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Although the average tenure of CIOs has increased over the last years, the majority of CIOs have been in their positions for only three years or less. Nevertheless, some CIOs have been successful in their position for a long time. In this study, we use tenure as a proxy for success as a CIO. The goal of this paper is to examine factors that are critical to the success of long-term CIOs. For this purpose, we created and analyzed resumes of 384 CIOs. Out of these 384, we conducted 19 interviews with CIOs from top-tier companies and collected and analyzed both qualitative and quantitative data. In the process, we were able to identify nine factors that are critical for the success (CSF) of CIOs. These factors fall into three categories. Category “Personality” includes “Accepting and embracing change” (CSF #1), “Being perseverant to pursue long-term goals” (CSF #2), “Anticipating the future through visionary thinking” (CSF #3), and “Being empathetic to deal with uncertainty felt by co-workers” (CSF #4). The “Role Fulfilment” category includes “Cross-functional involvement and integration of the IT organization” (CSF #5), “Positioning and restructuring of the IT organization” (CSF #6), and “Well-connected and communicative leadership” (CSF #7). The “Organizational Environment” category consists of “Availability of skilled workforce” (CSF #8) and “Reporting line to the CEO” (CSF #9). CSFs 1, 2, and 3 were perceived as most important by the participating CIOs. The results may be of particular interest both to aspiring CIOs and equally their employing organizations, as they reflect what long-term CIOs value during their time in office.
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.
The average tenure of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) has increased over the past few years. Nevertheless, the average tenure of CIOs is shorter than that of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). While most studies on tenure and background are based on data from US IT executives, studies on German CIOs are missing. This study analyzes the tenure of German CIOs as a proxy for management effectiveness and how certain factors influence it. An original and unique dataset of 384 IT executives from German companies is examined. The data include the size and industry sector of the companies, educational and professional backgrounds of the CIOs, and the CIOs' reporting lines. Data were analyzed using the chi-square test and Fisher's exact test. The German CIOs had a median tenure of 4.0 years. However, if we examine executives who are currently in office and executives with a completed term of office separately , the median tenure differs. The results also show that German CIOs do not have shorter tenures than German CEOs. When compared with US CIOs, the results depend on the values selected for comparison. In addition, the analysis shows that neither the size and industry sector of the companies nor the educational and professional backgrounds of the CIOs and managers of the CIO reports have a statistically significant influence on the tenure of IT executives. The factors examined in this study can be considered as preconditions for the CIO position. In the future, factors that play a role during tenure should be examined.
Lean IT
(2023)
Companies have applied Lean Management and its methods in their production functions for several decades. They also increasingly use Lean Management to improve service delivery, for example, in their IT organizations, which is referred to as “Lean IT”. Lean IT finds widespread recognition in business practice, but corresponding academic research is still scarce. The paper at hand intends to shed light on the current perspectives of Lean IT from an academic point and a practitioner point of view. The paper applies an innovative quantitative approach of literature analysis using semantic entity annotator and a keyword analysis to systematically identify and compare topics academics and practitioners deem relevant in context of Lean IT. We analyze practitioner media and scholarly articles published from January 2014 to June 2019. The analysis shows that research does not seem to adequately address the topics that are highly relevant for practitioners when it comes to Lean IT, e.g., issues pertinent to Automation, DevOps, role of the CIO, IT Service Management or Scrum in context of Lean IT are under-researched. Our analysis further shows that interest in Lean IT as a field is rising in both groups. Our study can help to guide further research activities.
Die vorliegende Studie untersucht Schlüsselfaktoren erfolgrei-
cher CIOs in deutschen Großunternehmen. Mit einer mittleren Verweildauer (Median) von 4,0 Jahren weisen deutsche CIOs, die mit 43 % noch überwiegend an den CFO berichten, im Vergleich zu anderen C-Level-Positionen eine deutlich kürzere Verweildauer im Amt auf. Die Ergebnisse aus 60 Interviews mit erfolgreichen deutschsprachigen CIOs, die primär über eine überdurchschnittlich lange Verweildauer verfügen, lassen verschiedene Schlüsselfaktoren für den Erfolg erkennen: Grundvoraussetzung ist stets die Gewährleistung eines sicheren und effizienten IT-Betriebs. Über effektive und innovative Change-Projekte machen die interviewten CIOs den IT-Mehrwert transparent und agieren als Brückenbauer zwischen IT und Fachbereichen. Dadurch wirken sie positiv auf die Firmenkultur ein und etablieren die IT nachhaltig in den Fachbereichen als Erfolgsfaktor. Erfolgreiche CIOs selbst sind keine „Techies“, sondern zeichnen sich durch hohe Führungskompetenz und ein hohes Geschäftsverständnis, gepaart mit visionärem Denken aus. Dadurch gelingt es ihnen, die IT zukunftsorientiert auszurichten und Anforderungen und Potenziale für und aus den Fachbereichen frühzeitig zu antizipieren. Die zukünftige Entwicklung der CIO-Organisation und der Paradigmen in der IT wird durch die Studienteilnehmer hingegen teilweise kontrovers diskutiert – so gibt es beispielsweise bei der Beurteilung der Sinnhaftigkeit und Relevanz der CDO-Position noch kein einheitliches Meinungsbild.
