In an exclusive interview during SAP’s big Sapphire 2019 event in Orlando, SAP CEO Bill McDermott sat down with Cloud Wars to talk the past, present, and future of his company. On the heels of his second main-stage keynote of the conference, McDermott described SAP’s sweeping transformation, its breakthrough acquisition of Qualtrics, the strategic significance of experience management, and his outlook on what SAP must do to retain a leading position in the intensely competitive enterprise-software business.
As McDermott told me, “complacency is a disease—and lots of companies have it.” But he refuses to allow SAP to sit on its laurels. The Qualtrics acquisition. A renewed emphasis on customer success. And an unrelenting belief in the power of trust. Watch our exclusive Q&A with one of the most exciting CEOs in the Cloud Wars.
Highlights
There’s a huge gap out there between what customers want, and ultimately what they say they get. And we think this is a $1.6-trillion problem that needs to be solved. Click To Tweet Ten years ago, we said we have to be a purpose-driven company… and that set us on a path of investing $70 billion in innovation. Click To Tweet I honestly believe the best days of SAP are well in front of us if we just keep the customer at the center of everything we do. Click To Tweet
Read more from our Sapphire Now 2019 coverage
- Understanding the New SAP: 10 Key Insights as Sapphire 2019 Kicks Off
- Microsoft Begins Selling SAP Applications As Cloud Ecosystem Evolves
- SAP Unleashes Experience Economy (with Plug from Apple’s Tim Cook)
- SAP Founder Hasso Plattner Vows New “Empathy for Users”: The Qualtrics Effect
- NHL and SAP Disrupt Century-Old Traditions, Boost Revenue and Fan Base
