Plattner, Oswald, Klein

It is amazing to me how SAP is seen and judged from the outside. I therefore have a lot of hope and trust in the new Executive Board member Julia White. She comes from Microsoft and is supposed to be responsible for marketing and communications. I hope that Ms. White will reinvent the storytelling for SAP and re-sharpen the image of the Group in the public perception.

Capital columnist Bernd Ziesemer wrote in mid-May after the SAP AGM: "The self-demolition of the SAP monument. Germany's only global software company is entering a difficult phase. SAP's supervisory board, headed by Hasso Plattner, is not prepared for it."

Perhaps Ziesemer had to quickly conjure up an SAP text for Capital because the competition - Handelsblatt and Manager Magazin - almost always deliver quite outstanding SAP analyses. Eva Müller, the MM editor whom I hold in particularly high esteem, would never have written a similarly stupid text. I say that the critical phase of SAP and the entire IT market is incommensurable with the personnel development of the group.

The potential transition from on-prem to cloud is more than a digital transformation. The entire SAP community is in a difficult phase here in terms of business management, organization, technology and licensing law. Mastering this media disruption requires a great deal of knowledge, foresight and courage. Our DSAG was absolutely right to give the upcoming annual congress the meaningful title "Courage and Intelligence".

In terms of personnel, SAP is better positioned than under Christian Klein's predecessor. The then SAP CEO Bill McDermott ruled like a sun king. Important board members, such as Bernd Leukert and Rob Enslin, left Walldorf. There were also two painful departures under Christian Klein: first his co-chief executive Jennifer Morgan and then board member Adaire Fox-Martin. Of course, one could also discuss the appointment of the very young SAP Executive Board members Jürgen Müller and Thomas Saueressig, because there were numerous, perhaps better candidates for these positions at the time.

In his analysis, Capital columnist Bernd Ziesemer focuses on Professor Hasso Plattner and his desire to still be allowed to stand by his SAP in the coming critical years. In his focus on Plattner, he overlooks the boundary conditions.

Plattner is not alone, but at the top of a well thought-out and finely balanced hierarchy. The construct of SAP's Supervisory Board and Executive Board is built on very stable foundations and seems to be able to cope with the critical phase ahead.

Ziesemer writes: "The 77-year-old refuses to plan his successor at an early stage.." But the die is cast. Hasso Plattner has settled it. The man who coordinated the training of current SAP CEO Christian Klein for long stretches and who still provides him with plenty of advice and support has also been named Plattner's successor: Gerd Oswald.

Oswald has been a member of SAP's Executive Board for many years and has experienced almost all the ups and downs of the global ERP company. For several years, Oswald has sat on the Supervisory Board alongside Hasso Plattner and still has an office in Walldorf right next to the board members. Gerd Oswald is also the most important liaison to Dietmar Hopp.

Both like to meet at the soccer stadium. Gerd Oswald's pleasant conversational tone and brilliant analytical thinking open all doors for him. Some intimate connoisseurs of Walldorf conditions also claim that without Gerd Oswald, there would be no Christian Klein.

I don't have a crystal ball either, and there is no guarantee of SAP's current plans, but to write that SAP is not prepared is wrong. There are numerous personalities inside and outside the Supervisory Board who would be ideally suited to the challenges of a chairman.

Naturally, none of them has the visionary talent of Hasso Plattner, but they certainly have other qualities that could become just as important for SAP. Should it really become apparent that Gerd Oswald will not take over from Hasso Plattner, I will be very happy to do further name-dropping here.