Misunderstandings - Personnel Changes on the SAP Executive Board

About a year ago, Björn Goerke opened the season of prominent SAP departures. He left SAP unexpectedly and kept his status a secret for almost half a year. Then on April 4, his Twitter account posted the news:

"So it is official, after 30 amazing years - I decided to leave SAP. It has been a blast."

Then, in the first half of the year, the two SAP Executive Board members Bernd Leukert and Rob Enslin left the company. In both cases, the news was very thin and not very meaningful. The organizational changes at SAP, however, were enormous. Which may have been a cause of many misunderstandings.

Michael Kleinemeier, who had almost completely handed over his SAP board position to Bernd Leukert, has now had to extend his SAP commitment by one year at the request of the Supervisory Board. The plan was for Kleinemeier to retire at the end of this year.

Rob Enslin also urgently needed a replacement for the board department, because cloud computing could not be left without a boss. Now, of course, Björn Goerke would have been optimal, because hardly anyone understood cloud computing as well as he did. The choice fell on SAP board member Jennifer Morgan, who, as a very successful sales manager, was able to oversee the complexity of the cloud.

On April 10 of this year, then-SAP CEO McDermott told the Frankfurter Allgemeine in an interview:

"There are and have been no problems on the Board of Management. [...] Our Supervisory Board Chairman Hasso Plattner and I are completely on the same page.

When two board members who have worked together for SAP for fifty years plan something new after a long time, that is completely normal. With Jürgen Müller and Christian Klein, we have outstanding young people on the Executive Board. SAP is stronger than ever before."

Then, in the summer, one of the most important Hana executives left the company: Franz Färber said he wanted to take some time off. He was instrumental in bringing the Hana database to market and worked intensively with Björn Goerke and Bernd Leukert.

Then on Friday, Oct. 11, the biggest misunderstanding in this chain of unfortunate personnel decisions: Bill McDermott is replaced by a new SAP dual leadership consisting of Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein.

Actually, McDermott wanted to stay with SAP for a while, but Hasso Plattner decided very quickly and pragmatically: If you're not for SAP, then you're against SAP. McDermott is allowed to remain on the SAP Executive Board as a "consultant" until the end of the year.

Hasso Plattner said:

"Congratulations to Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein [...] Already a year ago, Bill McDermott and I decided to expand the responsibilities of both of them, thus thoroughly preparing them for a leadership role at the top of the company."

A year ago, Plattner and McDermott already knew that Rob Enslin was going to Google and Bernd Leukert to Deutsche Bank as Chief Technology Officer? Is that why Jürgen Müller inherited Leukert's position as SAP's Chief Technology Officer a year ago? All just misunderstandings!