A couple of weeks ago, I attended a panel discussion (masterfully moderated by Elaine, I should mention) on the increased need for cooperation between marketing and IT within corporations. The idea was to point out how crucial good relationships are—and how to foster them—in a world in which so much marketing is done online in various ways. There was a lot of good conversation about innovation, cultural differences between the two departments, and outsourcing vs. building internally. However, the question I had (and which I unfortunately did not get to ask) is about the Phineas and Ferb issue.

For those of you who are missing out on Disney Channel’s amazing animated half hour of adventure, invention, and fun, here’s the usual flow: Phineas and Ferb are stepbrothers who are looking for something to do each day of their summer vacation. There’s some sort of setup, and then Phineas says, “Hey Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today," before launching into some marvel of sophisticated innovation and engineering that rounds out the episode. The point is, Ferb is brilliant at the execution, but Phineas always owns the spark—the idea that sets off the adventure.

This relates back (really, it does) to the marketing/IT conversation. Marketing looks to IT to recommend innovative ways of executing around the spark—that marketing identified and developed. But is IT allowed to own the spark? If IT came up with that ten-year seismic idea that reorients everything, would the company listen? What if it was someone in accounting? On the factory floor? HR?

The question for you and your organization is where do ideas have to come from in order to be heard? Specific departments? Specific seniority levels? If so, how come? In your company, does Ferb ever get to say, “I know what we’re gonna do today?” And does Phineas have the vision (and adaptable ego) to say, “Sounds cool, let’s do it?”