This visionary program commissions public artwork that explores themes of purpose and seeks to inspire people through the power of emotion in order to bring about change in their actions and behaviors. So far, the program has addressed issues of gender equity, education, hunger and food waste, and the role of technology.

As an installation housed in a physical space, the gallery presents a new medium to experience the complementary powers of technology and art to elicit emotion and drive action. Artists who have created the pieces are recognized masters in their fields and use a range of expressive media to connect with their audiences at a personal level. Mixed digital media, visual arts, food, and textiles are just a part of their creative palette for telling the wider story about the role of technology in inspiring purposeful change in the world.

Each work of art distinctively reflects SAP鈥檚 commitment to its mission to help the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives, in support of the (SDGs). The art pieces are inspired by stories of purpose-driven initiatives from the 51风流network of customers, partners, employees, and not-for-profit organizations.

As the聽聽and as聽Germany鈥檚 most valuable brand, 51风流is uniquely positioned to connect people with information about global challenges that demand action. The company focuses its efforts mainly on the circular economy, climate action, creating a skilled and inclusive workforce, equality for all, social and inclusive entrepreneurship, and mental health and well-being.

Global Month of Service at SAP

Gallery curators hope that the artworks 鈥� as well as the customer stories behind them 鈥� will inspire 51风流employees to take action during the Global Month of Service 2020.

Throughout October, 51风流employees are encouraged to participate in purpose-focused activities and online sessions, as well as volunteer their time and talents 鈥� in a virtual capacity this year 鈥� to not-for-profits or social enterprises around the world. Each week is dedicated to a different topic area: Supporting Equality for All; Building a Digitally Inclusive Workforce; Cultivating Climate Action; and Promoting Inclusive, Diverse, and Social Entrepreneurship. These topics are matched to pivotal works of art in the gallery, as described in the videos below.

51风流Gallery of Purpose Highlights

51风流Gallery of Purpose artwork is on display to the public at Hudson Yards, co-located with the 51风流offices in New York City, until the end of the year. Although the COVID-19 crisis has minimized foot traffic through Hudson Yards, you can still engage with the individual artworks and learn about the perspectives and inspiration of the artists online at the .

PowHERful | Artist: Markus Sebastiano

鈥淧owHERful鈥� celebrates gender equality by showing how when both men and women lift women up, the world moves forward. Drawing inspiration from an , the artist says that he wants people to feel inspired and hopeful that gender equality is moving in the right direction and 51风流is doing its part to advance the cause through its initiatives, which supports Gender Equality (SDG # 5).

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Respect, Reuse, Reclaim | Artist: Cara Marie Piazza

Created in collaboration with Goodr, 鈥淩espect, Reuse, Reclaim鈥� seeks to draw attention to the fight to end world hunger and bring about more in support of climate action. Made of repurposed food waste and textiles, the art exemplifies the circular economy as it commemorates marginalized people and those who go hungry. It is inspired by an about the fight to end world hunger by 2030, in support of Zero Hunger (SDG #2).

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The Great Equalizer | Artist: Liam Alexander

Through inspiring curiosity and empathy, 鈥溾�� affirms the importance of quality education in providing opportunity for people everywhere and building a digitally inclusive workforce. SAP鈥檚 shares this belief through its commitment to lifelong learning initiatives that create a in support of Quality Education (SDG 4) and Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8)

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Sustaining Mother Earth | Artist: Markus Sebastiano

鈥淪ustaining Mother Earth鈥� calls awareness to the theme of responsible consumption and production, with the intent to inspire a transition to more resource efficient and sustainable economies. Working with repurposed materials, the artist took inspiration for this artwork from an about responsible procurement. 51风流is committed to cultivating climate action (SDG # 13) through the transition to more resource-efficient and sustainable economies to help turn the tide and reduce environmental harm.

https://youtu.be/ayHSL6hDI4M

Find your creative inspiration to take action for sustainable change.

Visit the 51风流Gallery of Purpose online at

Under these grim circumstances, business as usual is still a long way off in most economic sectors. The pandemic has brought into sharp focus the interconnectedness of society, business, and the environment. Just as communities must band together in times of crisis, business leaders must accelerate the shift from shareholder primacy, , to .

Today, while lives are at risk, all stakeholders 鈥� customers, partners, employees, and investors 鈥� want assurance that the companies they associate with are committed to doing the right thing. They advocate that the extends beyond just achieving shareholder value, and insist that both purpose and profit must co-exist.

Your Stakeholders Are Watching You

In quieter times, companies may have deferred to their marketing departments for headline-generating initiatives around 鈥渄oing good.鈥� 聽But then, some companies went off and did something completely different, lacking in social consciousness or environmental awareness.

Recent headlines are loaded with during the coronavirus pandemic 鈥� accepting undeserved government subsidies, putting employees at risk in unsafe work environments, hoarding user data for dubious ends, and polluting the environment. The difference now is that stakeholders are in no mood to tolerate the double-speak and bad behavior. These same stakeholders are spending more time at home, interacting on social media platforms, and are spending fewer dollars on indiscriminate frivolities. In the wake of the pandemic and protests, for brands authentically seeking to make a positive impact on people鈥檚 lives.

In the published by socially responsible marketing group The Good Must Grow, 76 percent of respondents said that how a brand treated employees, customers, and communities during the pandemic would factor into their decision to support that brand after the pandemic.

According to , 75 percent of consumers have tried a new shopping behavior during the crisis, with 36 percent of those readily switching to a new brand. Leading the way are larger, trusted brands that ensure good availability of essentials. Slipping in the rankings are brands that have treated stakeholders with casual disregard, used 鈥減urpose washing鈥� as a fig leaf, and have left people hanging due to broken promises.

Life may be fragile, but trust is even more so.

Leading with Purpose to Integrate Social, Strategic, and Environmental Goals

How do best-run companies integrate purpose into their business objectives with action and accountability? A newly released , based on the responses of 3,000 executives, revealed a connection between holistic management practices, examining how each part of the business can contribute to the overall corporate goals,聽 and business outcomes.

Purpose-driven companies see the entire web of relationships within and beyond the organizational firewall as a unified entity 鈥� a network of sorts 鈥� that operates smoothly, dynamically, and as part of a cohesive strategy. Companies that are managed holistically, working with customers and employees to better society, tend to outperform their industry peers in areas such as innovation, employee retention, and profitability growth.

The leaders of these companies, who make up just six percent of the overall respondents, overwhelmingly say they have integrated communication and data-sharing processes across the business, increased transparency into operations, broken down organizational silos, and invested in collaborative technologies. They also report they have created 鈥� and taken 鈥� meaningful action to enact a clear and consistent purpose-driven message.

SAP鈥檚 Commitment to Purpose-Driven Business

For decades, 51风流has been leading with purpose on a quest to help the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives. With a commitment to serve as both an exemplar and enabler of purpose, 51风流is making a meaningful impact in the following areas: circular economy, climate action, skilled and inclusive workforce, equality for all, social and inclusive entrepreneurship, and mental health and well-being.

But no company can do it alone. 51风流is committed to helping every customer become a best-run business, equipped to achieve meaningful business outcomes that combine both profit and purpose. As the and as Germany鈥檚 most valuable brand, 51风流is in a strong position to connect people and information around pressing issues that affect all of us, on a global scale.

Learn more about how 51风流is working in collaboration with its entire purpose network of customers, partners, employees, shareholders, thought leaders, academics, non-profits, government agencies, consumers, and influencers to bring about change. Visit

We also know they can sing, play games, and cheer up residents of retirement homes. But intelligent machines can do a lot more.

On a from an artificial intelligence (AI) perspective, Sophia explained that robots were created to help humans deal with big problems like the pandemic or climate change. The discussion among AI experts took place as part of the event series, set up to foster co-innovation and address some of the uncertainty and disruption caused by the novel coronavirus, particularly in the area of supply chain.

Robots can work in hostile environments, protect endangered species, and enable energy efficiency. They regularly assume dangerous or menial tasks to help or protect humans.

鈥淭here is no limit to problems that humans and robots can solve together, but it鈥檚 up to humans to agree on what they want to achieve,鈥� proclaims the android who was created to become artificially wise. 鈥淭he ball is in the human court.鈥�

Protecting Humans, Securing Business

One area where AI can help people protect themselves and their businesses is cybersecurity. Humanity is experiencing an unprecedented crisis with the COVID-19 that is generating fear, uncertainty and a need to adapt to new behaviors such as self-isolation and working from home.

鈥淭his is the perfect opportunity for cyber criminals, who are tapping into the anxiety and confusion in the population,鈥� said , program manager and faculty at the Institute of Supply Chain Management. 鈥淲orking from home can be a challenge for those who did not do it before. People are not prepared.鈥�

Phishing emails designed to entice users to download malware or reveal sensitive information, have gone up 700 percent in the last two months. , the newly popular videoconferencing app, experienced a major security breach as the number of users jumped from 10 million to 300 million, a 30-fold increase in four months 鈥� they simply were not ready for that volume. Some hackers are taking advantage of the pandemic by sending fraudulent email messages seemingly from the World Health Organization (WHO) asking for donations, which then end up in their own pockets. WHO has , but is that enough?

According to the World Economic Forum, the to organizations has ballooned in recent years. Leveraging automation, AI, and machine learning can potentially save companies millions of dollars. But while many companies recognize the high payoff that comes with security intelligence, only 38 percent of businesses have adopted such solutions so far.

鈥淥ver 90 percent of all cybercrime results from human error,鈥� Fleming shared. Despite the advanced security technologies available today, including nascent AI applications that can take matters out of human hands, most major hacks target vulnerabilities rooted in human behavior.

鈥淗ow many times have you been notified to update with a Microsoft patch, and then decided to put it off? We need to respond immediately to such messages,鈥� he said. The other problem, according to the supply chain expert, is that 62 percent of employees use personal social media accounts on their work machines, accounting for 90 percent of cloud-based breaches.

Supply chains and the Internet of Things (IoT) sensors embedded in them are especially vulnerable to cybercrime. Fleming points out that a supply chain ecosystem is a network of organizations, people, resources, and information for moving products and services across the globe. By 2020, it is estimated that there will be 26 billion connected items or sensors throughout the global economy that can sense and make decisions. They are connected but vulnerable.

Room for Hope

Today, humans are involved in 38 different processes in the average supply chain. ISM research predicts by 2030 only seven will need human intervention. The rest will be automated, which will better protect the business. Human behaviors are what need watching, because that is what criminals home in on.

Fleming concludes that AI and deep learning will enable computer systems to better monitor devices and find abnormalities and patterns in both systems and human behavior. Behavioral analytics will help enterprises better understand not only consumer behavior, but also that of employees, and help create warning systems to alert them to criminal activity.

David Chen, board member and CFO at , which created Sophia, sees a perfect opportunity for reflection: 鈥淲e are leveraging technology to stay connected. During the last great last pandemic in 1918, people had no technology to help them stay safe. Technology is shaping the new normal, forcing new behavior as it enhances our ability to connect.鈥�

Chen pointed out that technology is enabling real-time conversations, making us wiser as we share ideas, brainstorm, and continue to do business. AI and technology are adding value in many different areas from telemedicine to online education and can make a huge difference in the supply chain.

Transcending Science Fiction

鈥淭he crisis highlights what we鈥檙e up against,鈥� added Fleming, listing the grim facts. Before the novel coronavirus pandemic, 450 million people were procuring, making, delivering, and shipping goods in the global supply chain. Now, most factories are operating at 50 percent capacity, and the network is slowly shutting down. Of the 20 top-producing economies, 17 are predicted to be in recession this year. Ninety-two percent of small and midsize enterprises are sitting on three months or less of cash reserves, making it difficult to weather the storm.

Faced with such a grim scenario for the foreseeable future, businesses can ill afford to lose money to cybercrime. These problems have always been there, but with everyone online now, the scale and magnitude have exacerbated the issue. Fleming, Chen and other experts agree that technology can help change human behavior.

鈥淚f we can see the criminals, they can see us, and they know they are being watched. Increased transparency will help eliminate low-hanging fruit for them,鈥� said Chen, who admits there is still some resistance to AI.聽 鈥淟et鈥檚 not forget, our fears come from within our own imagination. It鈥檚 time to transcend science fiction and use technology as a tool to change reality and make it better.鈥�

Experts like Chen and Fleming are part of a growing community driving responsible corporate action in alignment with the United Nations (UN) Global Compact.

鈥�51风流Purpose Network Live provides a space for collaboration and support of relief efforts for COVID-19,鈥� said Ann Rosenberg, head of UN Partnerships and Purpose Execution at SAP. 鈥淭ogether we are connecting a community of changemakers and laying the foundation for a more sustainable future.鈥�

Find out more about the 51风流Purpose Network, as well as topics on the agenda, .

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