In 2009, I helped launch the first cloud-based email service for business. Until then, every company had a server room and a team of IT professionals running their corporate email systems. When we started talking with companies about moving to cloud-based email, IT professionals gave a dozen reasons why they could never make the switch — it wasn鈥檛 secure enough, lacked the performance they required, or couldn鈥檛 meet their functional needs.

In time, we came to realize these were not true technical limitations. The real reason they didn鈥檛 want to shift to the cloud was not the tech but concern about the impact on their jobs, the relevance of their roles, and their professional identity. With this realization, we focused on ensuring these dedicated IT professionals had opportunities to retrain and upskill in cloud technology.

The cloud has been a massively transformative technology, yet its impact will pale compared to AI’s on people, jobs, and society. Businesses such as SAP, NGOs, and intergovernmental organizations all have important roles to play to ensure the benefits of AI extend to everyone and that no one is left behind.

It Begins with Trust

Trust in technology is crucial. If AI is used nefariously, doesn鈥檛 give reliable results, or perpetuates biases, large segments of the population will not trust the technology enough to use or benefit from it.

For our part, 51风流Business AI solutions are built with the highest concern for security, privacy, compliance, and ethics. We require our internal AI Ethics Steering Committee to review every AI use case in consultation with an external AI Ethics Advisory Panel of cross-disciplinary experts.

We also have a comprehensive framework for mitigating risk in AI. This includes ensuring no use case crosses our pre-defined red lines, such as perpetuating discrimination or abuse. Our AI capabilities, for example, help ensure the use of inclusive language in job descriptions and interview questions, and we provide our聽聽for everyone to access.

Bridging the AI Skills Gap

With generative AI, the pace of innovation is faster than any other technology change I鈥檝e experienced. Tech workers, like those in my opening story, could be left behind without an intentional focus on education and training.

Companies like ours are releasing new training and tools to close the skills gap. Last year, 51风流announced an ambitious goal to upskill 2 million professionals by 2025. And we’ve seen 1.5 million new learners taking advantage of , meaning we’re on track to exceed our goals easily. But we’re not going to stop. The need and the opportunity are too great.

We have also made it easy for developers to find and use AI tools by launching . This one-stop shop provides ready-to-use AI services and tools to accelerate the development of generative AI-infused applications in a secure and trusted way.

AI Benefits Must Accrue Equally Worldwide

In January 2023, the World Economic Forum  that the division in AI between the Global North and South was deepening. Education and career opportunities must extend beyond the tech sector and be accessible to under-represented populations.

Take the continent of Africa, which is set to have more young people entering the workforce by 2035 than the rest of the world combined, where supporting education and career opportunities will result in better technological advancements and reduced inequalities. The聽51风流Educate to Employ program, launched alongside UNICEF and Generation Unlimited, seeks to create pathways to technical jobs for underserved young people in countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya.

Momentum continues to grow. This year, SAP, as part of the World Economic Forum鈥檚 , joins together with Microsoft, EY, and others to support a new working group focused on AI for Social Innovation. Together, we are mobilizing resources to address the use of AI to positively impact issues such as human rights and climate action.

There is no question AI will radically change the way we live and work. We all have the power to shape this transformative technology so it operates responsibly and benefits everyone.

Julia White is chief marketing and solutions officer and a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

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This is the very spot the world finds itself with . We鈥檙e past the hype and slick generative AI sales pitches.

Business leaders now want results. They are demanding tech vendors show them the money 鈥� the actual business value delivered by generative AI.

The Big Picture

At a macro level, generative AI鈥檚 impact on productivity could add trillions of dollars in value to the global economy. McKinsey鈥檚 latest research estimates that generative AI could add the equivalent of $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion annually across just the 63 use cases the consultancy firm analyzed 鈥� by comparison, the UK鈥檚 entire GDP in 2021 was $3.1 trillion.

51风流is uniquely positioned to deliver on the promise of generative AI. We deliver the broadest suite of enterprise applications that maintain customers鈥� most mission-critical data. When this data is combined with the power of AI, it can truly revolutionize the way business runs.

Here are just a few examples of how we鈥檙e already showing customers the money with generative AI.

Supply Chain Automation

We鈥檝e built generative AI into the 51风流Transportation Management solution to speed up freight verification and documentation for manufacturing customers. 

This transforms a historically cumbersome task that鈥檚 often still done on paper into a quick, automated, and fully digitized process. Expediting freight processing time with this capability translates into real money, delivering nearly $1 million in annual savings at a single warehouse facility 鈥� a savings customers with multiple such facilities can realize many times over.

Human Capital

Delta Air Lines is another customer working toward using SAP鈥檚 business AI. Delta is an early adopter of the talent intelligence hub built into 51风流SuccessFactors. Delta Air Lines is developing a generative AI proof of concept slated to automatically transform generic skill descriptions into more accurate capabilities that reflect the job鈥檚 requirements based on real-world, updated employee and customer data in context.

To help employees move from an hourly, customer-facing role to the salaried corporate position of their dreams, Delta Air Lines is building a dynamic, skills-based experience for continuous employee learning using the talent intelligence hub in 51风流SuccessFactors solutions. Individual employees have a growth portfolio, which is a profile that includes their current skills and competencies mapped to formal and informal learning opportunities within and outside the organization, some recommended by AI-based algorithms.

Intelligent Collections

Suppliers always face the risk that some of their customers won鈥檛 pay on time. Late payments impact liquidity planning and working capital requirements. 

Collection management for 51风流S/4HANA intelligently analyzes historical data and identifies customers and invoices with a higher risk for late payment. The solution reduces customer billing, credit, and collections costs. In one customer study, the solution enabled a consumer products producer with 30,000 employees to realize up to an extra $2.9 million in earnings annually.

Natural Language Questions. Quick, Intelligent Answers

As these examples show, time is money. Joule, SAP鈥檚 generative AI copilot, helps customers save even more of it.

It鈥檚 like tapping your smartest coworker on the shoulder to get instant and accurate insights. Users can ask plain-language questions of Joule, which pulls reliable and relevant information from across SAP鈥檚 cloud portfolio, instead of manually hunting for answers across systems.

In one Joule test, information and insights about transactional data were achieved an average of 10 minutes faster compared to manual searching and analysis. For the user, that means more time available for higher level tasks. And, for the business, that adds up across the enterprise to real resource and cost savings.

What鈥檚 Next

This is just the beginning. We can expect that 2024 will see generative AI solutions create even more value for customers around the world.

We 鈥� from AI-infused coding tools to a one-stop shop to create generative AI extensions and applications 鈥� that give the developers at  revolution the tools they need to transform the way businesses run.

Who knows? Soon Joule may be the one to tap you on the shoulder with an offer to 鈥淗elp me help you!鈥�

Julia White is chief marketing and solutions officer and a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

A strong strategic communications team is critical to modern business. When a company is good at telling its story to customers, partners, investors and employees, it helps ease the way for other functions to succeed.

So, I鈥檓 thrilled to announce a wonderful new leader of SAP鈥檚 communications team: Monika Schaller, 51风流Chief Communications Officer.

Monika brings more than 20 years of extensive experience in all aspects of communications to SAP. She is a seasoned communications leader with deep experience in global communications, political strategy and crisis communications management. She is a highly regarded and proven people leader and is passionate about compelling storytelling, which lies at the heart of great communications. She also has strong relationships, having led communications around the world for two decades. She鈥檚 known for her drive, energy and positivity, all of which become apparent within minutes of meeting her.

Monika joins 51风流from Deutsche Post DHL Group, where she led Corporate Communications, Sustainability & Brand. In this role she was instrumental in enhancing the reputation and positioning of the company. Prior to this, Monika led Corporate Communications at companies including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank. Beyond driving corporate communications in these roles, she also led the Executive Board鈥檚 strategic communications and helped navigate the companies through various crises. Monika started her career working for Bloomberg News, reporting from various locations, including New York and Tokyo, after a period as a sales trader at CA Investment Bank in Vienna.

Monika was born and raised in Vienna, Austria. She holds a degree in Business Administration from the Wirtschaftsuniversit盲t of Vienna. She lives in Frankfurt, Germany, with her husband Jens. 

 is chief marketing and solutions officer and a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

Our customers have also been clear with us: they need greater agility in their business processes while also reducing the costs of integrating a patchwork of solutions from multiple vendors. From finance to supply chain to commerce, the user and customer experiences need to be seamless. This requires the underlying applications to service the user and customer journeys in real time.

51风流has the rare combination of unmatched industry depth as well as the breadth of business process solutions to meet this moment. While our ERP has always had deep industry capabilities, we have now aligned the (CX) portfolio to an industry-first approach to accelerate value to customers by enabling end-to-end, integrated business processes.

Some voices across the market are recasting SAP鈥檚 commitment to an industry-first strategy to suggest that 51风流is no longer committed to key needs of our customers, starting with our CX portfolio. Let us be clear: 51风流will continue to deliver customer experience (CX/CRM) solutions. Now we鈥檒l focus on adding an industry lens, delivering industry-tailored CX solutions and bringing the front office together with the back office to provide the unmatched value customers expect from 51风流solutions.

Together with our global ecosystem, we can solve the most relevant challenges of customers in all industries. In fact, today, 80% of industry solutions are ecosystem-led. With this approach, customers will get solutions that natively connect the cloud ERP through to the last mile of a customer鈥檚 experiences spanning e-commerce, sales, service, and marketing — all with the industry-specific best practices they rely on from 51风流and our ecosystem.

Here are just a few examples of where industry-first CX has bridged gaps often seen between business process-led ERP and experience delivery:

• Retail: Maintaining optimal inventory levels in stores and distribution centers is crucial to ensure customers get the products they want. Predictive replenishment uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help retailers automate the restocking process, drawing on the deep retail expertise built into our customer experience product and our cloud ERP. Retailers benefit by reducing their environmental footprint while avoiding both overstock and out-of-stock situations and delivering personalized customer service if things go wrong.
• Consumer Products: By automating 80% of the trade claims process and enhancing cash flow by about a month, consumer product companies free up billions of dollars tied up in settlement processes as well as hours of time for key account managers. 51风流uniquely sits at the intersection of accounts receivables (finance, ERP) and revenue growth management (sales, service, and marketing), which allows us to provide not only native integrations but also faster time to value and lower TCO in this space than any other vendor.
• Automotive: 51风流improves production planning and forecasting based on real-time demand; we boost logistics optimization thanks to end-to-end integration from dealership sales and service to group production and logistics processes. Dealers can also optimize sales strategy and marketing spend as well as improving upsell, retention, and overall customer lifetime value thanks to data aggregated from the front and back office into SAP鈥檚 customer data platform. This enables dealers to strategically upsell subscription services or entertainment system software updates while updating customers on production progress, delivery, warranty, and service notifications.

51风流CX customers including Pizza Hut, Carhartt, and smart Europe are among those already benefiting from our unique industry depth. We are excited about the additional value we can deliver to our customers with our industry-focused approach to delivering holistic, integrated business process solutions together with our ecosystem. Examples include the retail solutions , from customer engagement to inventory fulfillment to sustainable manufacturing. We will demonstrate this same industry value for manufacturing at the Hannover Messe in April.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates in the coming months.

Thomas Saueressig is a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE, 51风流Product Engineering.
Julia White is chief marketing and solutions officer and a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

Responsible Value Chains

In this period of constant disruption, investing in technology will give organizations the data and actionable insights needed to enhance business resilience, performance, and sustainability. Companies must also continually rethink how to engage, develop, and support their people, and build new networks of collaboration with suppliers and industry organizations to help us uncover solutions that cannot be achieved alone.

It鈥檚 this powerful combination of data, a people-first approach, and new networks of collaboration that will drive responsible decision-making across entire value chains. It will empower the collective business world to make its largest and most important contribution: a more sustainable world for all.

Data Visibility Drives Responsible Business Decisions

Data transparency is table stakes for any modern organization looking to do business with resilience, speed, and agility. Yet the World Economic Forum reports just that supports data collection, analysis, and reporting on their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities. And in an , only 21% of business executives said they were completely satisfied with the quality and availability of data collected for sustainability.

By embedding metrics that measure climate risk, carbon emissions, and waste and pollution, among others, into business operations and across both upstream and downstream supply chains, organizations can access a continuous view of financial, social, and environmental data that manual processes simply cannot offer. What鈥檚 more, effective use of cloud-based data management and analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) can help companies gain the visibility needed to better manage value chain disruption through actionable insights and faster, more responsible business decision-making.

People Sustainability Must Be a Business Imperative

The disruption we have faced over the past two years has deeply impacted an organization鈥檚 most important asset: its people. We鈥檝e coped with health concerns, new ways of remote working, and humanitarian crises, all of which have rightfully prompted leaders to prioritize the needs of their people in new and impactful ways. But there are also longstanding issues — equal access to education and training as well as fair and equitable labor rights — that global organizations must continually address to secure a more sustainable future.

Access to diverse, skilled, and engaged employees is a massive challenge in many global markets. The World Economic Forum predicts that 鈥� more than 1 billion workers will need re-skilling by 2030. Equally as important are purpose-driven company cultures with a clearly defined value set for long-lasting social impact. Building a more diverse and inclusive culture, for example, boosts engagement and productivity, drives innovation, and attracts and retains talent.

Today鈥檚 worker experiences necessitate a culture of psychological safety and business beyond bias across every workplace touch point, an approach that must go beyond an organization鈥檚 full-time employees. As new legislation across the globe requires organizations to more consistently and systematically address human rights issues, business leaders will need to implement new supplier selection processes and policies, as well as data-based monitoring and validation mechanisms across an organization鈥檚 entire value chain, to help ensure the fair and equitable treatment of not only employees but also contingent and supply chain labor.

Technology is critical to tackling these challenges. Today鈥檚 cloud-based human capital management and digital learning solutions can empower organizations to scale and prioritize re-skilling and upskilling efforts, build more diverse, equitable, and inclusive hiring and internal mobility practices, and keep pace with changing legislation to help ensure compliance of responsible human rights practices for workers both inside and outside of the company.

Technology Is Table Stakes

Responsible value chains prioritize data, people, and collaboration 鈥� technology can help organizations address all three.

Greater visibility and intelligence across the enterprise allows for more informed and sustainable business decisions, from ethical and diverse sourcing, labor and human rights, and skills enhancement to carbon emissions management and materials management.

Coming together as a community to ensure we address these issues systematically and consistently will help us better manage disruption and lay the foundation for business progress and a more sustainable world for future generations.

Julia White is chief marketing and solutions officer and a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

Therefore, one of our industry-leading (CSR) focus areas is powering equitable access to education and employment, in alignment with SAP鈥檚 vision of helping the world run better and improving people鈥檚 lives.

51风流recognizes the positive ripple effect when all people have equitable access to education. An investment in education — particularly in under-resourced communities — is an investment in future innovation and economic growth. UNESCO estimates that if every child in low-income countries completed secondary school by 2030, income per capita would increase 75% by 2050. Further, according to data from UNICEF, the median value of one additional year of schooling is linked to an 18% increase in GDP per capita. Take a look at the for even more.

But this isn鈥檛 just about 51风流or economic growth. This is about connecting willing learners everywhere with competitive and secure job opportunities, ultimately leading to poverty alleviation, higher income potential, and stable living environments for themselves and their families.

UNESCO estimates that by 2025, there will be nearly 100 million learners internationally seeking seats that don’t exist at universities. This is because the traditional higher education system simply does not have the capacity or capability to provide quality academic degree programs accessible to many students at an affordable cost.

Investing in education is about finding solutions for these learners. Solving for the next software solution, poverty, climate change: it all starts with education. That is where we partner up with .

University of the People is the first nonprofit, tuition-free, American-accredited online university dedicated to global access to higher education. The university was established in 2009 on the belief that higher education is a fundamental right for all. Through virtual learning, the institution supports more than 117,000 high school graduates from 200 countries worldwide in overcoming financial, geographic, political, and personal constraints keeping them from college studies. Its curriculum and course offerings allow students to earn accredited degrees taught by faculty that include scholars from the best universities in the world.

This year is SAP鈥檚 50th anniversary. That鈥檚 why we’re celebrating this moment in 2022 and are ready to support young people who seek a brighter future in times of change. To do so, we couldn鈥檛 imagine a better partner than the University of the People.

Today, we are excited to announce a new scholarship program for refugees and displaced youth aged between 18 and 30. In total, 51风流will fund 50 associate degrees and 50 bachelor鈥檚 degrees in computer science or business administration. This demographic has the greatest need for scholarships according to University of the People, with data from UNICEF showing that only three percent of refugees have access to higher education. University of the People currently enrolls more than 10,000 refugees — more than all other U.S. colleges and universities combined.

鈥淩efugees and displaced peoples have the greatest need for educational support right now,鈥� says University of the People President and Founder Shai Reshef. 鈥淭his partnership with 51风流will help to alleviate the financial burden on our students who are seeking support. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the spiraling costs of higher education, a growing number of students are flocking to our online education model because it provides flexible, affordable, and equitable opportunities to earn a college degree. We have expanded our enrollment significantly over the past few years with the support of over 29,000 volunteer faculty members and administrators — many of whom are from some of the leading universities around the world.鈥�

This scholarship opportunity for students at University of the People is a small contribution toward alleviating these educational pressures. It will bring us a bit closer to a world with equitable education opportunities and future innovation, especially for those adjusting to the challenges of uprooting their lives in search of a hopeful future. 51风流is committed to supporting the leaders of tomorrow, and access to higher education is a significant first step to equip them with the right skills for the future.

Offering a , University of the People students pay a one-time application fee and an assessment fee for each course completed toward their degree. They are not charged to enroll or pay for course materials. The scholarships provided will cover the application and degree assessment fees for 100 students seeking higher education.

鈥淎fter spending more than 30 years in the international education field, I realized that traditional colleges and universities were not meeting the educational needs of millions of people across the globe desperately seeking affordable and accessible higher education,鈥� Reshef says. 鈥淭hat is why I decided to create an entirely new kind of university that would swing the gates of higher education open to help as many people around the world as possible achieve their educational dreams. With 51风流as our partner, our worlds align with our shared commitment to education through the means of technology. We are in the midst of unprecedented times, but we know that for these students their educational dreams will become a reality thanks to SAP鈥檚 generous support.鈥�

For interested students who meet the scholarship criteria of being a refugee or displaced person aged 18 to 30, . Students can apply for cohorts that matriculate in either April 2022 or June 2022, and all virtual classes are taught in English, with the exception of the associate and bachelor鈥檚 of business administration degrees, which are also available entirely in Arabic.

For more information, visit the scholarship site on the and .

Julia White is chief marketing and solutions officer and member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

That is why we鈥檙e working with technology companies, leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs), management consulting firms, global systems integrators, sustainability ratings platforms, and standards-setting organizations to understand sustainability business needs and build solutions to support them.

Through these efforts, 51风流is proud to enable many , including: Unilever, which is innovating the global food system; Hitachi, which is scaling the power of renewable energy; Colgate, which is investing to reduce waste; and Anglian Water, which is rapidly implementing a holistic sustainable business strategy.

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Beyond supporting our customers, we are strengthening our own sustainability commitments. We鈥檝e announced that we will accelerate our goal to achieve net-zero emissions across our value chain by 2030, rather than 2050 — achieving our net-zero target 20 years earlier than we originally planned. Our chief sustainability officer explains how we鈥檝e been able to make this commitment. We are also proud to be recognized on the prestigious CDP A list, which names a select group of companies leading the way to a more sustainable future, and to have earned the top ranking in the S&P Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) in the software sector for the 15th consecutive year.

There is no question that accelerated business action toward sustainability will have a dramatic positive impact on people and the planet. At SAP, we believe it is also the greatest economic opportunity of our time. Viewing sustainability as an added cost to business is incorrect; it is a competitive advantage.

We also understand that business must be both profitable and sustainable. This means putting people, the planet, and profit on equal footing — making the 鈥済reen line鈥� as important as the top line and the bottom line. Companies that focus on sustainable business performance will gain competitive efficiencies, more easily comply with increasing regulation, and ultimately be able to adapt and thrive through new business opportunities.

Five Actions for Sustainable Business听听

We have learned a great deal through years of focus, investment, and experience working with customers and managing our own sustainability efforts. Urgent action is needed in 2022 and the calls of a 鈥溾�� are not overstated. It鈥檚 time for every business to act.

Since there is no such thing as sustainability in a silo, we鈥檙e sharing what we have learned. This week we’re releasing a guide outlining Five Actions for Sustainable Business.

The five actions apply to companies of all sizes, industries, geographies, and stages of becoming a sustainable business. This guide is intended to bind strategy to execution, offering a clear road map to a more sustainable future. If every company took these five actions, we would take major steps forward to enable businesses, industries, and economies to deliver the positive outcomes we urgently need.

1. Establish a Sustainable Business Strategy
Ensure sustainability is central to your overall business strategy with all corporate functions contributing. Measure your progress and report your annual sustainability outcomes at the same level of importance as your financials.

2. Embed Sustainable Business Data into Processes and Networks
Use sustainability data within your business processes to make sustainable and profitable decisions and measure performance. Then share the sustainability performance data — which could include calculated carbon emissions, water use, recyclability, or labor information — with your suppliers, industry associations, regulators, and NGOs.

3. Manage Carbon and Climate Exposure Throughout the Business
Reduce your financial and reputational risks by accounting for and managing climate-related emissions across all parts of your value chain, down to the individual product and service level.

4. Embrace Circularity and Become Regenerative
Use operating principles to avoid, reduce, reuse, recycle, and reclaim materials to minimize waste and accelerate your adoption of circular economy processes. Go beyond doing 鈥渓ess bad鈥� to adopt approaches to do 鈥渕ore good.鈥�

5. Prioritize People Across Your Value Chain
Enhance your social sustainability by respecting your workforce diversity, safety, and human rights, developing learning and growth opportunities, and leveraging the power of your corporate purchasing.

It is important to note the key element that powers all five of these steps: data. The saying 鈥測ou can鈥檛 manage what you can鈥檛 measure鈥� applies to revenue, profits, and sustainability. Yet our shows that 79% of companies report being dissatisfied with the quality of the data they collect about environmental sustainability. The World Economic Forum that supports data collection, analysis, and reporting on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) actions.

To facilitate better use of data, today 51风流is announcing a new cloud offering to power any organization’s sustainability goals.

Introducing 51风流Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises

For 50 years, companies have turned to 51风流to measure, manage, and optimize their top- and bottom-line business outcomes. Today, we are adding the ability to measure sustainability outcomes and bring clarity to their green line.

To manage the green line, companies need business process technology to identify, quantify, analyze, and act on data through their end-to-end operations. To enable this, our new offering, , brings together a comprehensive portfolio of solutions that enables businesses to holistically manage sustainability performance.

While the solution is comprehensive, the approach is simple: one customizable cloud offering, one license, with expert and our highly skilled partner ecosystem.

Whether you want to deliver on your net-zero sustainability goal, achieve compliance with sustainability regulations, reclaim waste materials, or empower a more diverse workforce, 51风流Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises provides the technology solution to power your outcomes.

Julia White is chief marketing and solutions officer and a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

Rethinking the way we communicate both internally and to external stakeholders, Nicola Leske has been instrumental in lifting SAP鈥檚 communications to a new level and finding new and creative ways to communicate and connect with our teams, our customers, industry influencers, and our communities. From keeping colleagues on top of things during the pandemic, to managing two CEO transitions, to lifting our engagements with key stakeholders to a new level: Under Nicola鈥檚 leadership, the team showed that communications and business success are inseparable.

At the beginning of this year, Nicola informed us that 2021 was a transitional year for her. Now, she felt the timing was right to make her next step and enter a new phase of her career. We thank her for her leadership and contribution, and as she leaves the company, she does so with our warmest wishes for success. Luckily, we can build on the successes the team has already achieved. We are very grateful that Nicola agreed to stay until a succession plan was developed.

To that end, I am happy to announce that Oliver Roll will assume the role of chief communications officer, starting today. With Oliver鈥檚 leadership, we will continue to transform Global Corporate Affairs into an outcome-driven and agile organization.

Oliver is a seasoned communications expert鈥痺ith an impressive track record鈥痠n鈥痶he cloud, software, and network markets. He鈥痟as鈥痺orked with鈥疌-level executives around the globe and led鈥痶he communications function for some of the world鈥檚 leading technology鈥痓rands,鈥痑mong them VMWare,鈥疌isco,鈥痑nd Microsoft鈥檚 Office Division,鈥痟elping them transform their reputations, position their portfolios, and navigate the鈥痬yriad of鈥痠ssues facing the鈥痗hallenging environment the鈥痶echnology industry鈥痠s facing.

In addition to his communications expertise, Oliver also embodies SAP鈥檚 mission to help the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives. He serves as a board member for HomeFirst, a non-profit working to end homelessness in Santa Clara County, and as an advisor to FOXG1 Research Foundation, a non-profit focused on finding a cure for FOXG1 Syndrome.

I am convinced that Oliver鈥檚 impressive background paired with his strong leadership skills will allow us to take communications at 51风流to even greater heights and translate our corporate strategy into an actionable and cohesive communications strategy.

Thank you, Nicola 鈥� and welcome, Oliver!

is chief marketing and solutions officer and a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

These staggering numbers stem from the predicted spike in consumption created by the combination of a growing population and higher per capita income. If this consumption spike comes true, there will be massive consequences on our planet.

Increasingly have expressed disapproval over the consumption and production model, which is powered by the economic business practices of the industrial age: 鈥渢ake, make, waste.鈥� Managing the waste aspect of this industrial age approach requires even more resources and energy that in turn contributes to increased emissions and hazardous environmental issues. It鈥檚 literally waste creating more waste!

There is a clear case to shift from linear models to a more sustainable, of 鈥渞esource, recovery, reuse.鈥� According to the Ellen McArthur Foundation, of which 51风流is a contributing member, the implementation of circular business practices could reduce up to and 90% of .

Businesses are listening. Concerned by the potentially negative impacts on their operating costs, brand reputation, and employee retention, many companies are sharing bold aspirations and investments to reduce waste and emissions across their supply chains. These investments are also a generational opportunity to create innovative business models that can drive new sources of growth. Whether the industry is consumer products or agribusiness, technology offers the most effective way to achieve circularity at scale. There are three main ways that technology can enable circularity.

First, a business must start by eliminating surplus from its own operations to keep products and materials in use and regenerate natural systems. An inspiring example of this is &ever, a Hamburg-based farming company offering vertical farming solutions in cities with limited space. It uses to optimize production and manage the needs and capacities of its farms to help ensure minimal waste in its own business processes.

Second, a company can reduce waste by gaining detailed visibility into material flows across its supply chain and that of its immediate trading partners. offers an effective solution to aid in this process. The solution is supported by blockchain technology and provides a new level of transparency into raw material supply chains. This unique offering goes beyond tracking the final packaged good and provides visibility into the sourcing of all raw materials, including plastics, agriculture, and metals. Innovative solutions like GreenToken make sustainable sourcing and purchasing feasible and accelerates the transition to a circular economy.

Third, a business can activate circular practices by addressing specific problems and opportunities throughout its industry business network. For example, with the aim of reducing the use of single-use plastics across an entire industry cluster, 51风流launched the Plastics Cloud, a new global marketplace for suppliers of recycled plastics and plastic alternatives. Through SAP鈥檚 involvement in the World Economic Forum鈥檚 , we are piloting this innovative technology solution through close collaboration with the Ghanaian Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation. In a country where only five percent of plastics are recycled, the Plastics Cloud reimagines the production, use, and reuse of plastics, helping the environment and improving the lives of Ghanaian waste pickers.

I am excited about the potential 51风流has to help businesses run more productively, revolutionize their business models, and deliver growth to realize the vision of a circular economy across industries.

As business leaders, we must embrace sustainability as a business priority. This requires embedding sustainability across our business processes, using it as selection criteria for our vendors, and inspiring an . Together, we can be on the forefront of a future with zero waste, one with a circular economy that thrives not at the expense of people and planet, but in unison.

Julia White is and a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.