The problem is that SAP is run much like a franchise operation

SAP has been led from the top for decades by the Sales organization ( i.e McDermott. Enslin, Morgan...) And prior to the Sales organization it was led for even more decades by technical folks ( i.e. Hasso, Dietmar).

The problem is that SAP is run much like a franchise operation. Each Board Area runs however it wants, spend what it wants, push its own agenda, etc (it's how extravaganza's like Winners Circle come back year after year after year...) All of this isolated decision making with basically no involvement from "which ever' group happens to be sitting in the "C" suite into the affairs of one of the other Board Areas. It's the classic "free for all".

So can someone please tell me when it comes to the 'lift and shift" we hear so much about, "who" really will be deciding on what functions stay and what goes to low cost?

Is there ANY real expertise at Board level who has an "overall" vision of what should happen as it relates to gaining efficiencies by transferring jobs in and out of countries. and then bring execution from all parts of the company to deliver against this strategy?

Or do we just get more of the same, where at the end of a Board meeting it's discussed that there needs to be a 12% or 15% reduction and then all "franchises" decide how this will be sliced up?

I don't know but what we seems to make sense is that don't need is to be run by Technical individuals, or Sales individuals, who know nothing about the other - but rather we need to be run by "qualified" C level individuals who have the respect of the organization because of their industry leadership skills and experience vs just being hatched from one Board Area or the other.

OP is @1r0+1w7vKIr7.

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Spot on - says it all about SAP. Awesome post

Why on earth would the board have any expertise in anything other than politics, it's how they get to be on the board, not by being any good at anything. All the work is down many layers lower.

To @c9+1jj94m807,
Might I be right, that you are from the Irish office? ( just an observation from your phrasing.... "woeful amounts of shyte", I imagine you might be Irish? For other, yes, I am allowed to make these observations, as I myself am Irish.

As this is a "layoffs" site, yes fully agreed with both the opener and also my Irish colleague.
And keeping things blunt, any further news/updates on Irish office layoffs, or movements? Also, whats the feeling in the office? (RTO), I am seeing multiple teams not in the office on my floor. Are you seeing the same?
Thank you.

There are some guys who talk woeful amounts of shyte in leadership roles.

Thanks to whoever reposted this. I was the original author of the post and so I thought I would add some more context to the point I was making because I think this is a serious problem for SAP.

In another word besides being a franchise, I would say the company is siloed throughout. In addition to there being really no accountability to those couple of individuals who get to run one of the board areas, we also lack a very competent 'COO" who might have been able to connect the dots from one organization to the next to make such a disentangled operation work effectively.

What we are left with are things like "task duplication" - take a minute to think about how many people are involved in the same tasks from one Board Area to the next, things like: Financial oversight, Performance metrics, Project Management, etc. There must be hundreds if not thousands of individual across the company who are doing some sort of "strategic planning" for their own areas - and somebody really believes all of these disparate "strategic plans" all flow in the same direction? Rather we allow each Board area to duplicate ( at significant expense) the same functions over and over again.

We also have "Disenfranchised Employees" in this Franchise setup. People who feel they contribute as much as all others in the Company but when it comes to recognition and rewards we single out only one Board Area and allow them to splurge on themselves ( at the expense of everyone else) and send them and their families on trips to places like Hawaii for 1-2 weeks at full expense of the company. If we had competent Leadership there would be a much greater awareness of the negative impacts of favoritism and thus dispersion of rewards thru out the company to all who excel would not only be promoted, but demanded.

Also do we really interact with all the other Board Area employees? I think very little of this occurs - we are all siloed in our own areas and have very little, if any, collaboration on a regular basis with other units outside of our own Board Areas. All of this creates an "us vs them" mentality and then leads to negativity and a workforce where people do not feel like they are all part of a "team/company" at large.

All of this might have worked back in the 1970's when Hasso, Dietmar and the rest were just starting the company but having basically 4 or five completely separate Board Areas where no one ( who has the credentials) to lead a company the size of SAP is making sure (i) the company functions as one entity (ii) knows enough about all of the Board Areas to as--s if what they are doing is consistent with our goals and strategy and (iiI) holds Leaders of all of these Board Areas accountable to make sure what they do has a positive impact on all other areas whether it be by way of rewards and recognition or day to day business.

We just do not have a " best in class" corporate organizational model and everyone pays a price for this gap.

Sorry for long reply and thanks again for the repost.

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The problem is that SAP is run much like a franchise operation

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