I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up.
This time it is Bob Stutz, President of SAP's Customer Experience unit. He is Mr. CRM with a long, storied career at Siebel, Microsoft, Salesforce and now back at SAP for the second time.
Asked about heroics during the current crisis, he singles out supermarkets and grocery chains for staying up and running nearly 24x7. What used to be a routine, boring shopping experience has become a lifeline for people. He points out how much volume has moved to eCommerce - "every day has been like Black Friday" (SAP's commerce engine handles 561 GMV - Gross Merchandise Volume - that's larger than at Amazon and other online retailers).
He sees a resurgence in CRM with a focus on multiple ways - true omni-channel thinking - to get to your customers. "Simple phone calls are being appreciated". "How do we service customers when our stores are closed?" (BTW - see my related post about focusing on Omni, not just Digital, transformation based on my C level interviews during the crisis )
He also says the debate between on-premise and cloud has been settled once and for all. "Early adopters of cloud have weathered the crisis better" Of course, in a challenged economic environment, the migration to clouds will have to be done very differently at much lower cost, and with much more remote support.
I particularly enjoyed his comments about how he leads and stays calm during a crisis this deep. He credits 22 years in the military for having taught him to deal with any crisis. "You need peripheral, not tunnel vision during a crisis".
I also appreciated his empathy for his people - points out the challenges of work from home that few executives acknowledge. He is generous to Marc Benioff - points out his Zen Buddhist influence in the meditation he does every day. He also says it helps to look at the world from a child's eyes. It's the Beginner's Mind - the Zen concept of shoshin - that I had written about in The New Polymath.
Very calming and very generous to "unsung" supermarket heroes, his employees and to Marc.
