VP, Commercial Excellence — The Real Job Description

After working with 6,500+ organizations, I can tell you the hardest job in enterprise isn't on any org chart.

It's the person accountable for getting hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people to change how they think and act. Without direct authority over any of them.

I tried writing what the job actually looks like. Not the LinkedIn posting. What actually happens on a Monday.

You walk into a business unit that funds your function, and tell them they're not as good at sales and marketing as they should be. Even when you're really good about it, people are naturally defensive about that. So you get a lot of nodding in the room and eye rolls in the hallway.

Then the CEO calls. Doesn't want to see your deck. Wants one number: what's the EBITDA impact your function delivered this year? And you'd better not say "leading indicators."

Meanwhile the person you're trying to help is thinking: "this guy will get fired soon. Don't worry about it too much."

That's not an exaggeration. I hear some version of that in every conversation I have with ComEx leaders. All the accountability, none of the authority, and about 6-12 months before someone decides it's not working and resets the cycle with a new person in the chair.

If you're in this role, the graphic is probably more accurate than anything your company's ever published about your position.

Nobody talks about how structurally impossible this job is. The playbooks all act like the execution part is straightforward. It's not, and you know it.

I don't have a one-post answer for this, but the first step is admitting the job is designed wrong, not that the person in it is failing.

More on what actually works soon. For now, if this hit close to home, I see you.