The Shift Isn't Coming—It's Here

This is not a theoretical conversation. This is the now. The office is no longer the center of gravity. Power has shifted from capital to talent. From control to trust. From management to influence.

Rishad makes it clear: companies that still operate like it's 1999 are going to lose. The future belongs to organizations that empower rather than extract, adapt rather than enforce, and hire humans—not outputs.

He summed it up beautifully: companies don’t change—people do. And right now, the people are waking up, scaling up, and opting out of leadership that refuses to evolve.

💥 TL;DR

– “Hybrid” isn’t bold. It’s fear-based compromise.
– The office isn’t the hub of creativity—it’s often the bottleneck.
– Employees don’t want bosses—they want mentors, coaches, and leaders.
– Every individual is now a Company of One—and AI is watching.
– Your résumé is dead. Google is your reputation.