Sap Harvard Business Review

15 February 2017        

SAP CEO

        Eyes are always on CEOs let alone one that’s an American heading a large German multinational company. Bill McDermott, the CEO of SAP, grew up multinational on Long Island, which he describes as a melting pot. McDermott’s first overseas assignment wasn’t until he was 29 when he was a sales manager for Xerox. So how was he able to become SAP’s first American born CEO in its history?

        His first advantage was working in sales. This gave him a strong foundation of being able to adapt to different markets. As a salesman he had to adapt different business strategies in certain markets. For example he learned to be concise when in New York, later when in software he learned he had to be more function based when making sales.

        McDermott also says his respect of culture helped him as CEO. When SAP first approached him to be a North American executive he already understood the problems SAP were having before he started. He knew that Germans were running the North American branch. They were more focused on superior engineering rather than empathy for the customers needs and goals.

        McDermott also believes that him focusing on the job and problems at hand were part of the reason he became CEO. He always had high aspirations for his career but when he was developing the North American market into a success he didn’t have becoming a CEO on his mind. He was focused on doing his job. McDermott said he never felt like an American running a German company, he always felt that SAP was truly a global company.