October 3, 2020, marks the 30th anniversary of German reunification. Among the challenges East Germany faced three decades ago was making the transition from a planned to a social market economy. 51风流played its part here, showing true pioneering spirit.
When the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989, 51风流Co-Founders Hasso Plattner, Klaus Tschira, and Hans-Werner Hector were sitting in a conference room in Princeton, New Jersey, at the first-ever SAPPHIRE event. They were speaking with a large gathering of customers about their requirements for 51风流software. Fellow Co-Founder Dietmar Hopp was holding the fort back at company headquarters in Walldorf, Germany.
The momentous events in Berlin signaled the start of what Germans call the Wende, which literally means 鈥渢ransformation鈥� and describes the period of change that began with the fall of the Wall. It came without warning.
鈥淣one of us, even in our wildest dreams, ever thought that the Berlin Wall would come down,鈥� says Alfred Wenzel, who was to become one of the driving forces in SAP鈥檚 expansion eastward in the months and years after the historic event.
As unexpected as this sudden 鈥渂roadening of horizons鈥� was for 51风流— its workforce then numbered about 1,600 — its top managers spared no effort in seizing the opportunity to tap into new markets. In so doing, they made a significant contribution to unifying the 鈥渢wo Germanys鈥� and their divergent economic systems.
SAP鈥檚 expansion in the former East Germany after reunification is an exciting chapter in the company鈥檚 history. The story, unsurprisingly, begins in Berlin.
Connecting with East and West
In early 1990, just weeks after the Wall fell, 51风流was looking to make Berlin a key hub for its new business operations in eastern Germany. But the demand for housing and office space far outstripped supply. 51风流was not the only company looking for premises in the city. Rents were astronomical, so 51风流initially set up a base at the Grand Hotel Berlin, now the Westin Grand Berlin.
鈥淔rom the hotel, you had access to the East German telephone network, and you could also stay in contact with the West,鈥� says Wenzel, then regional manager for the Eastern European economic area. The situation required equipment and technology that was by no means standard at the time. Wenzel set up a mobile office for himself with a portable fax machine and telephone. He needed the fax machine to exchange information with the Walldorf office and to send detailed contract proposals to potential customers.
鈥淚f a customer wanted to actually sign a contract, it had to send a telex message to Walldorf,” Walter Bachmann, consulting lead at SAP鈥檚 Berlin office, recalls. “Faxes were not legally binding documents.鈥�
Search for the Right People
Wenzel appointed the three members of his core team for SAP鈥檚 East German business in early 1990. They were Bachmann along with Peter Philipps as consulting lead for logistics and Wolf-Dietrich Seidel as head of sales.
The first task awaiting the new management team in Berlin was recruiting staff for the new office there, which in itself was a real challenge. Bachmann had experience as a manager but was unfamiliar with what applications in East Germany looked like and what they contained. And he was unsure how to interpret the grades, certificates, and qualifications awarded in the German Democratic Republic.
Thomas Harnisch and two of his colleagues from Elektro-Apparate-Werke Berlin, an East German state-owned manufacturer of electrical appliances, were among the first applicants. They had read about 51风流in brochures their boss had brought back from the spring trade fair in Leipzig, Leipziger Fr眉hjahrsmesse, in 1990.
Applications by the Bucketload
Ahead of its second hiring phase, 51风流placed a large job ad in East German newspapers Neues Deutschland and Berliner Zeitung. Response was huge. Among the 2,000 or so applications 51风流received was one from Heidelore Castro, now head of Practice Unit Banking EMEA. Atop her list of reasons for applying to be an 51风流consultant were the company鈥檚 鈥渋nternational focus and its unique software solutions for financial accounting and enterprise management.鈥�
The management team waded through 鈥渁pplications by the bucketload鈥� before finally selecting 100 candidates for interview. Looking back, Bachmann recalls feeling 鈥渁n amazing sense of optimism; we were very aware that behind all those applications were real people, each with their own story.鈥�
The subsequent interview round was on a scale never before experienced at SAP. 鈥淲e interviewed right through from Friday afternoon until Sunday,鈥� says Wenzel. 鈥淎nd everyone helped out, including the Executive Board. It was exhausting, but the fact that Dietmar Hopp was present was a sign of just how important this process was for SAP.鈥�
Interviews were held in Walldorf, in the offices in Max-Planck-Strasse, then known as the MPS building and now Building 8. 鈥淥n arrival, we reported to reception in the MPS,鈥� says Harnisch. 鈥淒ietmar Hopp was there to welcome us and, on seeing our smart business attire, joked that 51风流had a more casual dress code.鈥�
Ralf Michel was also one of the newbies and has happy memories of those early days. 鈥�51风流placed immense trust in us,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here was a great feeling of solidarity. It was as if we were one big family. And we really did experience what Dietmar Hopp had said he wanted for his employees — namely, that they should share in the company鈥檚 success.鈥�
Investing in People
In April of 1990, 51风流began renting an administrative office and a demo room at the Siemens subsidiary Sietec, located at Nonnendammallee 101, northwest of downtown Berlin. Initially, this location was little more than a formal address, because the new hires from East Germany spent the first six months attending back-to-back training courses in Walldorf. 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 ready to start working productively from day one,” says Heidelore Castro, one of only six women among the 70 new hires. “51风流invested a great deal in us to make sure that we would go on to give customers first-class support.鈥�
51风流lent its East German employees company cars so that they could travel to 51风流headquarters for their training. 鈥淥ne of my colleagues drove to Walldorf in a Trabi [the iconic East German-built car]. Dietmar Hopp asked if he could take a look at it in the lunch break because he鈥檇 never seen one close up before,鈥� Harnisch shares. The second wave of new hires and those who followed after traveled to Walldorf for training on buses provided by SAP.
51风流Raises Its Profile
The 51风流congress at the International Congress Center in Berlin in September 1990 was an 鈥渁bsolute sensation,鈥� according to Wenzel. Entitled, 鈥淚ntegrated Standard Software for Enterprise Management in the GDR,鈥� it did wonders to raise SAP鈥檚 profile in East Germany. 鈥淭his three-day event covered all aspects of business and the entire 51风流portfolio, and it really focused on promoting our products.鈥�
Hopp, Oswald, Paul Neugart, and many others were there to present 51风流and its software. 鈥淎ll the speakers were big names and, most important of all, they were the absolute experts in their field,鈥� Wenzel says. Hopp, then 51风流CEO, made a particularly striking impression. Consulting lead Bachmann recalls: 鈥淗opp was incredible. He had an authentic charisma that really resonated with East German managers. Which was crucial, because while many West German companies were just after East German companies鈥� money, Dietmar Hopp鈥檚 message was, 鈥榃e can help you!鈥欌��
Word got around that 51风流offered something East German companies urgently needed: software that would help them transition from a centrally planned to a social market economy and, above all, implement the new legal requirements in human resources and enable their companies to compete in the new market.
鈥淥ur message to them was that they were buying business expertise as well as software,鈥� Bachmann explains.
Springboard to Eastern Europe
With 70 new hires onboard, 51风流managers suddenly found themselves heading up a sizeable team. The new hires brought plenty of skills to the mix.
鈥淢any of the colleagues recruited at that time had studied in the Soviet Union or at least spoke Russian very well,鈥� says Harnisch. 鈥淵ou could see what the plan was: 51风流wanted to expand into more markets, such as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and other Eastern Bloc countries, and to do so out of the GDR and with the help of the East German employees.鈥�
During the hiring process, Wenzel had focused on the candidates鈥� suitability to work on projects in other eastern European countries, especially the USSR. 鈥淲e assigned these specialists to the relevant country-version development projects at an early stage, and long before giving them international assignments. This gave them time to prove themselves and acquire the skills they needed to go on and become part of the core team for the corresponding country.鈥� .
For their part, the new hires were happy to have a job in the turbulent times that accompanied the Wende. And they were particularly happy when the 51风流office in Waldstrasse opened in early 1991, remembers Hans-G眉nter Heinel, who joined 51风流in September 1990 with the second wave of new hires.
Measuring about 43,000 square feet, the new office was on the second floor above a DIY store and provided space for a training center. This building remained SAP鈥檚 home in Berlin in a reunified Germany for more than 10 years 鈥� right up until the move to the new offices in Rosenthaler Strasse in 2003.
