Repair service behavior

SAP has become holey and flawed over time. Many disruptive cloud attempts have created a heterogeneous company. SAP CEO Christian Klein is now trying to fix the construction sites that have arisen, plug the holes and develop a more advanced strategy.

Currently, however, the SAP CEO is trying to prevent the group from collapsing under the weight of cloud computing. There have been successes. The dam is holding. Cloud computing could become not only an operational success, but also a financial one. Profits are still lacking, but financial analysts have confidence and the share price is rising.

In his bona fide effort to plug all the leaks from the dam, however, Christian Klein loses his strategic vision. He is a prisoner of his operational challenges. SAP would not survive a breach of the dam. The wall must hold.

Christian Klein has an experienced comrade-in-arms on the board in CFO Dominik Asam. The other board members are no less talented, but they lack experience and commitment. Interesting ideas can be seen in the technology and applications, but there is a lack of feeling for SAP's existing customers and the history of the ERP world market leader for a stringent roadmap. Marketing activities cannot be identified at SAP at the moment.

The human resources department is in shambles: The responsible member of the Executive Board is leaving the Group at the end of the year, and in a table for favorite employers of young engineers in Germany, Manager Magazin lists SAP as the 39th employer, down from 37th last year. This puts SAP far behind Deutsche Bahn and the Bundeswehr. Accordingly, there is a lot to be fixed at SAP. What is currently missing is an analysis of why the dam is leaking and why the dam wall is now cracking. In times of greatest need, action must be taken quickly. If danger is imminent, help must be provided, action must be taken, and repairs must be made. Christian Klein does an excellent job in this respect. He keeps an eye on the critical construction sites and, based on his experience, knows how to avert the disasters.

But this successful repair service behavior will not be enough. The SAP community demands more. The SAP community needs a strategic perspective, an ERP roadmap, not an S/4 maintenance promise. Existing customers need the trust and assurance that SAP is actively working on the future.