Embrace 2.0

The big picture explains what's happening behind the curtain. Microsoft Germany CEO Sabine Bendiek is moving to SAP in Walldorf in the role of the new Chief Human Resources Officer - or so they say, officially. Naturally, the super-talented and top manager Sabine Bendiek is completely underemployed and overqualified in the role of SAP's Chief Human Resources Officer. She can do more! Accordingly, she will take on many more tasks for her CEO Christian Klein. And Klein needs Bendiek's knowledge and experience very badly.

The first task will be to fix Embrace: Strictly speaking, the cloud-hugging Embrace never really got to fly. The idea was good. The inability and jealousy greater. It was never clear whether SAP was now spreading its love equally among the three hyperscalers, Microsoft, AWS and Google, or whether there were secret side deals.

From the perspective of the SAP community, there was a very one-sided picture: SAP and Microsoft were the lovers par excellence, and AWS and Google were at best the bridesmaids. The fact is that Microsoft and SAP worked very closely together in the German-speaking region and successfully implemented a number of lighthouse projects and provided extensive information about them together with partners.

The bottom line is that the efforts do not seem to have paid off for SAP and Microsoft: Earlier this summer, there was already criticism in the partner community that the effort was too high and the end result too meager. According to SAP's and Microsoft's internal plans, too few existing SAP customers are still switching to Hana and S/4, and then subsequently to Microsoft's Azure cloud. "SAP to Azure" is a logical reason, but not a compelling one!

In Hollywood, there are sequels to films when they have been particularly successful. In IT, there are 2.0 products when the first attempt failed spectacularly. Many years ago, Professor Hasso Plattner and ex-SAP Chief Technology Officer Vishal Sikka announced that there would never be version numbers for the Hana database because Hana is subject to a continuous improvement process.

A few years later, to great surprise, the new SAP Chief Technology Officer Bernd Leukert presented Hana 2 at SAP TechEd in Barcelona. And perhaps the current SAP Chief Technology Officer Jürgen Müller will soon present Hana 3 (see interview in this issue).

Since the end of this summer, people in Walldorf have been working on Embrace 2.0 - it's a matter of saving what can be saved! And this is where, by a happy coincidence, Sabine Bendiek comes into play, who will be moving from the Microsoft side to the SAP side on the Executive Board in Walldorf at the beginning of next year. Theoretically, Bendiek could then discuss the new Embrace 2.0 agreement with herself, and she will have to do something similar for her new boss Christian Klein.

For SAP CEO Klein, this personnel decision is a unique stroke of luck. In the past, E-3 author "Noname" (see page 16) has repeatedly criticized the knowledge drain from Walldorf. For a long time, SAP was unable to retain the bright minds and hire new top managers. This losing streak now seems to have been broken with Sabine Bendiek. This brings knowledge and experience to the SAP Executive Board, which it urgently needs.

The commitment and the comprehensive and detailed knowledge of the board members Christian Klein, Jürgen Müller and Thomas Saueressig have never been criticized. But a comparison of the successful careers of the three existing SAP board members with the work stations of Sabine Bendiek shows everyone that the famous thinking outside the box is currently missing in Walldorf - but now appears to be secured by Bendiek: Before her time at Microsoft, Bendiek held various management positions, including Nixdorf, Siemens Nixdorf, McKinsey, Earlybird Venture Capital, Dell and EMC.

Bendiek is also a member of the Supervisory Board of Schaeffler. Jürgen Müller and Thomas Saueressig lack experience and foresight; this is not a criticism, but a fact if you compare their CVs!

Clearly, SAP is planning big things with Bendiek - not just fixing Embrace!

"In Sabine Bendiek, we have found an exceptional leader who can not only drive our ongoing transformation, but also has extensive operational experience." enthusiastically praises Professor Hasso Plattner, Chairman of the SAP Supervisory Board.

Bendiek is expected to take on the additional role of Chief Operating Officer in mid-2021, by which time Embrace 2.0 should already be in the bag. Her predecessor as SAP COO was Christian Klein and thus Hasso Plattner has created an excellent back-up and implemented a lot of competence into the SAP Executive Board.