The function got a reporting line, a seat in the leadership review, and the word 'integrated' in its name. What it didn't get was anyone inside the business who actually talks to it day to day. That's still a silo — just one with better paperwork.

An integrated function can look busy and still not be delivering ownership. Here are five honest signals that tell you whether it's genuinely working.

Sometimes the gap isn't one senior seat. It's the whole team underneath it — and hiring just a leader into that gap doesn't close it.

Most 'outsourced function' arrangements are really just a vendor relationship with a longer contract. Ownership requires something different.