My First 100 Days at SAP

Over the course of the last few months there have been two questions that I have been asked over and over again, both from folks within SAP and folks outside of SAP, so I thought I would take the opportunity to answer these questions more broadly by penning my first blog on LinkedIn.

The first question is, "Why SAP?". Which these days is followed by, "Now that you have been at SAP for a few months, what do you think?". They are very valid questions. I did spend a long time thinking about the first question last year and was able to reflect on the second question in more depth during the recent Mental Health Day that SAP so graciously and thoughtfully gives to all its employees worldwide, allowing us disconnect from work and recharge.

The main reason I joined SAP was because, as a company, I believe SAP is peerless in the industry. SAP runs not some, but most of the most mission critical business processes of most of the largest customers in the world, across many different industries. The breadth AND depth that our applications offer is really unparalleled.

Over the last couple of years, it was the pandemic that created a lot of challenges for our customers, and this year it’s the war in Europe, that besides creating an unnecessary humanitarian crisis and the loss of innocent lives, is playing havoc on supply chains across industries. Given the depth of capabilities we have - not just in SAP S/4HANA, but in our digital supply chain & intelligent spend solutions, further amplified by SAP Business Network, we have perhaps the only end to end set of applications that can help customers get transparency and insights into their supply chains and follow that up with action and collaboration that creates the resiliency that’s so desperately needed across critical industries. All of it available as composable SaaS (software as a service) solutions that allow customers to focus on time to value as opposed to stitching together platform Lego blocks to build and integrate their own solutions.

To be able to really help our customers achieve resiliency through these tough times was attractive when I was making the decision to join SAP, and it is now even more exciting after having gone through some very deep and immersive reviews of our product portfolio and the associated roadmap.

That said, I will assess my first 100 days through the following three lenses:

?Intelligent Spend & Business Network Product Portfolio

Coming in, I knew that the solutions in this portfolio were strong and mature products. What I didn’t know was that we are not just #1 in literally all of the products in this portfolio (Procurement, External Workforce and Travel & Expense), but we are #1 in some cases by a large margin, AND we continue to grow at or above the growth rate of the market. That’s an enviable position to be in on any given day, but then looking at the innovation that our teams are working on for the next 12-18 months, I am confident that the gap between us and the #2 in each of these categories will continue to grow.

The timing is also energizing to be running a portfolio like this. Spend management has historically been a necessary function that organizations performed with as little forethought and energy as possible. But today, organizations are realizing that their spend is one of the most effective strategic levers they have to (1) drive supply chain resiliency through supply assurance and cross-organizational collaboration via SAP Business Network, and (2) function as a lever to influence their sustainability and broader ESG (environmental, social, and governance) commitments by knowing and adjusting spend towards trading partners and products with lower emissions footprints and better human rights records.

No other company can claim to have products this deep in capability, that cover the full spectrum of spend from direct, indirect, services, external workforce, and travel and expense.

People & Culture

This was a very important factor for me to understand before joining. Those who know me understand how much I appreciated the culture at Microsoft, particularly under Satya Nadella, where having a growth mindset was the norm and learning it all versus knowing it all was the way to behave. But I have to say I find the SAP culture really refreshing and energizing. SAP thinks of its employees as one big family, which I know is seen as a negative by some Silicon Valley firms. But for me, the experience to date has been amazing, and the benefits ? obvious. The level of collaboration, trust, and care that it fosters is something I haven’t experienced before.

In addition to this warm culture, the deep domain expertise and passion surrounding the products is something that’s truly priceless here at SAP. I couldn’t imagine anything better than a team that’s really caring, committed, and passionate about our products, our customers, and SAP.

?Customers & Partners

I have always loved engaging with customers and partners directly, and I continue to do that at SAP. A couple of weeks ago, I attended and presented at our largest event – SAP Sapphire, where I also got an opportunity to meet with many of our customers ? some of the largest and most marquee brands across many industries.

One phrase I had heard before I joined was, “our customers are rooting for SAP to win.” The truth of that statement is already evident to me after just four months here. There is a level of credibility and trust our customers have with us, as their solution provider for their most complex, most critical business processes. They want us to win, they want us to innovate, and they want us to be a strategic partner in their success. We take that trust very seriously and are focused on driving unique and differentiated value for our customers through our products and solutions.

It’s been great to connect with our customers and partners, and I look forward to staying close to their feedback and challenges to help guide and prioritize where we invest and innovate.

Closing

As with any company, any product, and any culture, we are not without things we need to improve on. The good thing is, we know what mountains we need to climb, and we know how to get to the top. It’s just a matter of execution. Under the leadership of Christian Klein, Thomas Saueressig, and the SAP Board, the company has made it a priority to make our products even better and make SAP an even more attractive place to be for our current and future colleagues, and generations to come. This will directly lead to us making our customers even more successful – as we continue to help the world run better.