SAP CEO Christian Klein took on the sole leadership of the German software giant a little over a year ago, coming from the unexpected and unique dual-CEO appointment with Jennifer Morgan in October 2020.
SAP has achieved a stellar first quarter 2021 performance, recording the fastest growth in the company’s new cloud business in five years, and a respectable 2020 full-year business results. The technology enterprise has been enabling many organisations of all sizes across industries around the world to cushion the impact of COVID-19 with intelligent solutions and help them survive, thrive, and accelerate digital transformation.
Internally, SAP ensures that it helps its people’s lives run better together, especially during these uncertain times. The company has recently pledged to include in its global framework the flexible work approach, which the company has been embracing for decades. Implementing a 100{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} flexible and trust-based workplace as the norm ensures employees have access to what they need to be productive, creative, and inspired while running the business responsibly and meeting business requirements.
Steering the ship amidst the tumultuous and unprecedented challenges during the pandemic is the 41-year-old SAP Chief Christian Klein. His remarkable leadership has been recognised by Glassdoor, a platform for job seekers and employee reviews. It recognises outstanding employers and leaders worldwide through the Employees’ Choice Awards.
Receiving an approval rating of 96{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} based on anonymous employee feedback from the past year, Klein has been honored as one of the top CEOs in 2021 in Germany and France in the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award. In France, he topped the list of chief executives with a 99{8bf2b29f36318f0ac46ab1cc03d7035abce669a1cea16c9ed62389a818fa22fd} approval rating.
“Our colleagues are the heart of our success, and they make SAP the great company it is,” said Klein. “Of all the things that motivate me to give my best every day, it is undoubtedly the people I have the privilege to work with all over the world. I am grateful to be able to work with such outstanding colleagues, and they inspire me continually with their dedication, ingenuity, and passion.”
Other CEOs also recognised by Glassdoor are from SAP’s strategic partners such as Julie Sweet of Accenture, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, and Robert E. Moritz of PwC.
SAP CEO Leading the Intelligent Enterprise
Against the executive leadership changes in 2020 and COVID-19 backdrop, SAP pulled through under Klein’s guidance, enabling the organisation, its partners, and customers to navigate the new world of work.
As an employer, SAP has received several global recognitions such as Top Employer 2020 by Top Employer Institute; World’s Best Workplace 2020 by Great Place To Work; Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index administered by Bloomberg Finance L.P.; and Fortune’s Most Admired Companies 2020 by FORTUNE.
Several landmark initiatives were also introduced since Klein took on the SAP CEO role. Qualtrics, SAP’s 8 billion dollar acquisition in 2018, successfully debuted on Nasdaq in January this year, with SAP still as the controlling shareholder. Trading under the ticker symbol “XM”, Qualtrics’ stocks opened at $41.85, after raising about $1.55 billion in its upsized IPO.
With the Intelligent Enterprise as SAP’s centerpiece, the software firm’s Business Transformation as a Service-offering RISE with SAP that was officially launched in January 2021 continues to gain momentum and take-up among customers. SAP CEO Klein kicked off the SAPPHIRE NOW 2021 unveiling a series of announcements that included industry-specific additions in RISE with SAP, the global industry expansion of the company’s business network strategy for fast innovation and sustainability tracking solutions.
He said in his keynote:
“Together, we are reinventing how businesses run and also demonstrating the big heart of our community. Our thoughts go out to everyone affected by the pandemic, and our thanks to all those who are making extraordinary contributions in our community.”
“Technology has helped communities and families, and helped business quickly adapt. SAP has been working hand-in-hand with you, our customers around the globe, whether it was helping you to make your supply chains more resilient, reimagining your business model to create new customer experiences, or to enable remote work. Together, we’ve got this,” Klein exclaimed.
