For more than four decades, SAP has been developing systems, applications, and products in data processing to benefit businesses in Europe, the US, and the world. It is the market leader in its field and is at the centre of today’s technology revolution, developing innovations to make the world run better and improve people’s lives everywhere. SAP’s goal is to help organisations to simplify complexities for real-time responsiveness, enable actions with timely information, stay ahead of the competition, and generate new opportunities for innovation and growth.
Jim Hagemann Snabe is a member of the supervisory board and served as co-CEO of SAP with Bill McDermott from 2010 to 2014. He has worked at SAP since 1990, only leaving for a couple of years when he was headhunted by IBM to run its strategy consulting practice, before being called back to take on the role of managing director for Sweden. His professional experience with SAP includes various consulting, sales, development and leadership positions. He has a masters degree in operational research from the Aarhus University in Denmark.
After 25 years in the IT industry, Jim decided that it was time to leverage his experience more broadly and give back to society. Today, Jim’s career direction and focus is to help the World Economic Forum in its mission to improve the state of the world and to help five global companies (SAP, Siemens, Allianz, Danske Bank, and Bang & Olufsen) to improve their business by leveraging digital opportunities. The CEO Magazine sat down with Jim to talk about his work with SAP, how a co-CEO model worked successfully for the company, the importance of embracing innovative technology, and his vision for the future.