The Change Up

In Deshpande’s business parable, the CEO of a recently acquired company struggles to satisfy the expectations of the new owners and begrudgingly seeks help from an executive coach.

Jack Shorn is elated when he is promoted to chief executive of Accelx Services, a provider of outsourced accounting services, after the company is bought by Gold Private Equity. The new owners, though, have aggressive expectations—not just in terms of revenue targets, but also regarding the penetration of new verticals and the addition of new strategic accounts. After 15 months on the job, Jack’s team is showing little progress for their considerable efforts, and the partners at Gold Private Equity are beginning to lose patience. Their confidence in Jack’s leadership is waning, as well, as he appears unwilling to take any action to rectify the situation. Finally, the owners issue an austere ultimatum: Jack has 90 days to show he’s making headway, or his future at Accelx may be in jeopardy. Renata Campbell, one of the new owners’ managing partners, compels Jack to consult an executive coach named Meg Beecham. Jack is reluctant, as he feels that he has no time to waste on a practice that’s unlikely to bear fruit. Meg, though, quickly gets him to see that his team is way out of alignment, and that his leadership style is at least partly to blame. Deshpande delivers an intelligently conceived story that astutely captures the pressures of being a high-level business executive. It also makes a powerful case for the effectiveness of executive coaching. However, as a drama, the story feels tedious and didactic, and the prose can be stilted at times, as when Jack frets about the underperformance of Brett, his chief revenue officer: “If Brett can’t even close one strategic sale himself, how does he expect his team to meet the challenge? He just can’t seem to get there as a leader. Maybe it’s time for a change.” Such overly expository text feels condescending to the reader, who may wish that Deshpande had simply written a more straightforward nonfiction account.

An earnest instructional story that’s brought down by unengaging prose.