The woes of the young CIO

The technicians on the SAP Executive Board have always had a hard time. They were either hated or loved. Either way, there was a lot of drama and emotion surrounding the Chief Technology Officer. Until the very end, their role meandered between CIO and CTO.

One of the first victims was Chief Technology Officer Peter Zencke. He destroyed a billion euro development budget with the programming of Business ByDesign. At that time, the markets for hosting, software-as-a-service and cloud computing were developing. The enthusiasm was there, but the experience was lacking.

Peter Zencke was on his own. SAP board member Gerd Oswald came to his aid too late, but by then the child had already fallen into the well. Hasso Plattner was not happy about the disaster and put the blame solely on Peter Zencke, who retired and found no words of consolation to say goodbye.

The idea of Business ByDesign was right, but the market and the technology were not developed far enough. There was a lack of performance and acceptance. BuByDe still exists, even though many people at SAP would like to discontinue the program.

The appointment of the technicians for the SAP Executive Board continued on an emotional note. With Shai Agassi, Hasso Plattner not only brought in a new Chief Technology Officer, but also a new product: SAP Business One. Based on a Microsoft SQL database (Hana was later added as an option), B1 was to become a phalanx against many smaller but successful ERP providers.

Business One is still successful, even if further development is bumpy and faltering. Shai Agassi has not been on the SAP Executive Board for a long time. He wanted to succeed Henning Kagermann, but Hasso Plattner preferred a dual leadership consisting of Henning Kagermann and Léo Apotheker (see illustration). Léo Apotheker only remained CEO for a short time and was succeeded by a new dual leadership: Jim Hagemann Snabe and Bill McDermott.

As the new Chief Technology Officer with CIO and CTO responsibilities, Hasso Plattner conjured Stanford graduate Vishal Sikka with a doctorate in mathematics out of a hat. Under Vishal Sikka's leadership, the Hana database was created together with colleagues from the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam. When Vishal Sikka had other plans for Hana than Hasso Plattner, he too had to leave.

Vishal Sikka was succeeded by Bernd Leukert, who in turn did not please Bill McDermott. Bernd Leukert is currently Chief Technology Officer at Deutsche Bank and was succeeded by another Hasso Plattner protégé: Jürgen Müller, who, like Vishal Sikka, holds a doctorate, which he earned at HPI in Potsdam.

Jürgen Müller appears to have breached compliance at an internal SAP event, with the result that he has now also disappeared from the SAP Executive Board. Successor still unknown. It is highly likely that the woes of SAP's Chief Technology Officers will continue.