A little tale of fashion or a lack thereof

I don’t like wearing a suit and I almost never wear a tie. Some people look good dressed to the nines, I, however, do not. Some look like James Bond. I look more Austin Powers. Many people tell me that when they dress up, they feel confident and powerful. I feel exactly the opposite.

There was an article once that talked about how Mark Zuckerberg was a genius because he had a limited wardrobe. Apparently, this is a planned strategy to avoid decision fatigue and boost productivity. If this is true, then I too am a genius: My wardrobe strategy is whichever t-shirt is on top of the pile alongside the first pair of jeans that I find. If the jeans are on the floor and already have a belt in them, then that is a bonus.

Today I am wearing a “Mother Love Bone” t-shirt that I bought in the late 1980s and a pair of no-label jeans that my daughter finds as mortifying as my ability to sing along word perfectly to Wham Rap! (“I’m more of a pub man than a club man and I’m certainly not a white cool cat with a trilby hat.”)

An executive once told me, just as I was about to present to the company’s CEO to “not be yourself. He (the CEO) doesn’t like that”. I was dressed up in a suit, nervous about presenting our ERP strategy to the board and this comment crushed me. The presentation was a disaster, but it was a tipping point in my career. I decided instead to follow Audioslave’s advice and be myself.

In my humble opinion I’m pretty darn good at what I do (ok, maybe not so humble). I work hard and I am, I hope, a trusted colleague. I’m the same person in my ‘pre-cursor to Pearl Jam’ band t-shirt as I am in a business suit. I’m just more comfortable in the former.

Last night I signed up to a clothing service. This service sends you ‘outfits’ that they feel you may like, and you pay for the ones you decide to keep. There is an option to stick with your style, be a bit adventurous or ‘surprise me’. I decided to take the middle path. That said, when I went through the thumbs-up, thumbs-down review of clothes it turns out that jeans and a t-shirt might be the only clothes I actually like. My wife isn’t too hopeful.

What tangential, tenuous link does this have to SAP and ERP? Actually, a pretty good one: As I mentioned in my last blog post, SAP in 2021 is probably not what you imagine. As a company we champion diversity in the broadest terms including diversity of background. See this wonderful post here from our CTO Juergen Mueller: Our strength IS our diversity. ?

From a technology perspective SAP is a chameleon, adapting and changing to meet the needs of its customers. For some customers we are the formal suit and tie and for others we are jeans and a t-shirt. However, inside we are always SAP, always authentic. We don’t dictate your technology strategy for you. We don’t force you to choose one ERP delivery path over another. We don’t tell you in condescending terms to “not be yourself.” For SAP, it is what is inside that counts. Our technology, our culture, and our people all there to enable you to be you. And if you need a little help and advice on how to do things a bit differently, how to move beyond your comfort zone at your own pace then, like my clothing style guru, we can help there too. Our RISE with SAP program is designed for exactly that. Transformation on your term and at your pace.

So next time you see me, if I’m wearing a trilby hat, you’ll know why.