It\u2019s a match made in heaven: SAP CEO Christian Klein is restructuring the Executive Board and has a veteran of SAP\u2019s success by his side to lend a helping hand. The focus is on finalizing an AI strategy for the global ERP market leader. Naturally, Christian Klein cannot tackle this technological disruption alone. A return to a dual leadership structure at SAP is the logical consequence, even if the new leader is to operate behind the scenes for the time being. The person responsible for the group\u2019s strategic direction is very well known to E3 Magazine; however, since he is to remain behind the scenes (for now), the editorial team respects his request for anonymity: Ultimately, this is not about names and individuals, but about another success for SAP that benefits the company itself, as well as SAP\u2019s existing customers and partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This has led to an interesting development at SAP, one that is familiar in principle from the business world: Whenever there are serious problems in the company\u2019s operational division, 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. Professor 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: Consequently, a very experienced member of the supervisory board has stepped in as a \u201cfirefighter\u201d at SAP in recent weeks and has since left the supervisory board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SAP clearly lacks technical AI expertise in general, and Christian Klein can\u2019t find an AI roadmap in particular: Hasso Plattner is not only a co-founder, but for decades he has been the technical conscience, the visionary compass, and often the necessary thorn in the side of the Walldorf-based software company. His fundamental philosophy on leading an IT company stands in sharp contrast to the current management style of many corporations. Plattner believes it is a mistake to run an IT company from a purely managerial perspective. In numerous conversations, he explicitly warned the industry against falling for so-called \u201eguys in suits\u201c who, while appearing to be powerful executives, understand nothing about their own product. As for where SAP CEO Christian Klein fits into this picture, Hasso Plattner will no longer answer that question from his \u201crestless retirement.\u201d For Professor Plattner, however, a deep, detailed understanding of technology is an absolute prerequisite for sustainable business success. Christian Klein has learned a great deal, but he never received a technical education in the traditional sense, unlike Shai Agassi, Vishal Sikka, and J\u00fcrgen M\u00fcller. Former SAP Chief Technology Officer M\u00fcller was, among other things, part of the founding team for the SAP HANA database at the HPI in Potsdam under the leadership of Professor Hasso Plattner and Professor Alexander Zeier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hasso Plattner has repeatedly criticized the culture of conservatism that prevails in Europe, and especially in Germany. While U.S. companies do not demonize new IT technologies such as the cloud and AI but instead embrace them with enthusiasm, IT users in Europe often cling to a negative and dismissive attitude, which means that crucial leaps in innovation are simply missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the heart of Plattner\u2019s technical vision for the ERP system was his last major in-house development: the in-memory computing database SAP HANA. Based on the simple yet far-reaching insight that a data record in an ERP environment is created only once but queried hundreds of times, he designed an architecture at the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) that was primarily optimized for query speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plattner hailed Hana as an elite milestone in computer science and as a disruptive innovation that was set to revolutionize the market. An analytical examination, however, reveals cracks in this narrative: In a legendary and publicly staged debate on the Sapphire stage in 2014, Harvard economist Clayton M. Christensen (1952\u20132020) vehemently contradicted him and argued that HANA was merely a sustaining innovation and that SAP was heading straight into the \u201eInnovator\u2019s Dilemma.\u201c.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Critics of computer science also accuse Plattner of being stuck in the \u201evon Neumann bottleneck\u201c from an architectural standpoint, since he merely masked the performance deficit by moving data to main memory without truly rethinking the fundamental computer architecture. In a later interview, Plattner himself admitted, with uncharacteristic self-criticism, that SAP had not quite succeeded in propelling HANA to the undisputed top of the database segment, as he had hoped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From a business perspective, however, Hana was a massive success for SAP, as it enabled the Walldorf-based company to force its existing ERP customers into a permanent, highly profitable vendor lock-in and to push competitors such as Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft out of its own ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to cloud computing, history also demonstrates Plattner\u2019s visionary foresight, but also the company\u2019s often sluggish ability to implement changes. Long before the current cloud hype driven by the hyperscalers, Plattner, together with then-Chief Technology Officer Peter Zencke, launched the Business ByDesign project, a revolutionary cloud-based ERP concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In hindsight, however, it must be acknowledged that this early in-house SaaS development failed\u2014a fact that Plattner openly admits. He recognized the structural problem with the SAP \u201ctanker\u201d: In an environment that demands extreme perfectionism from the existing core system, agile, smaller innovation projects have an incredibly hard time. The bitter realization for Plattner was that new initiatives require new freedoms, and that SAP ultimately only made the real leap into the cloud through the massive and expensive acquisitions carried out by former CEO Bill McDermott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is precisely from this experience with SAP\u2019s rigid corporate culture that Hasso Plattner derives his stance on artificial intelligence. He explicitly pins his hopes for AI on the fact that this technology is now being developed, at least, outside of SAP\u2019s sluggish structures. For Plattner, AI is not just another IT tool, but a disruptive force that places new demands on human education. In a world shaped by AI, Plattner says, it is no longer crucial to accumulate mere factual knowledge; rather, the absolute core competency lies in learning how to learn and familiarizing oneself with entirely new subjects at breakneck speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To ensure that Europe is not left behind as a defenseless victim in this global race, he is massively expanding the Hasso Plattner Institute at the University of Potsdam and strengthening its partnership with SAP to accelerate knowledge transfer in AI research and secure digital sovereignty. Furthermore, Plattner\u2019s early research on data anonymization is proving today to be a visionary foundation for providing AI with legally compliant and clean training data. SAP CEO Christian Klein regularly visits the HPI in Potsdam, where he is regarded as an attentive listener and an inquisitive questioner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For existing SAP customers, an analysis of Hasso Plattner\u2019s statements and his life\u2019s work reveals a troubling gap in SAP\u2019s current leadership. Plattner was the courageous visionary who often disregarded rigid compliance rules to drive technical breakthroughs and who propelled the company forward with emotional intensity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With his departure from the supervisory board two years ago, SAP now lacks this indispensable \u201ethorn in its side.\u201c While current CEO Christian Klein manages the company\u2019s finances alongside CFO Dominik Asam and drives the cloud transformation from a business perspective, there is a glaring lack of the profound architectural vision and technical passion that Hasso Plattner embodied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The SAP community must recognize that, without a technical visionary at the helm, standard business software runs the risk of degenerating into a mere, interchangeable cloud subscription in the era of Agentic AI and Composable ERP, because Agentic AI will fundamentally transform the revenue models for enterprise software: According to estimates by the research and consulting firm Gartner, spending on enterprise application software totaling up to $234 billion will be subject to so-called \u201cAgentic Arbitrage\u201d by 2030. This represents approximately 20 percent of spending on Software as a Service (SaaS) in the enterprise applications sector by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gartner refers to \u201eAgentic Arbitrage\u201c when AI agents perform tasks across systems, thereby reducing the need for users to interact with the user interfaces of various traditional software applications. \u201eAgentic AI is changing the economic fundamentals of the software industry,\u201c explained George Brocklehurst, Managing Vice President at Gartner. \u201cAgentic systems deliver results directly, bypassing traditional applications that are heavily focused on the user experience and allowing the actual software to fade into the background. For many enterprise software providers, this breaks the previous link between user growth and revenue growth.\u201d This transformation is already in full swing and will fundamentally change the way software is developed, priced, and used. It will also lead to a redefinition of the \u201cSaaspocalypse\u201d\u2014the fragmentation of the traditional SaaS market\u2014and thus to a potential decline in SAP\u2019s significance. However, Gartner analysts believe this is less of an \u201capocalypse\u201d and more of a \u201cmetamorphosis.\u201d SaaS will not disappear but will evolve into a new form. This transformation presents both risks and opportunities for established providers and new market entrants alike.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
First, my colleague Christof Kerkmann reported in the *Handelsblatt* on the restructuring of SAP\u2019s Executive Board: CEO Christian Klein plans to focus on AI technology going forward, as Executive Board member Muhammad Alam (Product and Engineering) will be leaving the company in early 2027. Klein is supported behind the scenes by a strategic advisor.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27840],"tags":[7675,44106,44395,35728,39,601,273,73,44486,65,369,624,43740,44492,42128,11673,517,236],"coauthors":[27825],"class_list":["post-164938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chefredakteur-blog","tag-api","tag-bdc","tag-btp","tag-christian-klein","tag-cloud","tag-digitalisierung","tag-dsag","tag-erp","tag-fable-5","tag-hana","tag-it","tag-ki-joule","tag-llm","tag-loop","tag-open-source-3","tag-plattner","tag-s4","tag-sap","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu.jpeg",1000,450,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-400x180.jpeg",400,180,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-768x346.jpeg",768,346,true],"large":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu.jpeg",1000,450,false],"image-100":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-100x45.jpeg",100,45,true],"image-480":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-480x216.jpeg",480,216,true],"image-640":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-640x288.jpeg",640,288,true],"image-720":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-720x324.jpeg",720,324,true],"image-960":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-960x432.jpeg",960,432,true],"image-1168":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu.jpeg",1000,450,false],"image-1440":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu.jpeg",1000,450,false],"image-1920":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu.jpeg",1000,450,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu.jpeg",1000,450,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu.jpeg",1000,450,false],"trp-custom-language-flag":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-18x8.jpeg",18,8,true],"bricks_large_16x9":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu.jpeg",1000,450,false],"bricks_large":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu.jpeg",1000,450,false],"bricks_large_square":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu.jpeg",1000,450,false],"bricks_medium":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-600x270.jpeg",600,270,true],"bricks_medium_square":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-600x450.jpeg",600,450,true],"profile_24":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-24x24.jpeg",24,24,true],"profile_48":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-48x48.jpeg",48,48,true],"profile_96":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-96x96.jpeg",96,96,true],"profile_150":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"profile_300":["https:\/\/e3mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chefredakteur-neu-300x300.jpeg",300,300,true]},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"
Zuerst berichtete mein Kollege Christof Kerkmann im Handelsblatt vom Umbau des SAP-Vorstands: CEO Christian Klein will sich zuk\u00fcnftig um die KI-Technik k\u00fcmmern, weil Vorstandsmitglied Muhammad Alam (Product und Engineering) Anfang 2027 das Unternehmen verlassen wird. Klein zur Seite steht im Hintergrund ein Strategic Advisor.<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"Chefredakteur-Blog<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"Peter M. F\u00e4rbinger, E3 Magazine","url":"https:\/\/e3mag.com\/en\/author\/peter-m-faerbinger-e-3-magazin\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/e3mag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/e3mag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/e3mag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e3mag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e3mag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164938"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/e3mag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164944,"href":"https:\/\/e3mag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164938\/revisions\/164944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e3mag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e3mag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e3mag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e3mag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164938"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e3mag.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=164938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}