SAP Business Trends

Mr. October Visits SAP in May

Benjamin Hancock — Wed, 22 May 2013 22:05:22 GMT

by Ben Hancock and Sarah Harvey

Baseball Hall of Famer and five-time World Series champion Reggie Jackson came to SAP’s New York City offices on Morton Street today for an informal meet and greet with employees, and to discuss his Mr. October Foundation for Kids.

“SAP has a long heritage of community service and our mission is to help the world run better and improve people’s lives,” said Chris Burton, Vice President of Global Sponsorships at SAP. “SAP is delighted to support the work Reggie is doing to help provide high technology education opportunities for at-risk youth.”

Jackson’s organization provides STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education to at-risk youth in the African American and Latin American populations. In his address to SAP employees, he talked about how technology can be a means for change in education, as well as in the way sports are played and consumed. He is thrilled to be partnered with SAP to reach his foundation’s goals.

Jackson is a natural partner for SAP because he brings together two of the company’s main focuses, sports and education. In a career that spanned more than two decades, Jackson led the league in home runs on four separate occasions, finishing 13th on the all-time career home run list.

“As a kid growing up, I was crazy about the Yankees and, of course, Reggie Jackson,” said Aesop Lim, a solution expert at SAP. “I watched him hit three home runs in a World Series game. It’s great to see him now associated with SAP.” After Jackson made a short speech, SAP employees lined up for photographs. Jackson also autographed baseballs, hats, and 8x10 photos.

Jackson’s visit came on the heels of SAP’s official entrance into the sports and entertainment industry. SAP has been a longtime partner of many professional sports teams and events, including the New York Yankees, and is now offering its analytics software to enhance player recruitment and management and the entire fan experience. SAP’s fully-integrated partnership with the Yankees, for example, means there is prominent SAP branding in Yankee Stadium. Additionally, visitors to the SAP Lounge can play out statistical baseball scenarios—all powered by SAP software.

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SAP Hits Homerun With New York Yankees Partnership

CMOs and SAP Define Next-Gen Customer Experience

Doug Shirra — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:00:50 GMT

When I left my home to attend SAP SAPPHIRE NOW the trees in my neighborhood were mostly bare; just starting to grow leaves and when I returned four days later, they were thick and healthy. Change had come quickly.

Change came equally fast for CMOs attending SAP’s SAPPHIRE NOW conference. They may have arrived thinking about the ol’ ERP player, driving the CIOs technology vision, but – within a few short days – they learned how their most innovative peers are redefining how marketing functions in the new experience-driven economy. Today's innovative marketers are proactively defining entirely new marketing models by engaging with SAP’s “Business-to-Business-to-Consumer” capabilities.

Société de transport de Montréal (STM) – which I first blogged about late last year, continues to be a poster child of what’s possible. At SAPPHIRE NOW, STM’s Head of Marketing, Pierre Bourbonniere proudly took to the stage and outlined the ground-breaking customer experience strategy he is leading to comprehensively:

Drive customer satisfaction
Grow the customer base and frequency of customer participation
Create entirely new revenue streams to drive business success

The story, which has been talked about globally, received significant praise because it enables STM to engage with its customers ‘in the moment’ – giving them precise, customized, relevant information to make a decision. To do this effectively, STM needs to know more than just who its customer is – STM must also understand where its customer is and what his/her needs are at the time.

The STM initiative also demonstrates how CMOs can proactively shift from brand champions to growth champion.

In my view, as a long-time marketer, the STM story is compelling because it addresses the most pressing – and vexing – scenario facing CMOs. The issue is NOT about creating a new vehicle for one-to-one engagement – that’s (already) just table stakes. Innovative marketers have moved beyond mass loyalty to create next generation customer programs that may include loyalty components, but are focused on creating continuous, individual engagement.

It is in this arena that SAP is helping CMOs to help their customer love them more!

While there’s still a lot of change to come in this space, the organizations/CMOs that come out winners will be those that best address the “Four C’s of Consumer Trust”:

CONTROL

Your customer understands precisely how their data will be used.

CHOICE

Your customer can choose, and modify, what to share and what not to share.

COMMITMENT

Your customer is confident in your ability to keep his data private and secure.

COMPENSATION

Your customer understands what he gets for the amount of info shared.

Bill McDermott’s SAPPHIRE NOW declaration that “SAP is the market leader in ‘Business-to-Business-to-Consumer’ software” clearly communicated that SAP can help CMOs deliver against the Four C’s of Customer Trust better than any other software company. This is true because of SAP’s strength in Cloud Computing, its industry leading mobile security and application platform and, without a doubt, the unmatched HANA in-memory platform for big data analytics at the ‘speed of thought.’

STM is just one example of how SAP is helping organizations to provide a strong customer experience and manage the trust requirements of consumers. To get the point across, the SAPPHIRE NOW show floor was stacked with examples of top global brands doing incredible real-time data analysis and impressive 'segment of one' profiling with SAP. From the uber-cool Player Scouting application developed with the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, to the massive amounts of data being instantaneously crunched instantly by NBA fans, to the deeply-meaningful possibilities being created in healthcare with SAP’s unprecedented genome analysis.

This opens a new world of possibilties for CMOs -- giving them new reasons to consider a co-innovation agenda with SAP. The message was certainly clear that SAP can help organizations:

a) stay perpetually connected to their customers;

b) provide their customers with a strong and compelling engagement model that accommodates the ‘Four C’s of Trust’; and,

c) analyze big data more completely and engage with customers ‘in the moment’ while building a new business model that tightly integrates with the rest of the business infrastructure.

As a marketer, I’m only disappointed that Adidas already took the “anything’s possible” tagline!

When Did SAP Become Cool?

Tim Clark — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:55:56 GMT

I stayed up late to watch Canadian rockers Rush (finally) get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After delivering a proper roast and endearing retrospective, Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) enthusiastically asked the crowd, “When did Rush become cool?”

For the record, Rush has produced 24 gold records and 14 platinum records (3 of which have gone multiplatinum), placing them in the top 3 rock bands for the most consecutive gold albums. Total worldwide sales approximate 40 million units.

Clearly, Rush has always been cool – even if questionable wardrobe choices and quirky song titles like “The Temples of Syrinx” suggest otherwise.

And then it hit me: When, exactly, did SAP become cool? Like Rush, has it taken SAP decades to gain the admiration and respect it deserves from the industry-at-large? Or has the company always been cool despite some of its missteps?

Whatever your take, the cool factor at SAPPHIRE NOW 2013 was certainly off the charts. Here were a few of my favorite things:

Behind the Scenes at SAPPHIRE NOW (Yes, there really were 20,000 in attendance and 80,000 online participants according to SAP’s Chief Marketing Officer, Jonathan Becher)

SAP HANA Powers Ultimate Fan Experience

Hasso “HANA myth-buster” Plattner

Fake Bono

Jim Snabe’s “survival of the fittest” keynote

Fred McCloud

Harley-Davidson

Joe and Ted’s Excellent Retail Adventure

SAPPHIRE NOW Show Floor Tour with Mark Yolton, Senior Vice President of Digital, Social and Communities for SAP

Millennials!

Van Halen. Oops, that was last year.

Is SAP cool? What were some of your most memorable SAPPHIRE NOW experiences?

Pssst! All the cool kids are following me on Twitter @TClark01

Customer Success Stories Drove Record Attendance at SAPPHIRE NOW

Derek Klobucher — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:00:39 GMT

Having attracted more than 20,000 attendees in Orlando and close to 90,000 online participants, many people rightly see last week’s SAPPHIRE NOW as a success story. But customer success stories are the backbone of the SAP annual conference’s triumph.

Ron Dennis (left) returned to SAPPHIRE NOW to tell Jim Hagemann Snabe and everyone else about McLaren’s continued success.

The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 Team uses SAP HANA to evaluate billions of data bits in real-time, while SAP technology helps Lexmark International grow its business beyond printing. These customers and others, including National Bank of Canada, shared their stories of extreme analytics, improved efficiency and how it feels to run better.

Go, Speed Racer

People all over the planet will see SAP technology in action when they tune into the Grand Prix Montreal next month, as Cory Coley-Christakos reported in her blog post. HANA will help Woking, England-based McLaren monitor data gathered from hundreds of sensors on each of its two racecars, collecting a total of about 13 billion bits of data over the course of the race.

“There’s no point in having so much data in front of you that you can’t understand it,” McLaren chairman Ron Dennis told SAP Co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe during SAPPHIRE NOW’s Wednesday keynote presentation. “[HANA] blows people’s minds -- it’s incomprehensible that anything can work so fast.”

Speed, scale and simplicity were the hallmark traits of HANA, as Dennis told it. SAP’s flagship in-memory platform offers real-time evaluation of massive data volumes; scales to use six times more data than other platforms; and allows simple graphic representations of all that data.

Fit to More Than Print

To meet customer demand, Lexmark is branching out from printers to bespoke hardware and software solutions, thanks to some savvy acquisitions -- and help from SAP technology, according to Tim Clark’s coverage of Moody’s presentation in Orlando. The Lexington, Ky.-based imaging company uses SAP HANA and SAP BusinessObjects to power its drive into this brave new world, which also includes managed and cloud services.

SAP’s Fred Samson demonstrated the speed, scale and simplicity of HANA as McLaren uses it.

“SAP HANA gave us the ability to respond much more quickly to business requirements,” Keith Moody, Lexmark’s vice president and CIO, told attendees at SAPPHIRE NOW last week. “The performance of the team increased dramatically because they were able to generate reports so much faster.”

Lexmark’s implementation of the new database technology was also speedy. And a new analytics system lets Lexmark see all of its inventory parts on a global scale for the first time.

MAXimizing Potential

National Bank of Canada decided to transform in 2008, when it faced increasing error rates and declining customer satisfaction. The Montreal-based commercial bank approached SAP Financial Services, the company’s fastest growing and No. 1 industry, to co-innovate a standard process for retail lending with SAP CRM.

The Modernization Action Experience (MAX) today enables National Bank to improve sales efficiency and client retention while reducing distribution and operations costs. Loan approval times dropped from 48 hours to one, and the average number of products per National Bank customer rose from 1.9 to 4.5.

These success stories and the many more like them drove the highest attendance in SAPPHIRE NOW’s 25-year history, making the annual conference a smashing success in its own right.

Follow Derek on Twitter: @DKlobucher

“Lexmark CIO: ‘SAP HANA gave us the ability to respond much more quickly to business requirements’” in SAP Business Trends

“Enslin: “Financial Services is the No. 1 Industry in SAP” at SAPPHIRE NOW” in SAP Business Trends

What will work look like in 2030?

Julien Vayssiere — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:07:20 GMT

Last year in March a group of SAP customers, partners and employees locked themselves up for two days in a meeting room at SAP Labs Palo Alto in order to answer just one question: what will work look like in 2030?

The workshop participants identified a number of dimensions along which the future will most likely be very different from the present: the freedom to choose when we work, where we work and why it matters, the rise – or not – of Free Agents, Millennials, social network and corporations or diversity in the workplace.

Those findings, together with extra research, have now been bundled into a 16-page report that you can now download here for free. We would like to take this opportunity to thank once again all the workshop participants and facilitators without whose collective brainpower this report would never have seen the light of day.

The Future of Work workshop was facilitated by Dr. Tamara Carleton and Dr. William Cockayne from Stanford University's Foresight and Innovation program. Make sure you do not miss their free playbook to learn more about the methodology used in our Future of Work workshop - which you could use for running similar workshops in your own organization.

The report, titled "Work Fragmented - Work Recombined" explores how different facets of work are undergoing massive transformation under not only the pressure of the digital revolution but also deeper-running economical and societal changes. While it is easy to focus on what is no longer here and long for the world that was, we show how the different parts of what was once work are starting to recombine into a new landscape of work.

While reading the report, keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive collection of trends likely to affect the future of work; neither does it have the ambition to describe the future of work for every industry, culture and model of employment. Our workshop covered a lot of ground, but it definitely did not explore the entire global landscape of work.

So what does YOUR future look like? What did we miss? What did we get wrong? Is the future described in the report already your present? Let us know.

Are You a “Fumbler” or “Fact Finder”?

Michelle Affleck — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:11:22 GMT

As a student, my biggest fear was that the teacher would call on me and I wouldn’t know the answer to her question. So, when I wasn’t 100% sure of an answer or didn’t have any facts to back up my opinion, I would sit as quietly as I could wishing to, somehow, make myself invisible. After all, nothing would be worse than fumbling around for information or being wrong in front of the entire class!

I soon learned that, if I wanted to succeed, I needed to be the first one to raise my hand with confidence – and the right facts.

“Fumblers” versus “fact finders”

When it comes to business intelligence, IDC identifies organizations as “fumblers” and “fact finders.” The fumblers base decisions on incomplete, unorganized data and opinions – and hope they never get called on to explain themselves. Whereas, the fact finders base decisions on accurate, structured, and up-to-the-minute information, supported by a well-defined BI and analytics strategy.

Which one are you?

According to Dan Vesset, program vice president of IDC's Business Analytics research, fact finders are focused on providing a clear and visible BI and analytics strategy. As part of their strategy, they:

Train employees on the meaning of data, the use of BI and analytics tools, and the use of analytics to improve decision making
Invest in BI and analytics system design quality to rapidly respond to changing business conditions and user requirements
Place a high level of importance (including funding) on a data governance group and associated policies
Involve nonexecutive management in promoting and encouraging the design and use of the BI and analytics solution
Align the organization to performance management methodology with a set of defined metrics and KPIs that influence user behavior

Why does it matter?

According to IDC, “as a group, fact finders are more competitive than fumblers.” “Eighty percent of the most competitive organizations are fact finders,” reported IDC, “almost thirty percent more than among the least competitive organizations.”

With a BI and analytics strategy, organizations can empower business users to make evidence-based decisions using the best possible intelligence about customers, finances, operations, suppliers, and market trends. And this can lead to improved business processes, increased productivity, and reduced costs – for a competitive edge.

Turn your organization into fact finders with the right BI and analytics strategy

To learn about the factors you should consider when creating a BI and analytics strategy and best practices for pervasive and highly impactful BI and analytics use, read the IDC Analyst Connection article “Best Practices for a BI and Analytics Strategy.”

What B2B Marketers Can Learn from Shark Week

Reed Hornberger — Mon, 20 May 2013 18:27:28 GMT

Whether terrified or fascinated (or both!) by sharks, there’s a lesson for all of us in marketing when we look at the creative ways the Discovery Channel keeps Shark Week’s 723,000 Facebook fans engaged.

Shark Week fans are a committed bunch! They follow Shark Week on Facebook for facts, videos, and even sneak previews of upcoming episodes. They watch the Shark Week Twitter stream during the episode, competing with one another to be the first to correctly answer trivia questions. And after an episode, fans go back to Facebook to catch un-aired scenes from the latest show, or share ideas and points of view with the other fans.

What the Discovery Channel understands is that while we tune into TV for our favorite episode, we are also flanked by our iPads, smart phones, laptops, etc. with another ‘view’ to the show. While the TV is on, we are "always on" working across the various social media channels. Knowing this, they carefully guide us from one social media channel to another and maximize on the show’s ‘experience’ across the fan base.

I see a parallel with TV programming and business events. Both have a start and end time, and there’s opportunity to engage with our fans/prospects before, during, and after the event. If B2B marketers embrace the Shark Week system of engagement when we plan our business events, we will ensure attendees are prepared and welcomed as they arrive, engaged during the event, and stay engaged with us after the event.

What tactics have you used (or experienced) that made you feel the event organizers were dedicated to giving you a great experience from beginning to end?

Innovation stickiness made faster and surer – SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud

Ramesh Ramakrishnan — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:57:34 GMT

Innovation is not a differentiator anymore; Innovation stickiness is. Connected customers in the information age with a ‘web of voices’ expect Innovation to be both faster and surer. For businesses, Innovation is not only about differentiating from competitors but more importantly about gaining value stickiness from customers – immediately and consistently. Time-to-market has a younger cousin now – time-in-market.

Inside-out view on Innovation stickiness:

Innovation starts with spotting the new wave by being connected to the market and the last mile is about ensuring the Innovative product/service is a success. With the ‘web of voices’, continuous failures would only lead to a buzz of negative views about the company, making it an uphill battle for the next launch. Technology can help make Innovation faster and surer – In-memory computing, Big data analytics, Cloud etc can help companies with the following steps

Big Idea: listen to the market, pick up trends to ask new questions internally and come up with the next Big Idea(s).
Better Business case: speed up the innovation process based on market data – quickly move from right Idea to Innovation.
Insure your Innovation: test market the innovation, leverage real-time insights and get customers, prospects, employees on company’s side to advocate, arbitrate and increase the probability of success.
Power your Innovation: IT engines don’t have to be custom-built/proprietary on-premise, simply secure cloud based enterprise solutions to quickly achieve a whole new IT model and drive time-to-market.

The way these 4 steps are handled will determine whether Innovation is Incremental or Transformational; handled poorly, then perhaps no Innovation at all. In terms of incremental Innovation, high processing speed (Points 1, 2, 3 from above) and even medium IT ‘turn-around’ speed (Point 4 from above) will make the difference between the product ‘sequel’ making an impact or some other company leapfrogging. In terms of Transformation Innovation which does not only involve product/service innovation, but also business model innovation, a high score across all 4 points above is critical.

SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud makes it possible to carry out all these steps in a faster and surer way. Not only that, SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud also supports custom HANA applications, including non-SAP centric ones (Ref Aiaz Kazi). Imagine what this can offer a digital enterprise – Simplicity, which is the core of the business.

Software functionality and business processes are no longer the differentiators as it was in the time-to-market dominated era, in the new digital era Innovation stickiness (time-in-market) is key.

Outside-In view on Innovation stickiness:

There are 3 E’s from a customers’ point of view that are crucial.

Effectiveness -

Imagine large retailers like Walmart with more than 4000 retails units in America or large ecommerce companies, banks - the amount of information that’s collected from transactional data (say billion plus records of sales data), browsing data and trending data in the region could be analysed in real-time to run highly efficient campaigns and do campaign course correction to offers in real-time. From a customers’ perspective this is fantastic as the company is helping them achieve something in line with their preferences, its time saving and reduces research effort.

With in-store maps gaining popularity amongst customers to help them locate products or price comparison apps; contextually relevant real-time offers, content etc are more relevant than offline coupons and material which customers don’t tend to keep it with them or simply don’t go through all the coupons/product material they get.

Effectiveness is not only a frontline issue, customers looking for the right product at the right place at the right time means having a smart supply chain management as well.

Experience -

Business process and functionality used to give the edge in running businesses and customer relationship management, now it’s not even omni-channel experience. Customers simply expect companies to match their product/services experience with the brand promise made – differentiation is in the experience. In retail, though the above example is about effectiveness, with the marketing, commerce, supply-chain unit so interconnected in order to deliver a good customer experience, any slippages would lead to a social media/PR disaster, affecting the brand perception.

Similar to intuitive web designs, customers are not expecting intuitive store designs or delivery mechanisms. With more and more customers using In-store map applications to locate products, traffic heat map data could be used to map it with sales data to build an intuitive store for a good customer experience. In Banks such applications could give alerts to branch managers when a high-value customer enters the branch, so that the manager can meet them and offer a personalised service (perhaps cross-sell, up-sell)

Expectations -

Continuous Innovation combined with effective customer interactions and good experience only makes customers anticipate the next launch more eagerly, creating a good pull factor. Future services/products have a better chance of being in line with or exceeding expectations due to the insights based on massive data sets across social, location, mobile, transactional information and results from running pilots.

When the market is changing at a rapid pace, crowd-sourcing plays an important role in continuous innovation. SAP’s customer ecosystem can benefit from SAPs openness in sharing their IP and DS in order to get them up and running quickly as mentioned by Bill McDermott, Co-CEO SAP in this video.

Time-to-market and Time-in-market have to go hand-in-hand by leveraging the customer, employee, influencer ecosystem to build a sustainable business and future.

You can follow me on Twitter @Ramesh_Ramki website www.futuristCMO.com

Artistic Entrepreneurs Fuel the Creative Economy - It takes a community…

Susan Galer — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:36:59 GMT

Every time you purchase a painting, use a hand-made serving bowl, attend a live musical performance, or watch an indie film, you are supporting a creative economy of artists, performers, and filmmakers that contribute to a more sustainable society. With over 140 artist, individual, and business members, the Rocky Neck Art Colony (RNAC) in Gloucester, Massachusetts is perhaps the poster child for what its president Karen Ristuben sees as the creative economy. “We’re doing everything that a non-profit organization can do to support artistic entrepreneurship,” she says. “Without a community like us, individual artists have close to zero chance of having an impact on the public at-large and our economy. People have to create. What’s life without art?”

A non-profit organization for 40 years, RNAC is part of a longtime arts tradition on Rocky Neck which has been a magnet for creative types attracted to this slice of land since the mid-1800s for its incredible light and the beauty of the sea. Ristuben says art is just as important now but with a twist. “People need to understand that the role of the artist in 2013 is to connect with the community and larger issues of the world as well as making beautiful art. The RNAC has stepped up to create an important asset not just for our use but the entire community.”

Ristuben is excited that the RNAC building also hosts business meetings and popular lectures along with art, yoga and other classes. “Maybe the boundaries between artist and community blur, opening up conversations that help support even more creativity and economic growth.”

I had the opportunity to speak with several RNAC artists at the gallery’s Best of Rocky Neck reception in April featuring the work of 60artist-members:

Otto Laske creates richly textured “visual music” animation, video-based photography, and digital painting that capture musical compositions in images and poetry.
Adriana “Gigi” Mederos uses acrylic paints and water-based printmaking inks, working abstractly on both paper and canvas. As RNAC’s Artistic Director, she’s also responsible for curating exhibits and serving as liaison between the artists and the larger community.
Barry Shuchter’s paintings reflect scenes from the artist’s work and travel experiences, including the vivid, “Asbestos Remover,” that reproduces a mural painted by Jose Celemente Orozco in the Baker Library at Dartmouth College. Shuchter had a job removing asbestos from the library’s ceiling.

My company, SAP, has displayed artwork from both employees and internationally acclaimed artists at company locations for the past 40 years as well. The picture above shows the current display in Walldorf. Call it what you will—promoting creativity or fostering work/life balance—this commitment to display paintings, drawings, graphic art, photography, and sculpture gives artists a chance to share their work while bringing people together to change the way they see the world. Some might label art elitist or beyond the grasp of the average person. In fact, communities like RNAC and companies like SAP prove that art couldn’t be more central to the human experience.

Follow me @smgaler

Deceiving Without Lying

Jonathan Becher — Mon, 20 May 2013 08:30:44 GMT

“It’s true I deceived you but I wasn’t lying.”

The statement, spoken brazenly by a work colleague, momentarily floored me. I thought deception and lying were the same thing. A little bit of research suggests there may be a difference.

In ‘Why Leaders Lie: The Truth About Lying in International Politics’, the author claims there are three different kinds of deception: lying, spinning, and concealment.

Lying is when a person makes a statement he knows to be false in order to deceive the target audience. “Lying can involve making up facts that one knows to be false or denying facts that one knows to be true.” In addition, a person is lying when he uses true facts to make the case that something is true which he knows is not true.

On the other hand, spinning is when a person emphasizes certain facts to make a point, while, at the same time, avoiding inconvenient facts that detract from the point. “Spinning is all about interpreting the known facts in a way that allows the spinner to tell a favorable story.”

Finally, concealment happens when a person doesn’t reveal information that would weaken the point he is trying to make. That person is hiding the truth.

As a society, we view each of these deceptions differently. The basic tenets of many cultures include the commandment “Thou shalt not lie.” On the other hand, concealment is discouraged but viewed as less troubling than lying; it is designated as the sin of omission. Of the three types of deception, only spinning seems to be permitted by society. According to popular wisdom, traditional marketers and politicians base their careers on spinning.

Follow me on Twitter (@jbecher) – no lying, no spinning, and no concealment.

Please follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

This blog was originally posted on Manage By Walking Around on May 19, 2013.

What if the path isn't clear? Top 5 Tips for Career Development

Tracey Arnish — Sat, 18 May 2013 17:00:05 GMT

“I would love to hear all about your career path and how you planned to get to your role today.” This was a question I was hit with last week during a mentoring session with a colleague I just started working with. I have to admit, it stopped me in my tracks and left me wondering if I could admit to this enthusiastic young talent that I, in fact, have not been working against a long term career plan?

I thought about maybe cobbling together some quick thoughts that spoke about a detailed long term development plan, clear goals and objectives. I also thought about brushing it off and just telling her it was luck, chance, and being in the right place at the right time. However, I quickly realized not only were neither of these scenarios true, they were also not helpful at all. So I told the truth; I admitted to not having worked with a clear long term and well defined development plan and spoke about five things that made a real difference in my career.

Have a “development plan” in place and review it regularly - While I may not have had a step-by-step development plan clearly detailed out, I have always taken time each year to think about my development goals, identify activities to engage in that support my development and discuss this with my manager. This has created self-accountability and an awareness of the areas that I want to work on. I look back at the end of the year to measure my progress and this helps me set up my development planning in the coming year.
Know your strengths and your weaknesses - Some call them “areas for development,” but I call them “weaknesses” and I share mine to anyone who will listen. I subscribe to the adage that “admitting it is the first step.” By communicating my weaknesses, I create a new level of awareness in myself that enables me address them, evolve how I want to, and do what is necessary for growth as a leader. Admitting them has also created opportunities for direct feedback from the individuals I have shared them with. My team has been more than happy to inform me that, yes, in fact I do that, or even in some cases what I think is a weakness they don’t see as problematic. This feedback has been very important for my development.
Look for opportunities each and every day to develop - A few years ago someone said to me that they saw my name on every project we had under way in HR and asked why. I was quick to share that I truly believe the best way to develop is to take on projects and/or roles that introduce you to new topics and skills. Don’t be afraid to sign on for something that you know very little about; in fact, it is my goal to continue to work in areas where I have little experience. The last two roles I’ve had put me in a situation where I was asked to lead when I knew less about the topics than anyone else on the team. Scary? Yes, but what an opportunity to learn! By knowing your strengths you can leverage those to contribute, while you simultaneously learn a whole lot. Participating in projects not only supports personal development, but it also expands your network and visibility. This can be a big advantage when new opportunities come up, as more individuals will know you and your work.
Learn from others - Mentors are a fantastic learning resource, but how can you incorporate learning from others into your everyday work? Early on in my career, one of my best leadership role models was actually the worst leader I ever worked for. What did I learn? Everything that I did not want to do myself as a leader. From other leaders, I have also learned about the type of leader and contributor I want to be. In every situation I enter into, I actively look for the opportunity to try a skill I have been working on, or to learn something new from someone in the room. This may seem daunting, but try taking just two minutes to reflect at the end of a meeting and capture what you learned. Additionally, it is even better if you can go into the situation knowing what you are hoping to gain out of it.
Do not be afraid to take a risk - A couple of years ago, I was talking myself out of an opportunity, saying I wasn’t ready for it and I didn’t think it would be good for my family. Fortunately, my mentor directly challenged me to not say, “No” before I had a chance to learn more about the role and see if it was something that could work. Really what he did was call out my unfounded fears and encourage me to learn what I needed to learn and to take a risk. “What is the worst that could happen?” is what he asked and he was right. Every risk I have taken, while initially hard, has resulted in long term success and career growth. If I had not been willing to take risks along the way, my career would have taken a very different route, even if it had been detailed and well planned.

So as I spoke with my mentee, who was thinking about her career development and planning for this year, my advice was not to get hung up on having the perfect plan with a clear answer of where she wanted to be in five years. I encouraged her to understand her career development needs, her strengths and her weaknesses. I told her to think about what she wants to grow toward- it doesn’t have to be a specific role, as it could be to an area of the business, or a set of responsibilities- and then plan a few actions to help her get there.

You must seize opportunities when they come your way and don’t be afraid to take a risk. If you practice these things throughout the year, you will be well on your way to the career you want!

Sapphire Influencers Talk with SAP Game-Changers Radio

Bonnie D Graham — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:30:41 GMT

What a whirlwind!

Picture this cast of characters:

SAP's Malcolm Kimberlin aka "Agent 99" [real life Influencer Relations guru at SAP] at the SAP Game-Changers Radio "Cone of Silence Sound Booth" [shades of "Get Smart" TV show 1965-69 where Agent 86 Maxwell Smart's telephones were concealed in 50 objects] at SapphireNOW 2013 in Orlando, connected to SAP Radio via telephone.

SAP Game-Changers Radio producer / host Bonnie D. Graham at the SAP Radio Studio in New York, connected to Malcolm in Orlando via Lync visual chat window and to the VoiceAmerica / Business Channel via the magic of Tieline and headset.

Valued influencers and thought leaders - more than two dozen - entered the hallowed Cone of Silence to share with Bonnie their thoughts on the most compelling game-changer announcements, tools, strategies, innovations, people, trends and more at this year's SapphireNOW. And they posed with the official SAP Game-Changers coffee cup for a "mug shot" by Malcolm. Maribel Lopez / Lopez Research photo featured here.

The results?

Hear for yourself what Ray Wang, Brian S. Sommer, Michael Krigsman, Maribel Lopez, Sheryl Kingstone, Dr. Natalie Petouhoff, Allen Bonde, William Newman, Cindi Howson, Dr .Peter Graf, Jamie Anderson, Evan Quinn, Volker Hildebrand, plus analysts at Ovum, IDC and TEC, several SAP partners and customers had to say. And see Maribel Lopez / Lopex Research holding the official SAP Game-Changers mug.

Interview series 1: https://soundcloud.com/user72552273/sets/sapgamechangersradiosapphire2013

Interview series 2: https://soundcloud.com/sapradio-influencers-2/sets/sapgamechangersradiosapphirenow2013

See you on the radio.../bonnie

http://spr.ly/SAPRadio

http://spr.ly/SAPCFORadio

http://spr.ly/SAPCloudRadio

SAP's Vision for Manufacturing is in 3D

Sarah Harvey — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:08:55 GMT

Imagine a patient is rushed to the hospital, in desperate need of a customized medical device. Traditionally, patients have waited days for their medical information to be sent to an off-site manufacturer, and for the device to be custom-fitted and returned to the hospital.

In the future, with SAP HANA and 3D printing, that device can be built on-premise, completely customized, in record time.

This is just one example of SAP’s new vision for manufacturing, a world where SAP HANA’s super-fast data analysis comes together with 3D printing technology to build tailored products in real time. In healthcare, SAP HANA can provide personalized medical data that, when combined with 3D printing, will empower doctors and researchers to develop customized treatments and save lives.

In the rest of the manufacturing industry, 3D printing will transform the supply chain, perhaps eventually eliminating factories as we know them. The SAP HANA platform will assemble data, and 3D printers will build products at the end point, for the end user.

“Ship your products as bits, not atoms,” said Sam Yen, global head of design and user experience at SAP.

Yen was invited onstage during Vishal Sikka’s keynote at SAPPHIRE NOW in Orlando, Fl., which topped off a week of visionary plans for SAP. Sikka focused on how SAP’s newest innovations are streamlining businesses while also solving social problems around the world. The experience of the end user, he said, is most important.

In industries like manufacturing, SAP is adapting to new paradigms in order to maximize the end-user experience. SAP has historically played a major role in manufacturing, helping companies manage the supply chain, oversee factory operations, and respond quickly to customer demand. Today 3D printing is transforming many elements of this process. Although it is now primarily used for rapid prototyping, manufacturers are increasingly employing 3D printers to create specialized parts, such as tools for injection molding. Someday consumer objects may be printed on-demand at the point of sale.

For now, healthcare is showcasing some of the biggest impacts of 3D printing on the consumer. 3D printing companies like MakerBot can build prosthetic limbs, facial implants, fake teeth, and someday maybe organs. When the necessary medical data is analyzed in SAP HANA’s in-memory database, the time-to-value is nearly immediate—which will transform the primitively slow healthcare field, said Sikka.

“The patient shouldn’t have to be patient,” he said.

SAP Focuses on Customers First, Critics Second

Sarah Harvey — Thu, 16 May 2013 22:06:09 GMT

By Sarah Harvey, Travis Irvine, and Ben Hancock

SAP is giving end users the attention they deserve.

On the third day of SAP’s annual SAPPHIRE NOW conference, the company’s technological “fathers” focused their keynote speeches on the SAP customer experience, while also dispelling myths about the in-memory SAP HANA platform and new cloud offerings.

Co-founder Hasso Plattner and executive board member Vishal Sikka wove a powerful story of how mathematics and design can drive innovative solutions that maximize the end-user experience—and how SAP, in particular, is leading the way.

Plattner began by asking the audience, “What do customers expect from SAP products?” He emphasized that the company’s products must be easy and reliable, while also offering a consumer-grade user experience.

The cloud, for instance, is bringing a new element of flexibility to the customer. Plattner compared its new licensing model to leasing a car instead of buying one, and explained how SAP offers different solutions for companies of different sizes.

Plattner then turned his attention to several myths about the SAP HANA that he has seen in the press. “There is a culture in this country of freedom of speech,” Plattner joked. “I couldn’t find anything that says there is a freedom of making up facts.”

For example, Plattner addressed the myth that HANA is not ready for primetime, which he dispelled by rapidly listing hundreds of companies that already use the real-time software. Furthermore, Plattner dismissed the rumor that HANA is only for SAP applications. Nearly 60 percent of HANA applications are on outside systems, he said, and many users are start-up companies. In fact, there are 431 startups on the HANA platform. “This is the future of SAP,” said Plattner.

Vishal Sikka was ushered onstage by a video message from computer science visionary Alan Kay, who applauded systems like SAP HANA “that allow end users to do only what experts had done before.”

But, SAP HANA is old news for SAP innovators. “She’s not a little girl anymore,” said Sikka. Now, “the opportunity in front of us is about expanding our horizons.”

Sikka highlighted how SAP’s vast ecosystem is helping reach those goals. He featured live and video presentations from partners, including Hewlett-Packard, Adobe, Google, eBay, Intel, and more.

Customers such as John Deere—the first to launch an ERP system powered by SAP HANA—showed that with SAP, the customer’s customer comes first. John Deere is able to use data from sensors on its field equipment to give customers real-time solutions.

"As Hasso always says, 'We are working from the user experience, backwards,'" said Sikka.