
I’ve been reflecting on my time at Davos this past week, including all the wonderful connections I made and the powerful sessions I was fortunate enough to attend. Having the opportunity to be in the room where it happens, and to see the energy and co-creation of thought leadership among such a brilliant group was a remarkably invigorating life goal.
While I probably can’t top Ray Wang’s 5 Uber Forces summary of the macrotrends (including the official vs. “unofficial” Davos), here are my key takeaways:
Resilience was THE topic, and I was struck at just how well this plays to SAP’s vision to drive system-wide, transformative change in pursuit of achieving our #NetZero goals (zero emissions, zero waste, and zero inequality). We’re making progress every day on our aims, including just this week with our Supervisory Board reaching gender parity and our commitment to achieve net-zero emissions across our entire value chain by 2030. In short, I couldn’t be prouder of our corporate citizenship. Providing the technology to enable our customers to achieve similarly ambitious goals will absolutely help the world run better and improve people's lives.
There was so much talk about the importance of power skills and especially empathy as a core competency. To quote Jenni Hibbert, “Empathy has become a superpower since the pandemic.” The more leaders actively pursue and foster empathy as a personal competitive differentiator, the sooner we’ll build organizations that more closely reflect our collective values.
The SAPian energy was strong – and quite literally so with the E-Bike Tour to Davos in support of sustainability. I had the chance to meet up with Christian Boos, Stefan Schoepfel, and Jörg Barten following their four-day, 400-kilometer (!) trip from Walldorf to Davos, and I was exhilarated just from shaking their hands. I also had the opportunity to wave at [grin] a few members of the executive board and other colleagues around town, and learned a lot from Vivek Bapat’s panel about The Competitive Advantage of Purpose at the Equality Lounge.
Speaking of the Equality Lounge, I have to express my gratitude for what a wonderful venue The Female Quotient and Shelley Zalis organized. The energy, the conversations, the connections (also the food and venue)– was completely on point and such a delightful experience. Special shout to Amber Coleman-Mortley’s job as moderator and audience wrangler for the session with Yvonne Garcia, Daphne Kis, and Alisa Cohn. Huge thanks to Yao Huang for connecting me to Sybilla Masters Fund and Vani Rao to join two panels with the badass women (and friends for life) : Lakshmi Reddy, Julie Rasmussen, Kim "Kimfer" Flanery-Rye, Dorothea "Thea" Soule.

Finally, just as SAP’s key goals spoke to much of the larger picture of the week, Human Experience Management (HXM) speaks to the heart of the urgent organizational and cultural change that the future of work requires. People power business, and when you prioritize their needs (both near-term and long-term) you will build crucially necessary agility, purpose and resilience into your organizations. And if one thing was made abundantly clear this week, it’s that the world needs businesses that can continuously adapt to change. Taking part in these conversations strongly reinforced my belief in our HXM vision and our commitment to customers to be the platform that will Change Work For Good.
I’m so fortunate to have been able to share, learn and grow this past week. We’re coming out of a tough 2.5 years and while it was exciting to engage in person, I’m aware of my overwhelming privilege at this important moment in time. I continue to stay thoughtful, curious and humble -- seeking out ways both small and large that I can impact positive change.
There’s a lot of work to be done to improve the world, pressing and urgent work. But when you see the amazing people, energy, and ideas (and the Alps) firsthand, it’s hard to be anything other than optimistic about the future that we will create together.
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