I was watching the new SAP commercials with the theme "Run Like Never Before" and reminiscing on the annual pilgrimage Gartner colleagues would make to Waldorf in the late 90s. It is striking how much the company has changed in the last decade or so.
We would break into groups and at end of day marvel at the product features and other details each of the SAP teams would go into. The quality was consistently good, and the tone generally modest.
In recent years, it seems like SAP wants to take credit for everything.
Apple's hugely successful iOS app store. Yes, we run that. Probe a bit, and the answer is actually no, but we do some admin for the iTunes store.
Coca Cola's innovative FreeStyle machines. Yeah we run that. Turns out they feed an SAP BW warehouse. The actual machines are designed by Pininfarina which is better known for working with Ferrari, Maserati and Alfa Romeo among other automakers.
Twinkies back from oblivion. Yeah we can take credit for that. Not sure the new owners would agree.
And lots of brags like "SAP customers produce 70 percent of the world’s chocolate" and "SAP systems touches $12 trillion of consumer purchases around the world". No credit to the numerous other IT and other suppliers which make that possible.
Cloud revenues are only 6%. No problem - we are the "cloud company"
As Vishal Sikka ascends in the SAP hierarchy, my sincere hope is he takes SAP back to the Waldorf culture of 15 years ago.
I for one, would like SAP to adopt for itself the theme of "Run Like Never Before"
