Earlier in my career, while meeting with senior management at the firm I worked for, I heard about innovation underway in another department that had real potential to help the entire enterprise. I spoke up and recommended we bring the manager working on this to the table to see if she had thoughts on how we might scale what she was doing on her team across the firm. Without looking up, the most senior partner at the table said, "stay in your lane." And I did. And I was wrong to do so. Shortly thereafter, that smart, innovative manager left the firm, secured a major raise and senior title, and then took her idea and scaled it up much to the benefit of her new firm.

This article will advocate that both firm management and a firm's chief marketing officer and their teams need to get out of their lanes. In our current environment firms and their leaders cannot simply tend to their vertical and hope the enterprise will prosper.