I excerpt 10% from every book in a series of blog posts. I posted several on SAP Nation 3.0 in April, then took a break after the Sapphire event. Over the next week I will excerpt the final batch. The book is available to purchase on Amazon in print and eBook format here
"In Ch. 11, we looked at how SAP could become a first mover with its huge incumbent customer base. At the same time, SAP could be thinking much bigger. There are plenty of other markets where SAP could adopt a fast follower approach after missing out on the first wave of opportunity."
"Or take the world of the Industrial Internet and Industrie 4.0. In Ch. 2 we discussed GE’s “Power of 1%”: 1% in fuel sav- ings in aviation and utilities, 1% productivity improvement in healthcare, 1% reduction in oil and gas cap-ex. In just five sectors combined — rail, aviation, healthcare, power and oil and gas — GE had projected US$276 billion in efficiencies over 15 years.” These were only in sectors GE was interested in, where it sold turbines and MRI scanners. There is a far bigger market around connecting other assets, listening to them, delivering predictive maintenance and other tangible benefits."
"Or take verticals. Just take one sector — fintech. According to Deloitte, “264 companies have received a total of US$7.71 billion in investment since 1998. Contrast that with China, where only seven payment fintechs are found, but these are backed by US$6.92 billion in funding. Similar patterns are seen in deposits and lending, investment management, personal insurance, and real estate leasing/purchase and sale." After leading its peers to industry solutions in the early 2000s, can SAP do so again with so much turmoil in so many verticals?"
"If anything, I would like SAP to find a different inspiration from Google and more specifically from X, the idea incubator of Google’s parent, Alphabet.
Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots at X (seriously, that is his name, title and company name), said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal:
“Nine years ago, if you had written down a list of the problems that Google was trying to solve in the world, transportation wouldn’t have been one of them. In fact, connectivity, what Loon is working on, wouldn’t have been one of them. Health care wouldn’t have been one of them. Other than internally, cybersecurity wouldn’t have been one of them. Those are all things where we said, ‘There’s something important here that’s worth working on whether or not Google is focused on this.’ Google doesn’t need us to solve Google’s problems."
"But to be able to do so, SAP needs its own version of a Manifest Destiny Call."
