In this paper, the authors propose that firms signal their intention to get serious about managing their information technology (IT) capability by announcing that they have created and filed a new chief information officer (CIO) position. These announcements, one might argue, let shareholders know that the firm intends to take its IT capabilities up a notch; for example, to improve the firm's ability to deliver high quality, low cost IT services, to manage relationships among providers and consumers of technology, to align business and technology strategies and tactics, or to do all of these things. Accordingly shareholders should put a higher value on the firm's common stock. We hope you will not miss the bottom line of the paper: it does not seem seem to make a difference whether the new CIO is an internal or external hire. What matters is that the firm has signaled an intention to invest in its capability to manage and deploy IT.