Several SAP leadership changes have transpired after Bill McDermott’s departure, which led to the immediate and unique dual-CEO appointment of Christian Klein and Jennifer Morgan in October 2020.
39-year old Christian Klein becomes the sole CEO of the behemoth German ERP company SAP after about six months of performing and making executive decisions with co-CEO Jennifer Morgan. The company’s decision to revert to solo SAP leadership aims to establish a stronger, clearer, and more determined direction for its 400,000 customers globally, especially at these unprecedented times.
Morgan mutually agreed with the Supervisory Board of SAP SE to step down from her role as a co-CEO and depart the company effective 30th of April 2020. Aside from being the first American woman in SAP’s executive board, Morgan also had been President of the Cloud Business Group, overseeing Qualtrics, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass, SAP Customer Experience, and SAP Concur.
In an SAP statement, Klein expressed his appreciation for Morgan as a long-term partner in the company:
“Throughout SAP’s transformation, Jennifer has always been laser-focused on customers, partners, shareholders, and employees. It’s thanks to her that we have established a strong position in experience management solutions. I know she will always be a champion of SAP.”
Together, Klein and Morgan kept the company robust despite the changes in the organisations and the recent challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The two led SAP’s initiative to offer select solutions at zero cost such as Remote Work Pulse and COVID-19 Pre-Screen & Routing by Qualtrics, SAP Ariba Discovery, TripIT Pro among many others to help the SAP community, partners, and customers worldwide run businesses as usual even at these uncertain times.
The Chief is in
Klein’s new role as a solo Chief Executive Officer adds to the roster of his other executive responsibilities as Chief Operating Officer and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. As COO, he drives SAP to be tantamount to an Intelligent Enterprise with business process simplification, global IT, product and services quality, portfolio and investment strategy, intelligent data and analytics, and value achievement through digital innovation adoption for customers and employees at the forefront.
With regards to the new directive, Klein said:
“What we figured out is that we have a responsibility to give our customers clear guidance.”
The SAP leadership structure change comes at an opportune time when swift decisions and straightforward steering of the company are expected by its employees, partners, and clients around the world amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the recent announcement of SAP’s official first quarter 2020 results, CEO Klein said:
“Building on last year’s momentum, SAP started the first two months of the quarter with strong momentum and healthy growth.”
“For nearly five decades, SAP has been synonymous with mission-critical business operations. As the unprecedented global challenges presented by COVID-19 emerged, we benefited from the inherent resilience of our business model and sustainable relevance of our portfolio. Our emphasis on increasing our base of more predictable revenue and the geographic and sector diversity of our business has strongly positioned us to weather the period ahead and emerge stronger in the new normal that will follow,” he stressed.
Amid the COVID-19 crisis, SAP’s numbers emerged strong and healthy with total revenue, operating profit, and free cash flow up. The company remains pragmatic though on the impact of the pandemic at the end of the quarter that resulted in the significant year over year decrease in software licenses revenue.
The 2020 first quarter recorded total revenue growth of 7{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} year over year to €6.52 billion (IFRS), up 7{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} (non-IFRS), and 5{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} (non-IFRS at constant currencies). Operating cash flow was €2.98 billion, up 6{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} year-over-year and free cash flow was up 9{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} year-over-year at €2.58 billion.
After completion of its share buyback program of approximately €1.5 billion by mid-March, SAP has decided to halt further share buybacks in 2020.
The SAP’s lone Chief earns unequivocal support from his colleagues.
Professor Hasso Plattner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of SAP SE said in an SAP statement:
“This transition comes at a time of great uncertainty in the world, but I have full faith in Christian’s vision and capabilities in leading SAP forward toward continued profitable growth, innovation, and customer success.”
Luka Mucic, SAP’s CFO said:
“We are very confident that we will again emerge as a stronger company and clear leader after the crisis.”
Adaire Fox- Martin, Executive Board Member and head of Customer Success board shared her commendation for Klein on Twitter:
“Moving forward together, under Christian Klein’s leadership, SAP will continue to deliver the value, services & solutions that define who we are.”
