The appointment of Leo Apotheker as co-CEO
of SAP signals much more than the impending
retirement of incumbent CEO Henning
Kagermann in 2009. It signals a sea change in the company’s business plans as it shifts its
effort from making huge investments in new software products and acquiring
companies to reaping the highest possible profit margins from those
investments.
SAP’s executive shuffle itself comes as
no surprise. It’s been expected that Apotheker, who was appointed deputy CEO
in March 2007, would take over sole possession of Kagermann’s CEO
role when his contract expires in 2009.
It’s also been expected that SAP would
appoint several new executives to its Supervisory Board as the company changes
its business focus. But the appointment of Apotheker, whose roots run deep in sales and
marketing, is perhaps the best indicator that the company is shifting its focus
from software development to sales and customer service.
Read the full article at eWEEK.
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