Game Of Chairs

Bob Evans gives us his best Lord Varys and dishes on palace intrigue for the upcoming SAP Supervisory Board chair shuffle. Here's the blow-by-blow:

• February 2023: SAP announces Hasso Plattner will be done on the board on May 15, 2024.?
• February 2023: SAP chooses ex-Deloitte CEO Dr. Punit Renjen as successor.?
• A year passes. Internal strife. The metaphorical body count rises, as Renjen and Plattner struggle to chart the course of SAP's very soul in the century ahead. OR: maybe normal stuff happens that is not really newsworthy??
• February 2024: A press release noting that Renjen and SAP have a "difference of perspective" on the role of the chair.?
• February 2024: Former Nokia president Pekka Ala-Pietil? is put forward as nominee for chair upon Plattner's abdication in May 2024.?

I don't know the truth behind closed doors, but Bob's take has a lot of ring-of-truth to it: Hasso "was always The Man, the ultimate visionary and decision-maker". If, as Bob speculates, Renjen was plotting to exercise similar control and direction-setting power, well…I don't know how you try to outdo a founder, inventor, and all-around dynamo like freaking Hasso Himself.?

But if Bob's right, I see why someone would want similar direction-setting power. 52 years at the center of a giant means that Hasso's influence touches every single facet of SAP. A company absolutely needs that unifying force. I can understand Renjen’s possible push for power like that - he may have thought that’s exactly what SAP needs with Hasso's departure.?

In every sense but the biological, Hasso's the heart. After May of this year, we'll see how powerful the new heart is. PM

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