My takeaways from SAP Social Sabbatical

Now that I am back I keep Ethiopia quite close to me. For me it was really a pleasant discovery of a country which had been imprinted on me as a country devastated by famine. Whilst there is still a lot of challenges with food insecurity and education of nutrition I found endless vast green plains full of teff — the next gluten free superfood, which make Ethiopians run endless marathons and give them the energy for the infinite jumps in their extraordinary traditional dances. They cultivate and eat so much tomato, papaya, watermelon and maybe it’s the banana that grows in Ethiopia that will become the next standard banana as Cavendish — the most common banana — appears to be doomed to extinction. Ethiopia, despite its famine crisis at times, has a tremendous rich, vast and tasty food culture and twice a week most Ethiopians abstain from eating animal products as the religion is mostly Orthodox Catholics. Also Ethiopia has never been a colony of any other country in the world which is how they were able to preserve their unique language and traditions which is seen in the dances and garments they still produce up to today. Ethiopia is a booming country, in Addis skyscrapers are being built, Ethiopian Airlines has a super hub in Addis and so many people can speak in English and they are quite well educated. Addis is the political centre of Africa. This is my greatest takeaway from the Land of Origins: to not let be influenced solely by the imagery from a TV screen.

In regards of the organization, I was appalled to realize how our skills at SAP from a variety of professional backgrounds, sales, administrative roles, customer success and others can be so greatly helpful for social enterprises. I learnt a lot about SAP and how the different roles that exist across the organization, they all fit together which I wouldn’t have the chance to learn in any other way and this allows me to have the big picture of our business. I realized in person the responsibility SAP has in the world as the huge organization it is and how its CSR strategy fits perfectly into the direction of the company. Too often when we are focused in only one aspect we loose the big picture. Finally it was, I would say, enlightening getting to know my colleagues from such a variety of geographies, with different backgrounds, professional experiences, religions, languages and we all are working with one purpose: making the world run better and improve peoples lives!