How Will SAP Refocus Now That Léo Apotheker Has Resigned As SAP CEO?

While most Americans were crowded around a television watching the Super Bowl, SAP kicked off its week in a different way: they announced on February 7th that Léo Apotheker was stepping down as CEO, and resigning from the company’s executive board. Apotheker became the sole CEO toward the end of 2009, and shared that spot with Henning Kagermann prior; SAP will return to the co-CEO chain of command, with Bill McDermott (head of field organization) and Jim Hagermann Snabe (head of product development) taking the helm.

Whether Apotheker is the reason for SAP’s recent decline isn’t the issue. Unfortunately, mySAP ERP, and Business ByDesign had rough and delayed launches, and SAP looked weak overall on the innovation side. The bottom line is simply this: when a company flounders for years, people question the captain, and if he is unable to turn the ship around then he is deposed. Many speculate that Apotheker had the misfortune of becoming the sole CEO at an inopportune time—when the chips were already down.

The Financial Times cites the delay in introducing online-based software for SMBs as one of the reasons for Apotheker’s resignation, which makes sense considering the relative thrashing SAP has endured with their customers defecting to smaller(though not necessarily unknown) ERP providers that offer lightweight SaaS deployments.

We’re curious to see how SAP bounces back, or rather, what they do to move forward progressively. They recently displayed their proof of concept for an augmented “corporate reality,” and it’ll be interesting to see what their future forays into Web 2.0 entail. And while things have been bleak on SaaS ERP front, SAP’s situation could easily be remedied with mergers and acquisitions. Their biggest hurdle right now is making headway in SaaS, and we’re anxious to see how they refocus.

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