SAP’s Chief Executive Officer Bill McDermott has been named Manager of the Year by the jury of Manager Magazin, the German business magazine.
McDermott is a former senior executive at Siebel Systems, Gartner and Xerox. He is also a board member at Under Armour and Ansys, as well as the author of Winners Dream: A Journey from Corner Store to Corner Office. Through his tenures as co-CEO and CEO, SAP’s market value has increased from $39 Billion to $144.7 Billion.
The magazine said that the panel chose McDermott for the award because it found “SAP’s long-lasting growth story worthy of distinction.”
In an interview with the magazine after being told he had been selecting as manager of the year, McDermott described it as “my best Christmas present.”
In the interview, he was asked where he expects future growth to come from, to which he said: “Sensational new growth opportunities are opening up for us. Today, SAP provides company managers with all the data they need for intelligent corporate management. They can use the data to analyze their customers’ behavior, inspire their employees, or optimize their supply chain.”
“Customer satisfaction is the deciding factor for business success,“ he said, noting that just a five percent increase in repeat buyers increases profits by 95 percent.
When asked about the recently announced Qualtrics acquisition, he said: “Software that enables companies to systematically analyze customer feedback is the next big thing in business,” he said. “Qualtrics has a market potential of more than $40 billion. With their software, the guys from Utah can collect unstructured data — emojis in chats, moods in videos, remarks under photos, or complaints in mails — in real time and evaluate it.”
“At Qualtrics, we had to strike really fast and resolutely. We recognized the great potential of the company when the founders spoke of going public. The IPO was oversubscribed by a factor of 13. On the capital markets, goodwill would immediately have shot up to 10 or even 12 billion dollars. It was like when Facebook bought Instagram for a billion dollars. The picture platform had 13 employees and zero turnover. Today, their value as part of the Facebook universe is more than $100 billion,” he added.
The magazine interviewer also asked McDermott if there was any truth to rumors that he wanted to go into politics. “Considering how much my alleged ambitions have been talked about, I should have been a senator in Pennsylvania by now. Two U.S. governments supposedly wanted me, too. None of this has happened yet. But who knows what else will happen? I find public service to very important. And yes, I want my work to make a difference,” he said.
