Thanks for the amazing journey, SAP!

I still remember my first day at SAP like it was yesterday – entering the building, waiting to be picked up in the lobby by my mentor, and above all, feeling so excited to join one of the greatest software companies in the world.

In these first few months, I developed a deep appreciation for SAP’s culture. Even though I was new, the team showed nothing but encouragement and trust in me. There was never a “too young,” “too early,” or “too inexperienced” to be involved. There was only mentoring and confidence building.

I think the best example of this came when a few colleagues and I were asked to explore geo spatial data processing for SAP HANA. From surveying customers and seeking out partners to engaging with researchers, and ultimately implementing a new column store geo spatial processing engine and launching it in the market, we had our colleagues’ full support at every step of the way to make this project a success for SAP and our customers. 

For me personally, the experience highlighted the profound importance and impact of trust, collaboration, and empowerment. I know that everyone working on the project took away something truly fundamental from this time. It is one of the wonderful values that SAP carries in its DNA.

It wasn’t long after that that a new opportunity at SAP opened up for me working on SAP’s analytics portfolio. I can still vividly remember the first discussions we had and how they inspired us to rethink our strategy. This change also had a long-lasting impact on my life as a whole. It took me to Vancouver, Canada, where my wife and I got married and our first daughter was born. It’s a period in my life that I will always treasure.

In the new role, the team and I used one simple question to test all our ideas and guide our strategy: “How would this help our customers where they’re not already being helped today?” We challenged ourselves to evolve our thinking to focus only on what would actually create new value for our customers without replicating anything already in existence. Once we had fully internalized this question, it became much more than a litmus test. It became a source of creativity and new ideas, and ultimately inspired what went on to become SAP Analytics Cloud. 

It was the simple question of what will truly help our customers that drove our strategy and led to the combination of BI, predictive analytics, and planning to form SAP Analytics Cloud – enabling our customers to analyze the past, plan the future, and predict what is likely to happen, all in one experience. 

When my family and I moved back to Germany in late 2018, I had the privilege of being entrusted with the role of leading SAP’s database, data management, and analytics portfolio.

We applied the same innovative mindset that we had with SAP Analytics Cloud to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. Our vision was to combine modeled and SQL-driven data warehousing, and more importantly, provide a solution for the various lines of business, functions, and other external stakeholders of a company to share, access, and collaborate on data. 

Truly understanding and putting the customer first also lies at the heart of SAP HANA Cloud, enabling our customers to create a data fabric regardless of where the data resides. Throughout my time leading the SAP HANA & Analytics organization, I always came back to the question “How can we help our customers?” This is another value at the core of SAP that has also become an integral part of me.

Over the last decade, I’ve learned so much from so many talented and inspiring people. Leading is truly about serving. While it might seem like a simple recognition, its significance is rooted in how deeply its meaning is internalized and how much of it can be put into concrete action. There are countless crucial aspects to leading an organization – such as the importance of clearly defining and communicating its purpose, strategy, and priorities – but the most important one is to create an environment in which everyone can be at their personal best. Every effort we put into defining strategies or priorities also requires us to apply that same effort tenfold to ensuring everyone has the safety, support, procedures, tools, and time to successfully pursue these goals. 

The questions: “how will this help our customers?” and “how will this help the people working in this organization?” are guiding stars for me. I am so thankful to SAP for teaching me these values.

I am grateful for everything I have learned, proud of what I could contribute, and happy to call so many colleagues friends. It was an honor to work alongside and lead the amazing women and men of the SAP HANA & Analytics organization who focus every day on helping their customers with great minds and big hearts.

After 11 years, I’ve decided to leave SAP to pursue another career opportunity and start a new chapter for me and my family. I will be taking a little time off before starting into the new job, for now, let me say that I will always be a fan of this incredible company and the great people who work there.