The shareholders of Germany's most valuable listed company had more reason to complain. When they meet SAP's shareholders on Thursday for a real Annual General Meeting in Mannheim's "SAP Arena" after three years, the positives are likely to outweigh the negatives. After all, the share price has gained more than half since mid-2022. The restructuring initiated by CEO Christian Klein at the end of 2020 is bearing fruit. Growth in the cloud business is stable at 25 percent, and the order backlog is huge. Ingo Speich of the savings bank fund company Deka praises the "clear focus on core issues and the restructure."

So SAP has done its homework, now it's time for visions again. After all, "artificial intelligence" is pushing its way into business models with force, and no one can say with certainty today when and where and how SAP will be shaken by it. At the same time, "hyperscalers" such as Google, Microsoft and even Amazon are advancing into SAP's terrain with their almost inexhaustible resources. And in the cloud, even small businesses can quickly become big and dangerous, even for a giant like SAP.

So far, however, the co-founder and long-time chairman of the supervisory board, Hasso Plattner, has been responsible for visions. But his era is coming to an end. In February, after a long struggle, the 79-year-old father had named a potential successor: former Deloitte boss Punit Renjen. At the Annual General Meeting, the 61-year-old American is to be elected to the supervisory body, taking over the chairmanship a year later. Renjen would be the first external chairman of the supervisory board in 26 years. His election is tantamount to a revolution, says Speich. And supplemented. "But maybe that's exactly what SAP needs."

"A real win for SAP"

The user association DSAG, calls on Renjen to have "reliable roadmaps and long-term planning security". It will be interesting to see how Renjen, as a former Deloitte boss, brings his comprehensive consulting expertise to the SAP Supervisory Board, writes DSAG CEO Jens Hungershausen. Because of Plattner's CV, the Supervisory Board has so far been very technologically shaped. Otherwise, skepticism resonates: The DSAG was not known to Renjen so far, it is said. It is "curious to see what strategic changes will go hand in hand with this."

In a letter to shareholders, Plattner describes Renjen as an excellent candidate "to take over as chairman at a time when SAP is undergoing the most fundamental strategic change in its 50-year history." Renjen has valuable experience of the needs of companies in the fast-paced business environment "and would therefore be a real asset to SAP." He himself wants to use the time after the election for training in order to ensure a smooth transition. "I have asked him to pester me with questions and will do everything I can to ensure an orderly handover."

The search for candidates was very broad and international, both internally and externally. Renjen spoke with all members of the Supervisory Board. The resulting comprehensive picture finally led to the decision. In any case, Klein has prepared the ground and set up the group as a "cloud company" despite great skepticism on the capital market. The higher investments required for this should be completed in the middle of the year, when SAP should also eliminate the remaining shortcoming compared to many competitors: weak profitability. "An old SAP disease," as Speich writes. The board has already vowed to improve. He wants to update the medium-term targets before the end of May.