Why the head of Campari Americas thinks lateral career moves are an underrated tool for success

• Mel Batchelor is managing director of Campari Americas, overseeing around 500 people.
• She's been "really focused on experience versus just climbing the corporate ladder."
• She wants people to feel they can give honest feedback and not have to worry about retaliation.

Melanie Batchelor isn't afraid to ask what she can do better.

She's also not afraid to embrace the lateral career move.

As managing director of Campari Americas, she oversees around 500 people. Batchelor told me she doesn't wait for her annual review to get feedback or only ask her direct manager for how she could improve.

"I've built some trusted relationships, and got some really good advice from people," Batchelor said. "You need to use the formal and informal process to get feedback and advice on how to build your career."

Lateral career moves have allowed her to be better prepared for the next opportunity, to get "good critical experiences" instead of being too focused on 'the next step, she said.

Now she's trying to bring this approach to Campari, the Italian alcohol and spirits company that owns several brand including the eponymous orange liqueur, Aperol, Skyy Vodka, Wild Turkey and Grand Marnier.

Batchelor has been at the company for 12 years, and aims to enable her team to be "ultimately responsible for their own career development" by providing opportunities so that people "really feel like they're in the driver's seat."

Batchelor said she was "really focused on experience versus just climbing the corporate ladder" and stresses that she looks at attitudes and past behaviors when evaluating new hires or new members of her team. "I think for me, resilience is very important," she said.

"Past behaviors are always a good indication of future behavior," she explained, and she leans into asking people for examples of how they managed situations. "I'm always watching and I really try to open up opportunities for the people that want them."

Of course, feedback goes both ways, and Batchelor is aware she must create an environment where people feel like they can give the feedback and not have to worry about retaliation. And when someone gives her a rigorous critique, "I really made an effort to really thank them for giving me tough feedback, because that created a situation where we just could have a more honest dialogue all the time. I think it's important to always make people feel good about telling the truth."

Together, all of this helps Batchelor find success, which for her is achieving the financial goals, but "doing it in the right way" that, she said, keeps in mind the welfare of Campari's baristas.

Batchelor credits the company's growth to key acquisitions and brand building, particularly around the growth of Aperol and the Aperol Spritz. "We actually do see the opportunity because we've obviously seen the Aperol Spritz phenomenon starting in Italy, spreading throughout Europe. But then we saw Australia, the UK — we saw that the opportunity was real." (Batchelor's favorite drink is the negroni, sometimes with bourbon — the boulevardier.)

Another key acquisition: Wild Turkey. "When I moved to the US with Campari in 2012, that was my first assignment," Batchelor said. Wild Turkey is "so rooted in tradition as a very high-quality whiskey" but "as a brand, it didn't have very premium connotations." Batchelor guided the brand through 10 years of investments around packaging innovation and helping potential customers "understand what a great product it was."

Batchelor remains excited by the possibilities at Campari, but knows the responsibility can be daunting. "I now have a very big team of people and I want them to have a really positive journey with us. And so for me, that's a huge responsibility," she said. " And I take that seriously."