AbleBrains

Seven Years...

On Friday of this week. I sent three emails to SAP. The first note went to Leo Apotheker. I thanked Leo for allowing me to contribute to SAP’s success and his guidance and told him I’d miss my times “sweating [while presenting] to him and the rest of the FLT [Field Leadership Team].”  I received a great note back from Leo.  Marty Homlish received the second email in which I also thanked him not only for the opportunity to contribute to Marketing's success at SAP but for his mentorship and the many personal  learnings I experienced while working for him. The final note went to my fellow colleagues: 

Colleagues… Seven years is a long time. I remember my first day at SAP though like it was yesterday -- I actually wore a tie on that first day, and looked so eager and ready to begin… And of course, I had much more hair. Each year has been completely different -- with new challenges and amazing opportunities. I've had my share of failures as well as some spectacular successes….Executive Offline Demos, Rapid Prototyping Tool, The CMI MegaModel and Custom Research Agendas, Risk Management, Competitive Monitoring programs, Services marketing, build out of the Apollo team and great successes with Safe Passage programs, driving design thinking into our experience design methodologies and helping to get SAP on the road with Web 2.0.

But the greatest success and thing that has given me the most pleasure has been the opportunity to work with such a talented and driven group of people. I want to thank you all for allowing me to be part of your professional and in some cases personal lives. Its been fun and its been an honor.

I wish I had some great pearl of wisdom that will leave you saying "wow" but nothing particularly insightful or groundbreaking comes to mind, so I'll just say, stay the course, get outside the box as often as possible, and if you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong.

So what am I going to be doing? Well, the road has a number of very interesting paths in front of me right now… I am weighing some fascinating opportunities. Each of them exciting for different reasons. I'm not sure which path I'll be taking but I'm sure our paths will cross again. As a matter of fact, you won't be getting rid of me that quickly. For the next few months, I will be working with Marketing and other organizations within SAP to move the ball on some of the Social Media efforts that we've already kicked off.

Oh, and I'm sure I've neglected to send this to folks. If you wouldn't mind passing along to your teams, I'd really appreciate that.

My coordinates:

steve.mann@sap.com for the next two months plus:

steve.mann60@gmail.com

+1 917-573-2692 (cell)

+1 646-441-0309 (cell)

Follow Me On Twitter:

http://twitter.com/stevemann

Best of luck and Great Success!!

Steve

The outpouring from my colleagues has been overwhelming. I’ve received hundred of emails… here’s a taste:

I am just in complete shock. You are one of the most valuable people I met at SAP, taking us into the 21st century.

I have learned SO MUCH from you. SO MUCH.

Well, let me know if I can be of any assistance in the future. Would love to work together again some time.

Hi Steve,

Gosh, this is a shock!  I’m sorry to hear you’re leaving SAP.  We’ve been doing some great work together and you’ve been THE leading voice in the marketing team for all things social media. 

Stunned.  Only word I can think of.

WHAAAAAAT?  Wow Steve, I'm gobsmacked.  What just happened?  :-)

So sorry to see you go, but also excited about what the future may hold for you.  I'll look forward to working with you over the next two months, and who knows, maybe we'll have the chance to keep up the communication after that.

I don't know what to say. Or there are so many things I want to say. We've done so much together that I am finding this really hard to comprehend.

Can we please go out, so we can get a chance to really discuss? Drinks, lunch, breakfast -- you choose. But let's just get it on the calendar soon.
Let me know when.
See you next week?

I think my favorite term was "gobsmacked." You get the idea.  I have hundreds of these.  So thank you SAP.  I have to say, I’m on the giddy side this weekend.  For a number of reasons. First I’m glad to be parting ways with SAP.  I like the company and I have great respect for its employees and leadership but there is so much more that I want to do, that I can’t do at SAP.  Secondly, we’re parting on very good terms – terms that reflect the benefits and contributions I’ve made to the company over the last seven years. Finally, SAP is retaining my services to continue to help them formulate, articulate and execute on their Web 2.0 strategy, which I am happy to do.

So. One door is closing and there are some new ones opening up directly in front of me.  I’m looking forward to having some news for you in the near future… stay  tuned.

Guess I should change my about page and LinkedIn profile eh?

Defining yourself by what you aspire to be, not what happens to you

Is what Jeffrey Walker, President of Atlassian is all about.  Jeff has cancer, for the second time.  And in his usually direct way, he's up for the challenge.

This is my life. I am living with cancer, I have had three major operations — here comes #4, I have had a frightening amount of chemo, and I lost a year of my life right before joining Atlassian. I can struggle or I can embrace it. Those of you who know me understand I have only one option. Not because I consciously choose. I am just innately positive.

 Read his inspiring post.

SAP At A Cultural Tipping Point?

I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about the use of Social Media at and by SAP.  And although this is a post on my personal blog, consider it a motivational speech to my SAP colleagues. This was motivated by a brief conversation on Twitter with Dennis Howlett, a person I respect and consider a friend.

This weekend, Dennis tweeted myself and Chris Horak. Den had an extensive conversation with Chris about SAP's presence on Twitter. (Here's the feed of that conversation) but what Dennis had said to both of us:

Wow. I was surprised.  Blatant pimp crap?  I thought we were pretty good at having conversations.  As you'll see from the feed, I was brought into this conversation at the tail end, the majority of it was between Dennis and Chris.  But I appreciate Den including me and it in fact spurred this post.

I can imagine that many of you are wondering to yourself?  Am I pimping crap?  I don't think so. And  I haven't yet spoken to Dennis directly to get his thoughts. But I think its fantastic seeing so many new SAP initiatives which include a Social Media component.  I'm so pleased to see it and be a part of helping to create these strategies.  But remember, our capabilities as marketers must evolve so that we become  Conversationalists and Storytellers.
 

So back to Dennis' reaction.  My guess? (and it is a guess)  Dennis is reacting to the fact that there has been a tremendous influx of SAPers into Social Media channels.  This is all goodness.  And we're kinda swarming about trying new things, some of it more uni-directional than true conversation and some of it which may or may not belong in these channels. Also some of us have not yet used Social Media in support of a business brand before.  That's why we've been doing the training and immersion that many of you have attended. And some may be using it in more traditional ways, more as a one-way communication channel, rather than using it as an opportunity to have value-based conversations.  If you're not saying something of interest -- how do you know its interesting?  Someone is talking back or at least listening... if you're not doing that then stop.   Re-think why you are here and if you have questions... go to the experts on SCN or come talk to me or Mike Prosceno or many other folks designated as responsible for Social Media and ask their advice.   

You can't really serve offers thru these channels unless a channel has been designated as such (a la @delloutlet ) or you have the permission of those you are conversing with to do so.  That's why we are so keen to understand who is following us on these social channels and what type of information they are interested in seeing.   We did this on Facebook and here's a link to the Survey Data we collected.  We now know what's an acceptable framework for conversation on Facebook...

• Customers want to be able to research solutions
• They want to connect with other customers
• They want to understand what their peers in their industry are doing to weather the economic crisis.

You need to do the same -- you need to understand what the folks who are following you on Twitter or who are Fans on Facebook want to talk about.  You do this in the same way you have a real time face to face conversation... you ask..."So what do you do?  What's happening these days?  What's new?"

Look, I told Dennis I think we're witnessing a shift in SAP's corporate culture. And I think we're approaching a Tipping Point. We're getting out onto Social channels, en masse and we're beginning to integrate those channels into our overall development, services and go-to-market strategies.  But, some of us have evolved into the conversationalists, and some of us are still on the journey.  I think we're moving in the right direction and I encourage you to keep evolving. And if you want our assistance.  Please ask!