SAP Leadership in Flux: What it Means to Decision Makers

The revolving door at the SAP executive board level continues as Chief Technology Officer, Juergen Mueller steps down suddenly from his post. According to the official report released by SAP, this was an unexpected departure due to “an incident at a past company event” that involved inappropriate behavior.

Mueller’s leaving SAP comes on the heels of two other major moves on the board level which saw both Julia White, the former SAP Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Scott Russell, the former Chief Revenue Officer depart the organization at the end of July. These migrations were more internally influenced than based on a specific action or failure of duty.

But in any case, these changes in leadership undoubtedly will have at least a short-term impact on strategy, organizational change, and decision-making. Mueller joined the SAP Executive Board in 2019 as Chief Technology Officer. He led SAP’s platform and development unit and helped drive the integration of technologies and people from the acquisitions of SAP Concur, SAP Ariba, and SAP Fieldglass. Mueller was also critical to the development, introduction, and early success of the SAP Business Technology Platform. 

Mueller’s extensive tenure at SAP reaches back to 2013 and helped power his knowledge and success. Mueller was a regular keynote and speaker at industry and press events and is well known for this depth of product knowledge and history. There is no word yet on his successor.

Despite the volatility amongst the board ranks, SAP managed to turn out a string of positive financial quarters as it capitalizes on the market momentum behind Artificial Intelligence and the move to Cloud and SAP S/4HANA. In its latest earnings announcement, SAP reported a 28% increase in cloud backlog (a measure of future commitments) and a 25% increase in overall cloud revenue.

What this Means to SAPinsider Executives 

SAP leaders must understand the new SAP executive landscape and may have to forge new relationships and spread knowledge and connections across various levels. But none of this should impact your path forward or key decisions you will have to make. 

Expand your SAP executive network: Departures, firings, and voluntary exits are all part of life at any large company. But if you are engaging SAP at the board or executive level it is important that you have multiple contacts and points of truth. Working with product management and customer care will give you critical views at the feature, function, and roadmap level. But it is also important to have the licensing agreements and support needed so that you have a few different people you can rely on to serve your interest. 

Leverage this incident as a wakeup call to re-examine your current corporate governance and risk mitigation strategies. Inappropriate behavior and other forms of harassment are being increasingly reported and are having impacts on executive boards and governance strategies across the industry. Perform thorough evaluations of your current governance and educational programs and re-enforce your messaging and policies. Make sure there are clear reporting guidelines and that you have in place procedures that facilitate the escalation and remediation of sensitive issues and events as soon as they happen

Keep your eyes on your technical and business objectives in the long run as you explore these key SAP solutions and offerings: Executive departures are not going to dramatically shift SAP’s overall product strategy and ability to deliver in the short term. The same key topics continue to come up in our executive research and those include themes such as SAP S/4HANA, RISE with SAP, SAP Business Technology Platform, Automation and Artificial Intelligence, Business Process Transformation, and Data and Analytics. Continue to explore these offerings in depth so that you can make the appropriate decisions for your organization.