Innovation is not magic. You can do it, too.
At SAP NOW Berlin 2019, two SAP wizards entered the stage to show: Innovation is not magic. It is, and needs to be, a human-centered way of collaborating and designing solutions.
On March 13 and 14, SAP NOW Berlin 2019 opened its event hall doors in the old airport Tempelhof premises. This year’s heading “Intelligent Enterprise: The Vision Becomes Reality”. On the second day, two SAP wizards entered the stage to provide the final proof: Innovation is not magic. It is, and needs to be, a human-centered way of collaborating and designing solutions.
SAP NOW Berlin 2019: Partner for the Move to the Intelligent Enterprise
This year’s SAP Now went along the questions How do other companies tackle digitalization? Which trends and digital initiatives shape tomorrow’s business world? So, the event team opened the stage for all kinds of innovation and future experts, even wizards among them! Accompanied by Harry Potter’s film score two magicians entered the stage to find out if innovation is magic: Andreas Hauser, SVP of SAP AppHaus Network, and Glenn González, Chief Technology Officer SAP Germany. They did not saw anybody to pieces this time but concentrated on applied mathematics in a game of tiles that led the audience — guess where? — to the innovation tile.
Today is Emma, the near future is Carlos
After getting off his wizard cloak, Glenn talked about his team colleague Emma. As a typical representative of the so-called generation Z, as digital native, she is a great networker, uses many apps, has a life advisor on her smart phone. She simply expects that everything is mobile accessible. She is the typical user, you may say a “persona” for whom today’s software solutions are or should be built. The next generation to come still sits in a highchair: Carlos, Glenn’s three-year-old son, grows up as digital native of the youngest so-called generation Alpha. He talks or babbles to Alexa naturally, orders his preferred Lion King soundtrack, and says good night to Alexa, in his perception the talking house. Innovation must focus on these users if it wants to be meaningful and future-proof.
Fiori is Emma
From his SAP AppHaus team experience, Andreas could refer to a variety of about 900 customer projects. Among them companies who still work on Windows 95, which is yesterday, and companies who focus on users like Emma. “Today is Emma”, he said. In the future, you may be able to guide programs with your thoughts, talk to your software, you will use augmented reality, without a browser user interface. In the past, big companies swallowed small companies. Today, agile and fast companies eat the slow enterprises. All this explains why everybody talks about and strives for innovation, it is a question of survival. The way forward for SAP customers means to broaden the scope, to evolve business, digitalize applications and processes, integrate a cloud strategy. It is no longer about ABAP programming only, SAP Fiori is the user interface that needs to be integrated in the planning. Fiori is Emma, programming for today’s users.
I dare say that, to be successful, today’s and future innovations require a cultural change in mindset, a kind of humanized leadership.
Andreas Hauser, SVP SAP AppHaus
Innovation is about people
“In its core,” says Andreas, “innovation is about people. About the people who design and implement it and, most importantly, about the users who will work with the new solution. Technology does not solve problems, it is only the enabler for solutions. Our SAP AppHaus teams strictly follow the approach to humanize business software. Because of this human-centered approach our design process is not only multi-disciplinary, it also crosses hierarchies. I dare say that, to be successful, today’s and future innovations require a cultural change in mindset, a kind of humanized leadership.”
Watch the two wizards Andreas Hauser, SVP SAP AppHaus network, and Glenn González, Chief Technology Officer SAP Germany, present at SAP NOW Berlin 2019. So, let them explain to you, why innovation is not magic — and you can do it, too!
The SAP Design Thinking approach is a human-centered design experience along the three following steps: Discover, design, deliver. Check out the Design Thinking approach at SAP.
More food for thought
SAP AppHaus webpage: SAP Design Services
Andreas Hauser’s presentation on humanized leadership at SAP @ Fifteen Seconds Festival 2017, (video 39:19 min.)
