Were we wrong?

One of the E3 editorial team’s tasks is to analyze, summarize, and distill facts. We don’t make anything up, and we don’t manipulate anything! If financial analysts and investors send the SAP stock price plummeting, the E3 editorial team bears no responsibility. We are not responsible for the fact that, on the one hand, SAP CEO Christian Klein is not offering his existing customers a cloud exit strategy and, on the other hand, the EU is requiring such an exit in the EU Data Act. And E3 Magazine doesn’t seem to be liable for the U.S. government’s ban on selected LLMs from Anthropic—and the resulting questioning of SAP’s AI strategy—does it? We analyze the statements and insights from SAP user groups, primarily DSAG and ASUG. We read international business news and speak with numerous analysts: The results can be found in E3 Magazine, on the multilingual website (German, English, Spanish, and French), in the multilingual podcasts covering the respective E3 cover stories, and in the numerous E3 newsletters.

Were we wrong? Did we make mistakes in analyzing and interpreting the facts? I don’t think so—at least, no one on either side has asked for a correction or clarification. „What goes around comes around“ precisely captures the concept of interpersonal resonance: The way you treat others is usually how they’ll treat you in return. It’s a call for mindfulness, since kindness often elicits a positive response. Admittedly, SAP’s response to E3 has been virtually nonexistent, but despite personal contact with SAP’s press spokesperson, there have never been any complaints, criticism, or rebukes regarding our reporting.

This raises the crucial question: What is SAP’s current situation? Nerves are on edge, “Code Red” is still in effect, and the SAP CEO remains in office due to a weak supervisory board. The SAP community knows from past experience that SAP co-founder and longtime Supervisory Board Chairman Professor Hasso Plattner became very gruff whenever the stock price plummeted: Hasso Plattner’s latest victim was SAP CFO Luka Mucic. Plattner then left the supervisory board, leaving SAP CEO Christian Klein with a free hand and virtually no oversight.

Now, something very interesting has happened at SAP—a phenomenon familiar from the business world: Whenever there are serious problems in the company’s operations, a member of the supervisory board steps in to assist the executive board. This process is largely based on the compliance rules for German corporations. Prof. Hasso Plattner has repeatedly complained that, as chairman of the supervisory board, he is not allowed to assist with or participate in operational matters, as a U.S. chairman, for example, is permitted to do. But German laws are what they are: As a result, a very experienced member of the supervisory board has stepped in as a “firefighter” at SAP in recent weeks and has since left the supervisory board. The crisis, which Executive Board members Christian Klein and Thomas Saueressig have been unable to manage, is now to be defused with the support of the former Supervisory Board member. I hope it works out and that I’m not mistaken! (pmf)