How inspiring it is to walk the hallways of my SAP building and read the placards placed all around. . Here's a sample of some of them , "All for one and one for all", and " We are the SAP Team" and this was one of the best, "The way to achieve your own success is to help somebody else achieve theirs."
In 3-4 weeks SAP will begin notifying an alleged 3000 employees that their time with SAP is done and they will exit the company immediately on notification - that's how quick it will come to an end . It will be a sad day to see people who you worked with closely and who worked very hard for the Company get cut.
But cheer up my fellow SAP colleagues, because just a week after these 3000 people are told they are no longer needed, we will be sending some 5000 Sales people along with their significant others to Winner's Circle - isn't that fantastic !! Yes they will still go on their company spree, no matter what. This is an event that will send a total of more than 10,000 SAP'ers on an all expense paid week long vacation along with expensive gifts and world class entertainment. Imagine that, who in their right mind, especially given that we haven't made a profit for years and also under the economic circumstances of the past couple years, would even dream of justifying an event like this ? Well SAP does, and It's the best corporate show around - Bill really set the bar pretty high for this one!
Just so we are clear, this is the same group of Sales people who figured out that you just need to meet the revenue goal to get to Winner's Circle but you don't actually need to sell at a profit. This is a key reason why we have consistently failed year after year to post a profit and in 2022 we had once again a significant profit loss, but no worries 10,000 people will still descend on Winner's Circle. Now if they had the metrics based on "profitable' deals, we would just have needed a table reservation for 4, but that's not how the SAP sales org works.
The fact that SAP is proceeding to move forward with this extravagant event while at the same time laying off thousands of dedicated employees is the height of insolence, selfishness and insincerity. You can do the math but the budget for this event is over $50MM - so how many jobs would that have saved? Plenty for sure. These layoffs didn't just get drummed up last week. The Board knew mid year that they were headed into another year end close that would have significant profit losses leading to layoffs and they had the opportunity to cancel out this event in an attempt to save many of our colleagues from this impending personal nightmare and show that the company really values "each" of it's 100,000 employees - of course this is assuming they really cared about all of the employees. But this was not to be - not in a million years. We could not be further away from functioning as one company. ( And yes if questioned they have already cleverly established the party line, which is It was just too late to cancel so we had to go ahead - and if anyone believes that I have a couple of bridges for sale in case anybody is in need.)
But OK enough about the fake k-m·ba·ya. Let's wish our prima donna colleagues all the best at their free spending lavish event and let the rest of us wonder around the SAP hallways and read some more placards about how much we care about each other and work as a team... yeah... let's tell it like it is and please send a note over to your favorite sales person or SVP and ask if they can at least raise a glass of Chateau D’Yquem on behalf of those who were laid off while they wine and dine themselves and their partners next month!! BTW. If any of the attendees need a recommendation, I hear the scuba diving excursion is to die for.
Ahh, how sweet are the fruits of success, even when they come at other peoples expense! Enjoy and a big thanks to Hasso and CK and the whole SAP Board for continuing to make ALL of this happen , you guys are the best!
Now can I please get back to reading some more SAP propaganda about how we can build bridges and not silos to one another - what an absolute and complete selfish farce this company has become that is built on nothing but greed and a employee caste system.
It's really just as simple as it's all about Winners and Losers and nothing more. We should all be looking for better opportunities elsewhere.