Hasso Plattner

Cofounder of SAP AG

• Born: January 21, 1944
• Place of Birth: Berlin, Germany

Primary Company/Organization: SAP AG

Introduction

German entrepreneur Hasso Plattner is considered a founding member of the digital revolution, known for his pragmatic nature and global perspective. He cofounded SAP AG, which became one of the world's largest software development companies in large part due to his analytical approach to business and his consensus management theory. By providing corporate customers with real-time solutions to their business-reporting needs, Plattner and SAP changed the way people do business.

Early Life

Hasso Plattner was born in Berlin, Germany, on January 21, 1944. World War II was drawing to a close, and his father, Horst Plattner, an eye surgeon, had managed to keep the family out of the war. Plattner's mother's name was Inge. Plattner graduated with a master's degree in communications engineering from the University of Karlsruhe. After leaving school, he began working at IBM in Mannheim, Germany, where he and four of his colleagues were assigned a task that was taken away from them; they were told their job was to sell computer products, not develop software. Plattner and his coworkers saw the gap in the emerging technology market and decided IBM was wrong. They resigned from IBM to establish their own company.

Life's Work

Plattner, along with former IBM colleagues Hans Werner Hector, Dietmar Hopp, Klaus Tschira, and Claus Wellenreuther, decided to form a company that would provide real-time data-processing software for corporate clients. The year was 1972. They name the company SAP, which originally stood for "systems analysis and program development" but later came to mean "systems, applications, and products in data processing."

SAP started as a weekend and evening project in Mannheim, where Plattner and the four cofounders used borrowed computers and equipment to write their code and programs. Once they had a couple of clients (they were unable to get their start-up funded with venture capital), they began to build momentum. The new company soon moved down the road to Walldorf, Germany.

During the 1970s SAP's revenue and the number of employees continued to climb. By 1980, the company was developing software in both OS and DOS formats and attending trade shows to promote the brand. In 1981, SAP had two hundred corporate customers. The software specialized in digitally tracking the day-to-day operations of a business and was proving popular. More and more German companies began to invest in SAP software.

As the 1980s flew by, SAP hired more people to meet the ever-growing demand of their increasing customer base. The decade saw a string of construction projects and foreign subsidiaries for SAP. The company went public in October 1988. By this time, SAP had more than a thousand corporate customers, the majority of which were German companies. Slowly utility companies and government entities began to recognize the need for real-time business-tracking software as the world turned digital. Still working in a competition vacuum, Plattner and his colleagues took advantage of their market share and kept growing the business as fast as they could. Plattner recognized that the technology world was fast-paced and constantly changing, even in those early years.

After the company was up and running, Plattner's main role at SAP was to develop software. He realized how important it was to stay one step ahead of the competition and the evolving technology market. The company adopted a consensus-based management system to develop ideas and keep the company on track. This management style, coupled with Plattner's love of debating, may account for the relatively long time it took to make decisions in the company's early years; however, this approach also ensured that the five cofounders knew they were all on the same page when their decisions were reached.

Plattner realized that the American market was a good place to expand SAP's global presence, and he began to seek out American companies to bolster SAP and improve revenue. For Plattner and his fellow founders, the 1990s were marked by their effort to increase the quality and usefulness of their real-time analytic software R/2 and the newer R/3. In 1993, SAP worked with Microsoft to make the new R/3 software compatible with Windows NT. In 1996, soft drinks maker Coca-Cola joined its customer ranks, and as a result SAP was named Company of the Year by the European Business Association. In four years, between 1997 and 2001, SAP's sales went from $660 million to $3.5 billion. In 1998, SAP employed nineteen thousand people.

In 1999, when the internet was experiencing some dramatic transformations, it became clear to SAP management that the company was losing its place at the top of the accessible software market. Plattner devised a new brand image for the company, known as MySap.com. The new website would provide the same software SAP had always provided and act as a vehicle for larger corporations to funnel their online activity. Plattner remarked in a Business Week interview that the new website was "like AOL for corporations." Unfortunately, the remarketing did not work, and Plattner returned to the drawing board to redesign his company to make it successful in a fast-paced, internet-focused computing world. SAP began to outsource some tasks. By partnering with established marketing and technology firms, Plattner was able to rebound from the failed MySap.com and move the company forward, increasing revenue almost 30 percent after the first year of change. At the dawn of the new millennium, SAP was the number-one corporate software developer on the planet.

SAP continued to perform strongly in the early 2000s. Plattner's R/3 management system provided business owners and operators the means by which to track sales and orders, inventory, and accounting in a single software package. It had more than 2 million users in 2004. That same year SAP's software integration product, called NetWeaver, was a hit. During the 2000s, SAP received numerous accolades and awards, proving to be a good place to work and a good provider for the business technology world. Plattner himself retired from the board of SAP on May 9, 2003, moving from a leadership to an advisory capacity.

However, by 2009 SAP was beginning to face considerable challenges. Established customers became unhappy with the direction the company was taking and the services they were receiving. A price hike proved offputting to the point that SAP had to lay off several employees to rise above the revenue issues. These problems were compounded by the effects of the 2008 global financial crisis. By this time Plattner had stepped down from the board but remained active at the company. He, like many others, realized that a major change was once again necessary.

On February 7, 2010, Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe become CEOs of SAP. They changed the branded message and the focus of the corporate software giant. Instead of continuing to focus on business management software, SAP moved toward more consumer-friendly applications for smartphones as well as cloud technology development. The idea was to show SAP's customers that they were still relevant and still the provider to turn to in the fast-paced technology arena. The new approach worked, as revenues increased and cloud computing products proved highly successful.

Plattner continued to serve as the chair of SAP's advisory council. As he explained in a 2012 interview, he considered rapid growth key to success in the ever fickle software industry, as his own story with SAP proves. He noted it was important to start focusing on the individual user when developing future product and marketing strategies. He acknowledged his belief in meeting with clients face to face, focusing on the customer, and trying new ways to collaborate in order to succeed in the tech business world.

Personal Life

In addition to his work at SAP, Plattner filled numerous roles including business philanthropist, start-up adviser, and college benefactor. He invested in several education projects such as the Hasso Plattner Institute in Pottsdam and California; the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, based at Stanford University; and the refurbishing of a German college library. In 2022, he opened Das Minsk, a private museum in Potsdam that focuses on East German artists.

Plattner was well known for his love of competitive sailboat racing and could often be found aboard his own vessel, The Morning Glory. He enjoyed a wide variety of other sports as well, including golf, tennis, surfing, and snowboarding. In 2001, Time magazine ranked Plattner first among technology personalities. Plattner has been the owner of the San Jose Sharks since 2010.

Bibliography

Baker, Stephen, and Steve Hamm. "Less Ego, More Success." Business Week 23 Jul. 2001. Web. 8 Aug. 2012.

Bartholomew, Doug. "Hasso Plattner: Growing Software's Quiet Giant." Industry Week Magazine 21 Dec. 2004. Web. 8 Aug. 2012.

"Corporate History." SAP.com. 2012. Web. 8 Aug. 2012. Company history from SAP AG's corporate website.

Lev-Ram, Michal. "Inside SAP's Radical Makeover." Fortune 29 Mar. 2012. Web. 7 Aug. 2012.

Nussbaum, Bruce. "To Innovate, Collaborate." Business Week 17 Oct. 2005. Web. 8 Aug. 2012.

Pashelka, Curtis. "San Jose Sharks' Struggles: What Are Owner Plattner's Thoughts on the Rebuild?" The Mercury News, 7 Nov. 2023, www.mercurynews.com/2023/11/07/san-jose-sharks-struggles-what-are-hasso-plattners-thoughts-on-the-rebuild/. Accessed 6 Mar. 2024.

"Sap Co Founder Hasso Plattner." Der Spiegel 3 Mar. 2012. Web. 7 Aug. 2012.