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In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I discuss the unexpected departures of SAP’s chief revenue officer, Scott Russell, and chief marketing and solutions officer, Julia White, and consider what these changes could signal for the company’s direction and growth.
Highlights
00:20 — I was surprised a couple of weeks ago when SAP announced in a press release that its chief revenue officer and chief marketing and solutions officer would be leaving the company at the end of August. However, this was SAP’s idea, not the idea of chief revenue officer Scott Russell or chief marketing and solutions officer Julia White.
01:04 — Scott Russell had a great career in sales, had led its Asia Pacific region, and was brought to the U.S. to head the entire global organization about three and a half years ago. Russell’s role was global head of customer success and part of the executive board team. The most recent quarter showed SAP’s overall cloud revenue up 25% and its Cloud ERP Suite up 33%.
02:00 — Three-and-a-half years ago, Russell was in charge of customer success. Late last year, SAP said it would form a new board position, putting Thomas Saueressig in charge of the new Customer Delivery area. This took the handoff from where sales ended and the actual implementation to now be under Saueressig, which changed Russell’s role.
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03:10 — Another case involves chief marketing and solutions officer Julia White. Part of what she said, and others at SAP, was that we can’t just be marketing things that are created completely independently. They wanted to unify these two roles, marketing and solutions, and bring them together. I think it’s been a big reason for their success over the past four years. Yet the position of chief marketing and solutions on the executive board is going to be dissolved.
04:31 — It’s baffling that the chief revenue officer and the chief marketing and solutions officer — who have been such an integral part of the company’s surge over the last few years to become, by far, the fastest-growing enterprise applications company in the world — would be leaving. Regardless, Christian Klein deserves the right to let this play out.
