Lessons learned from my 10-year anniversary
When I started at SAP in January 2007 the world was a different one:
- Nokia achieved a 40% global market share, no smartphone
- believe it: no AirBnB, no WhatsApp
- SAP stock was at 33 EUR
- my kids attended kindergarten
The world has changed massively since then. And the world is better than we think. We humans underestimate the amount of positive change that happens during a decade. We are especially biased by the avalanche of daily (bad) news. Good news are no news, as my English teacher told me during secondary school.
I lived in Switzerland back then. Of course, I own a Swiss army knife. This multi-tool is a good metaphor for how I’ve experienced the last decade.
The body of the knife holds all the tools together. These are lasting values and behaviors that I’ve appreciated during those first ten years at SAP:
- Trust – this begins with the trust working time and ends with the quality of the relationships between colleagues and customers
- Freedom – in a publicly traded company we have to deliver good results, quarter by quarter. I’m glad that I’ve worked with managers who have given me the freedom to decide HOW I’m going to achieve these objectives.
- Open doors – the opportunities to directly reach out to experts and to ask for advice and guidance are only limited by our own restraint.
The tools of the knife are designed to help me survive outdoor. Today this is a volatile, uncertain, complex world. So, as the environment changes, I’ve to take the time to sharpen used tools, remove useless ones, and add new tools.
When I attended the first Design Thinking bootcamp from Business Consulting in Berlin in 2011 this opened a whole new world for me. Meanwhile, I’ve added many new tools to my knife. My professional, volunteering and private life has become richer. This blog is just one visible tip of the iceberg.
To sum it up: what the Swiss Army knife has told me: be humble, focus on the essential, deliver quality in a beautiful way, learn continuously, and stay curious.
The main reason I’m richer today is not the SAP stock. It’s all about the bridges built to colleagues across the company, the challenges endured together, and the shared experience on our learning journeys. It’s a pleasure to have worked with them.
Thank you for ten fantastic years at SAP!
