The successor to Christian Klein

A good indicator of power structures at SAP is the annual keynote speech at the DSAG annual congress: unsurprisingly, SAP board member Thomas Saueressig will be speaking in Leipzig this year! Will the new SAP CEO announce himself in Leipzig?

Every era has its own CEO at SAP: Professor Henning Kagermann had a particularly heavy burden. He was the first CEO who did not come from the circle of SAP founders. He was a mediator, visionary and pragmatist. With this blend, he successfully led the global ERP market leader through many challenges and crises. However, the transition to a worthy successor was already bumpy and Professor Hasso Plattner struggled to tame the diverging forces.

Chief Technology Officer Shai Agassi had great ambitions to succeed Henning Kagermann. Hasso Plattner made a Solomonic decision and formed the first SAP dual leadership consisting of Henning Kagermann and Léo Apotheker, who became CEO shortly after Shai Agassi's departure. Professor Kagermann went to Berlin, where he advised Angela Merkel on electromobility, among other things.

The following years saw a high turnover on the SAP Executive Board, but the principle that every era has its own specific CEO remained in place. After Léo Apotheker, there was the dual leadership of Jim Hagemann Snabe and Bill McDermott, but this developed in a similar way to the first dual leadership. Jim Hagemann Snabe soon left the SAP Executive Board and became, among other things, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Siemens in Munich. Bill McDermott continued on his own and led the global ERP market leader into the cloud age.

After Bill McDermott, SAP once again had a dual leadership consisting of Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein. However, co-CEO Klein had the better cards and the shorter path to Professor Hasso Plattner, so Jennifer Morgan soon had to leave and Christian Klein took over the helm alone. He had a lot of work ahead of him. Bill McDermott's achievements and acquisitions had to be consolidated. Klein cleaned up the mess and created stringent structures. He is now successfully managing the SAP legacy together with CFO Dominik Asam. The existing resources and potential are being used wisely and the SAP share price has risen to over 200 euros.

CEO Christian Klein also secured his position through clever personnel decisions - the Walldorf Boys Club was formed, consisting of the Management Board members Christian Klein, Jürgen Müller and Thomas Saueressig.

Jürgen Müller had a special position in this triumvirate. He completed his doctorate at the Hasso Plattner Institute at the University of Potsdam and joined the Executive Board with the support of Hasso Plattner, Chairman of the SAP Supervisory Board. So while Christian Klein is the brainchild of former SAP Executive Board member and now Supervisory Board member Gerd Oswald - Klein was an assistant to Oswald for many years - Müller is the brainchild of Hasso Plattner.

At the beginning of his career on the SAP Executive Board, Christian Klein was a good strategist. He read the mood and reactions of the then chairman of the SAP Supervisory Board, Professor Hasso Plattner. Klein stepped forward, schemed against his co-CEO Jennifer Morgan, and after a few months of dual leadership, became the sole head of SAP.

With Jürgen Müller, Christian Klein was not only able to position a harmless and hardly experienced board colleague, but also to do Professor Hasso Plattner a favor.

Klein also had a lucky hand with his fellow board member Thomas Saueressig, who initially appeared pale and quiet. However, Saueressig very quickly developed his management skills. He triumphed at the World Economic Forum in Davos and was able to conquer more and more strategic fields at SAP. Currently, Thomas Saueressig is considered the most important and strategically best-positioned member of the SAP Executive Board.

Following the surprising departure of Chief Technology Officer Jürgen Müller, the current SAP Executive Board has a new boys' club: Christian Klein, Thomas Saueressig and Chief Financial Officer Dominik Asam. They all work well together and have found a solid working agreement.

CEO Christian Klein and CFO Dominik Asam manage the ERP group and maintain the share price, while Thomas Saueressig takes care of the strategic direction. It therefore seems obvious that Thomas Saueressig will soon take over the helm of SAP from Christian Klein following the departure of Jürgen Müller.