TY - JOUR A1 - Hillebrand, Patrick A1 - Westner, Markus A1 - Matschi, Markus T1 - Key factors of successful CIOs N2 - This study examines key factors of successful CIOs in large German companies. With a median tenure of 4.0 years, German CIOs, most of whom (43%) still report to the CFO, have a significantly shorter tenure compared to other C‑level positions. The results of 60 interviews with successful German-speaking CIOs, who primarily have an above-average tenure, reveal various key factors for successful CIOs: The foundation for success is to ensure secure and efficient IT operations. Through effective and innovative change pro-jects, the CIOs interviewed make the added value of IT transparent and act as bridge-builders between IT and the business. In this way, they have a positive impact on the corporate culture and establish IT as a success factor in the business in the long term. Successful CIOs themselves are not “techies” but are characterized by a high level of leadership competence and a high level of business expertise, coupled with visionary thinking. This enables them to align IT in a future-oriented manner and to anticipate de-mands and potential for and from the business units at an early stage. The future devel-opment of the CIO organization and the paradigms in IT, on the other hand, was discussed controversially by some of the study participants—for example, there is still no uniform opinion on the relevance of the CDO position. KW - CIO roles KW - Success factors KW - CIO tenure KW - Chief Information Officer Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-66882 N1 - This document is an English translation of the article Hillebrand, P., Westner, M. & Matschi, M. Schlüsselfaktoren erfolgreicher CIOs. HMD 59, 762–779 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1365/s40702-022-00867-8 ER -