Intuition, trust, and why depth still wins

There’s a lot of noise in the media right now. AI-generated everything. Endless takes. Faster cycles. Shorter attention spans. But Johanna Heise isn’t chasing any of that.

As a fourth-generation leader at heise, one of Germany’s most established media companies, she’s focused on something far less flashy and far more difficult to build: trust. Trust in people. Trust in brands. Trust in doing things properly, even when the environment is shifting under your feet.

Read on to discover how she is navigating change and building trust at one of Germany’s most respected IT and technology brands.

About Johanna Heise

Johanna Heise is Head of Brand & Culture at heise group, where she is responsible for shaping the company’s brand identity, employer branding, and cultural strategy across its diverse media and technology portfolio. A fourth-generation member of the Heise family, she plays a key role in carrying forward the legacy of one of Germany’s most influential family-owned media companies while actively driving its modernization.

She is also CEO of heise ventures and a managing director of heise academy. Before joining heise, Johanna gained professional experience in consulting with KPMG and Simon-Kucher, and she holds a Bachelor’s degree from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management and a master’s in management from ESCP Business School with focuses on family business and international management. Her work has earned her recognition, including being named to Capital magazine’s “Top 40 under 40” list of emerging German leaders.

About heise

Founded in 1949 as a publishing house and based in Hanover, Lower Saxony, heise has transformed itself into a diversified media group with 23 locations. The family-owned company structures its business into the four divisions heise connect, heise content, heise compare and heise commerce. heise connect offers a variety of marketing offerings such as heise regioconcept, which provides comprehensive local marketing tools ranging from online marketing solutions to listings in well-known directories such as Das Örtliche, Gelbe Seiten, and Das Telefonbuch to small and medium-sized businesses.

heise content counts renowned computer magazine c’t and heise online among its publications, both leading German-language media for IT news aimed at technology enthusiasts. IT professionals can continuously expand their expertise through heise academy’s online training offerings, while knowledge sharing is at the heart of the event formats, which range from secIT to the Maker Faire. In addition, price comparison portals such as geizhals.de and guenstiger.de, as well as Mindfactory, an online retailer for technology enthusiasts, are also part of the product range. Starting with the 2024/2025 season, heise is engaging in football and is the main partner of Hannover 96.

Fourth generation leader

Reflecting on her journey at heise since 2023, she says, initially, it was her job to think about what unites this company and what the values are. “Working closely alongside my father, Ansgar Heise, I applied what I’d learned from my business studies at that time and enjoyed doing it.

“Then I started to do this full-time,” she explains, “and I became the Head of Brand and Culture. Currently, I am thinking a lot about how we can make our brands and especially with the brand heise, more visible, and more popular in general.”

“I feel especially in times of AI, brand becomes more and more important. Brand becomes somehow a sign for trust, for responsibility.”

Tradition as permission to change

Founded in 1949 by Johanna’s great-great-grandfather Heinz, heise has weathered far more than the current AI wave.

For Johanna, legacy isn’t about preserving what once worked. It’s about having the confidence to evolve.

“Our company has navigated through so many crises,” she explains. “There has always been so much going on externally. Especially in Germany. We united as one country, for example. Digitalization came up. Now AI is coming. And one of the values of our company is future orientation which we balance with tradition. At heise, tradition is not seen as an obstacle to change but the exact opposite.”

The fact that the media company heise has already navigated political shifts, digitalisation, and repeated reinventions of its business model gives her faith for the future. That history has shaped a culture where change is embraced rather than feared.

Her own path into the business reflects that belief. Before stepping into leadership, she deliberately moved through internships, consulting, startups, and corporates, building perspective rather than specialising too early.

When she joined heise, she didn’t arrive in a senior role. She started with administrative work, gradually moving into employer branding and talent strategy. That’s where a deeper structural issue became visible.

“The company until that point was organized in different pillars, and those pillars didn’t have any connection. It was my job to think about what unites this company and what our values are.”

When culture becomes visible

Much of Johanna’s work has focused on alignment – not as a slogan, but as something people actually experience. Inside heise, that shift didn’t first appear in strategy decks or internal announcements. It showed up in behavior.

For years, teams identified primarily with their individual brands, each with its own history, success, and internal pride. Over time, something changed. A shared identity began to emerge across the organisation, which was subtle but telling.

At heise, the culture didn’t change because it was mandated. It changed because people began to see themselves as part of a larger whole.

“In the past, most people who worked at our headquarters wore their own merch. ’c’t’ had their T-shirts, other teams had their own branding. Now, what you see when you look around here is that a lot of people are wearing their heise hoodie. It’s a sign that they feel connected.”

Investing to stay close to what’s next

Two years ago, Johanna co-founded heise ventures. The motivation wasn’t just financial return. It was about proximity – staying close to where ideas are forming, where new tools are being built, and where different ways of working are emerging.

Her interest in startups had long been there, not because she wanted to found one herself, but because of the energy and possibility they represent. Venture investing offered a way to stay connected to that ecosystem while keeping one foot firmly inside a long-established organisation.

“We try to figure out ways to invest money, but also to work out how we can translate the knowledge that we receive through the startups and through the community, into heise itself.” For this reason, heise ventures remains intentionally lean. There are no layers between decision-making and execution. The goal isn’t to influence from afar, but to learn through involvement.

In some cases, that translation happens quickly. One of heise ventures’ portfolio company’s AI solution is already being used inside heise, closing the loop between investment and application.

“We are really hands-on. It’s just Andy Lenz and I. We are quite pragmatic in everything that we do. We also want to become customers of different startups so that we have direct translation within our company.”

Why numbers never tell the full story

Johanna is clear-eyed about data. It matters – but it has limits. Early-stage investing, in particular, is built on projections rather than certainty. What looks convincing on paper can fall apart quickly if the people behind it can’t execute.

That’s why she places so much weight on human dynamics. How it feels to work with someone. Whether the trust is there. Whether collaboration feels energising or draining.

“When you look at the numbers, most of them are projected numbers. You don’t have any proof that things will go exactly as planned. For me, it’s really important that we invest in people where we trust that they can be very successful. And in people with whom we feel good when we call them,” she explains. For her, relationships shape outcomes.

“There are people who you don’t want to call them because you don’t feel very good when you do. If we work well together, then we’re probably going to be successful together.”

AI changes the tools, not the responsibility

AI is already part of daily work at heise, but Johanna draws a clear line between efficiency and responsibility. Editorial credibility remains non-negotiable. AI can support processes, but it cannot replace judgment, authorship, or accountability.

The threat landscape is real. Search behavior is changing. Discovery is shifting. Large language models increasingly sit between publishers and audiences. But her response isn’t to chase speed or scale.

When reflecting on AI’s role in the editorial side of the business, Johanna says, “for us, it’s really important that we only write articles that have been thoroughly researched and that we write content based on our own ideas. We see AI as a supportive tool so that we can really focus on the content.”

“When you type something into Google, you are directed to the Google overview. Or you don’t Google at all, you look it up in a language model. Of course, that’s a threat. We need to focus on content. Not just to publish the news, but to write the whole story and go really deep so we can add value.”

Despite the pace of change, Johanna isn’t rattled. heise has lived through multiple waves of disruption before, and that institutional memory matters.

“We were always able to change. To change our products, to change our business model, and to diversify if needed. Knowing that you were able to do this in the past gives you a lot of confidence. You can learn from those events.”

Quick-fire round

A tool you can’t live without?

“Outlook. Not glamorous, but essential. It’s where my days are structured, decisions are tracked, and complexity is kept manageable across multiple roles and responsibilities.”

How do you recharge?

“Going running and visiting the spa. Time away from screens and schedules matters. Running brings me clarity; spa time is about slowing down completely and creating space to reset.”

Advice that stuck:

“Listen to your gut feeling. It took time to understand what that really meant in practice, but learning to trust instinct alongside data has become central to how I lead, invest, and make long-term decisions.”

heise ventures is looking to invest. If you have a great business idea that fits, Johanna encourages you to get in touch. You can get in touch with her via her LinkedIn.