The store is up and running after all!

Even though he mainly focuses on the world outside SAP, some of his answers are shockingly self-reflective. He was asked by Spiegel editors Michaela Schießl and Markus Brauck whether Germany is a digitally developing country?

Klein's answer begins with "Germany's problem is:" - but members of the SAP community could also interpret the rest of the answer as Klein's self-criticism of home-grown problems at SAP headquarters in Walldorf:

"We are too good to reinvent ourselves. Many [...] are growing and are successful - and don't see why they should change. The business is still running."

Under former SAP CEO Bill McDermott, the unspoken maxim was: The business is running! Now the new SAP co-CEOs Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein have indicated that they are paying less attention to their own business and its share price and more to the needs of their existing customers.

"We made a lot of acquisitions and took too long to harmonize the software with each other"

Klein says elsewhere in the Spiegel interview. The SAP expert thinks to himself, I can hear the message, but I don't believe it: last year there was a widespread turnover of top executives at SAP.

This loss of manpower and expertise cannot be compensated for at the turn of the year. In 2020, we will see an SAP that will be very preoccupied with itself in order to deliver on all the promises made by Jennifer Morgen and Christian Klein.

Theoretically, it can go well, but in practice there is a lack of resources everywhere at SAP. Existing customers and partners will have to prepare for further disruptions, as everything will be scrutinized again from now on - including the 2025 deadline, which seems increasingly unlikely, doesn't it? The store is still running!