Taste the pleasure of decision making

Germans usually give the world the impression that they are rigorous, serious and even rigid. And Klaus Zimmer, the German, is "refreshing". The president of SAP Greater China loves music, especially the enthusiastic quartet, so that he has learned a set of decision-making methods from it, and therefore often enjoys the impulse and pleasure of decision-making - and decision-making is the focus of his work as president.

He said that many outstanding musicians in the world are also good mathematicians, an organic combination of sensibility and rationality. When we are listening to a music quartet, the rational performance of the performer, that is, his perfect technique is only the foundation, he must also have a unique feeling for the music and convey his passion in order to truly move people. Likewise, business leaders need to use their heads and hearts at the same time, blending rational decision-making with intuitive decision-making, and harmoniously play a decision quartet to ensure that both strategy and tactics are correct.

That's what Seaman said and did. Under his decision-making leadership, SAP China started from scratch, and gradually promoted the concept of ERP to become a household name, and finally made a successful business.

Intuitive decision-making to seize opportunities

Rational decision-making to support

Before SAP officially entered China, the company headquarters conducted a comprehensive and in-depth market research on the Chinese management software market. The results showed that, It will take at least 10 years of investment in the Chinese market to see initial results. But in 1994, the company entered China with the idea of long-term operation. Until Seaman joined SAP China in 1996, most companies still had no concept of ERP. How to open this blank market is a huge challenge for him.

Seaman recalled: "At that time, China only had a hardware market, not a software market. So the headquarters did not give me specific indicators, but just told me, 'Give you three years to develop the market and see what you can do. 'But I set myself a clear goal - to establish a benign biological chain within 3 years and open up the SAP market in China."

The first problem he faced was the shortage of talents. Since there were few competitors at the time, it was impossible for SAP to dig enough talents from its peers. Seaman decided to recruit qualified personnel, and then provide them with comprehensive technical training of SAP global standards, so that they can have the same professional ability as senior foreign experts and provide services for Chinese users. Regarding the strategy of developing a local talent team with SAP's own strength, Seaman said, "In the first three years, I made more rational decisions, and asked what resources the headquarters had for me and what kind of talent training goals I would achieve. But In specific tactics, such as interviews, emotional decision-making dominates."

As a senior executive, Seaman relies more on his feelings when recruiting and employing people. When he recruits people, he mainly considers two points: first, he is young and energetic; The person being interviewed may not have enough professional knowledge and skills at that time, but if there is a kind of enthusiasm in his eyes and there is a kind of sparkle in his body, he will be moved, and there will be the urge and pleasure of hiring this person. For example, Huang Xiaojian, the current director of SAP Greater China SME business unit, is a good example. "He was one of our consultants in East China before, but he has the ability to persuade others, and he is very aggressive and aggressive. At the beginning I hired him as my technical assistant. Due to his good performance, he was promoted step by step. Come up." Many important managers of the company were recruited at that time. At present, more than 90% of the employees are trained by local professional managers in mainland China, and a very sophisticated team has been formed.

In order to reserve a steady stream of localized management talents for SAP China, Seaman began to implement the "Seed Plan" in 1997. In this plan, SAP company cooperates with Chinese universities and scientific research institutions to study Chinese business management and train future business operators. At present, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Tongji University, Jinan University, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai University, Guangzhou University of Science and Technology, Neusoft Institute of Information Technology and China Entrepreneurs Association have joined the program. At the same time, SAP and universities and research institutions have jointly established an SAP-authorized R/3 system training center, and cooperated with universities and research institutions to hold lectures and seminars to showcase SAP's management system and discuss hot topics in the field of enterprise management. .

Seaman introduced that the seed project is first and foremost a very emotional decision. As the person in charge of the company, it is necessary to ensure that the project is profitable, but this project requires money to buy computers, donate software to others, and provide free training. At that time, many people held objections, and there was another question: where to find so much money? But his intuition told him that he should do this: "I rely on my own experience. For example, when I was studying at a university in Germany, I saw students learn the technology and products of a certain company during school, which will be of great benefit to this company in the future. For example, if a Chinese college student uses a Lenovo computer in school, he has a high probability of continuing to use it after leaving school."

At the same time, the seed program is also supported by rational decision-making. Only when there are enough outstanding talents and allowing them to implement projects with users, can users be satisfied, users can be successful, and a series of benefits will follow. Although SAP's branches in other countries and regions also have cooperation plans with colleges and universities and scientific research institutions, there is no such perfect and huge plan as in China. Seaman persuaded the headquarters and got financial support. Today, the total investment of 10 million Deutsche Marks originally planned has been fully spent, and SAP is still insisting on huge investment and is ready to make further investment.

The Seed Program is based on long-term and future investment, and has achieved remarkable results so far. It enables Chinese business leaders to understand advanced management thinking and management experience. As the business continued to expand, SAP itself and its partners recruited much of the talent it needed from the universities that implemented the seed program.

As an extension of SAP's global strategy, SAP China also quickly established a team of local partners. The world's four major management consulting companies, IBM, HP, Intel, Microsoft and other companies are all partners who work closely with SAP. These companies have entered the Chinese market for many years and have established a department that specializes in providing SAP product implementation services. a win-win. In addition, SAP cooperates with domestic local consulting companies, such as Gaowei Xincheng, United Anda-Medal, etc., so that SAP users in China have received sufficient support resources.

Seaman emphasized that business leaders must use rational decision-making as auxiliary support after making intuitive decisions to seize opportunities. Only when the two are closely combined can the business be successful and the joy of decision-making be harvested. For example, last year he felt that the domestic financial and steel industries were very dominant, so he quickly recruited some talents who had a good understanding of the market and rich industry experience, and formed a strong team to develop and implement for users. . As a result, from April last year to the present, the company has successfully signed 10 large orders in the steel industry and 4 large orders in the financial industry.

Rational decision-making sets the direction

Intuitive decision-making adds vitality

Another important decision of Seaman is the development of customer groups, for which he proposed the development strategy of "Lighthouse Project" . Its initial simple definition is to set up a "lighthouse" in its information management through SAP's ERP system in every industry-leading enterprise in China, and let this "beacon" shine on other companies in its industry. The exact interpretation of the "Lighthouse Project" now is to continue to serve the existing pilot enterprise customers, while cultivating enterprise customers who can become the pilot enterprise in the future.

The Beacon Project set the direction from rational decision-making, and determined that the initial project was not for the purpose of making money, but for the purpose of long-term investment and ensuring complete user satisfaction. The basis that SAP refers to when choosing a specific lighthouse company is also very rational. It is mainly considered from two aspects: first, the company must have a good brand and reputation, and the measurement standards include company size, annual turnover, annual profit, etc. detailed data. If the company has no reputation, it is impossible to shine on other companies; secondly, the leadership team of the company must be very mature and enterprising, and the corporate culture must contain change factors. This is because SAP's ERP system is a change in operation and management that goes deep into the enterprise, requiring reorganization and reengineering of business processes. Its implementation cannot be successful without strong support from senior leadership.

Lenovo, SAP's first successful customer in China, is a typical example. Seaman said he was deeply moved when he first came into contact with Lenovo. Lenovo not only has a high degree of marketization, a flexible system, advanced thinking, and close contact with international market operations, but also has standardized management and professional senior managers. At that time, when Lenovo was making decisions about the ERP system, senior managers were involved, and more than 70 experts were invited to discuss it. In the process of implementation, they faced dual pressures: on the one hand, due to the rapid development of China's IT market, Lenovo faced fierce market competition and needed to expand its business as soon as possible; on the other hand, it had to invest a lot of human and material resources to Implement ERP. Therefore, someone internally asked whether to suspend the ERP project and focus on doing business first. But Liu Chuanzhi firmly believes that although there are more temporary difficulties and pressures, going online as soon as possible will bring faster returns. With his strong support, the project has persisted. After 18 months, it was finally declared a success in August 2000, which is also the success of SAP.

Of course, in the process of specific customer development, there is also no lack of emotional decision-making. For example, Haier, another successful user of the Lighthouse Project, was completely intuition at that time, and Seaman asked the following employees to enter the Haier Group and take down this order. "I personally have been using Haier refrigerators for a long time, and such an excellent company is definitely worth our efforts to make it a beacon."

The cooperation with Haier was first a small project, started through a consulting partner of SAP contact. At that time, there was a problem with the material management system of Haier's air-conditioning production department, which used products from SAP's competitors. Seaman acted decisively and sent the best personnel in the company to Haier at that time, so that Haier people could feel the difference between SAP and the other company. As a result, Haier started with the material module, followed by the logistics system, and finally extended to the entire company's procurement and supply chain systems using the SAP system.

It turns out that Seaman's decision was correct. Well-known enterprises such as Lenovo and Haier are deeply aware of the importance of ERP and have become model enterprises that implement SAP's ERP system. Domestic enterprises have come to visit and study in an endless stream. Their successful experience has really become a bright "beacon", illuminating other enterprises in the same industry, and providing more enterprises with information on how informatization can bring benefits. Demonstration experience.

From the development of the talent team, to the establishment of the partner team, to the introduction of the seed plan, to the implementation of the lighthouse plan, Seaman's four strategic decisions are organically combined to form an interlocking chain benign biological chain. The development of the talent team and the establishment of the partner team have improved the user satisfaction of implementing the SAP system. The talents cultivated by the seed program can be hired by SAP or its partners, which enhances the ability to implement for users, and further expands the scope of the lighthouse program.

Seaman concluded that SAP's macro strategy is the result of rational analysis and decision-making. SAP gets authoritative market research reports from IDC, McKinsey and other institutions every year. But their data can only be used as a general framework to provide a basic reference. SAP still needs to further analyze this or add its own perceptual things. "It's building our own house on top of their data," he said.

For example, IDC predicts that China's ERP market will grow at a rate of 38% next year. SAP will eventually make its own judgment as to whether this number is high or low, and on this basis, conduct an in-depth analysis of the market conditions it understands. , which industries will develop faster. Two important factors are mainly considered: one is whether the market is attractive, including national policies and the direction of the industry; the other is whether SAP's solutions can match the development of a certain industry. In this way, manpower and material resources can be deployed, and the work will be focused on major industries and enterprises.

Re-decision on decision

The Lighthouse Project has enabled SAP to enter large enterprises in China's mainstream industries, and has achieved success in high-end enterprise applications. Next, they began to further extend the lighthouse plan, develop the small and medium-sized enterprise market, and expand their business into deeper and broader fields.

SAP's entry into the small and medium business market is the company's global strategy and the result of a re-decision by headquarters. SAP has been positioned in the high-end enterprise market in the past, focusing on large-scale applications. Its products have always been considered to be long-term, expensive, and only suitable for large enterprises. In order to change this situation, the company decided to extend its business to the field of SMEs. In March 2002, SAP's SME strategy was officially launched, and the specific solution was launched after integrating the products of an Israeli software developer TopManager. This has become another important milestone in the development history of SAP.

Seaman conducted a further rational analysis of the situation in China. Most domestic enterprises are small and medium-sized. Like large enterprises, they also need to compete and develop in the market. It's just that due to their limited capabilities, lack of funds, and fewer personnel, they need to implement it faster. Compared with foreign companies, their weak IT foundation has become an advantage. Many foreign companies have adopted numerous IT systems, and some even have as many as 20 or 30 different systems. When implementing ERP, integration is difficult and time-consuming. However, many Chinese enterprises are just a blank piece of paper. There is no such complex problem, and it can be implemented easier and faster.

Seaman proposed to the headquarters very early that the best market for small and medium-sized enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region is China. He suggested to vigorously promote this business in China. He was quickly supported by the headquarters and provided him with sufficient resources. SAP China R&D Center soon developed and launched the Chinese version of "SAP Agile Business Solutions".

Corresponding to the global strategy, SAP China divides the SME market into "growing SMEs" and "mature SMEs" according to the complexity of enterprises' informatization needs, and provides SAP Business One and mySAP respectively. All-in-One. The workflow of the former is relatively simple and has customized requirements; the workflow of the latter is relatively complex and has high industrialization requirements. At present, SAP has many small and medium-sized enterprises in the Chinese market.

Seaman said that after he is optimistic about a direction and goal, he will continue to move forward. The macro strategy is basically unchanged, but in the specific implementation process, it is necessary to maintain flexibility and make re-decisions according to changes in the situation.

For example, SAP used to be very optimistic about China's power industry. Because the industry was reformed and opened up five years ago, they believed that there was great potential in this field, and organized a special team to prepare for a big job. But it turned out that the industry was undergoing a restructuring and there was no business at all. At this time, he quickly drew the team back and focused on other industries. And once there are new changes in the power industry, it will be re-invested.

Seaman quotes Dittma Hope, former chairman of SAP, as saying, "It is far better to make a decision and then find out that it is not right and then correct it, than to do nothing at all". People cannot always be right. After making a decision, if it is found that it is not very wise, it is completely feasible to correct it immediately.

Adjust your decision-making style as needed

As a business leader, it's important to note another point. That is, you must know your own personality very well, know whether you are rational or emotional, and make good decisions by making use of your strengths and circumventing weaknesses. For example: Hasso Plattner, one of the founders of SAP, is impulsive and passionate, very emotional, very sensitive to technology, and quick to make decisions; while another founder, Dietmar Hope, is calm , very rational, emphasizes planning and control of the business, and always makes a decision after sufficient analysis and judgment. It is the combination of these two people's different decision-making styles that makes SAP so successful.

In addition to the individual's inherent decision-making style, it is also necessary to make timely adjustments according to the situation. Seaman said he himself went through a transformational process. In the past, he mainly used the feeling of his heart, that is, he made decisions based on intuition. As he grew older and became more experienced, he made more decisions with his mind, that is, based on rationality. At the same time, this is also closely related to the maturity of the Chinese market, which is a process of simultaneous change.

In the past, China's market operation was not standardized, and most companies were very emotional when making decisions, but now they are operating in a planned and systematic manner, so companies have become very rational when making decisions.

The ancient strategist Sun Tzu once said that managing an army of 100 and 10,000 people is the same and needs to be applied in the same way. The same is true for management companies. Unlike when there are only 10 people, when the company scale reaches 100 people, the mechanism needs to be improved, so that adding more people will not have much impact. In general, when the company is small, more decisions are made based on emotion. When the company becomes large, the management system and mechanism are relatively mature, and there are more elements of rational decision-making. When the five founders of SAP started their businesses from IBM, it was mainly the result of perceptual decisions. At the beginning, SAP China was only an office of 10 people, and there were more emotional decisions. Now that SAP has developed so many branches and businesses around the world, a very rigorous system has been formed. SAP China has also grown to more than 300 people, and more rational decisions are needed.

Seaman's analogy says that there are two kinds of people in the world: one is the one who tells you the time, every time you ask him what time it is, he will tell you; Here, let you see the time for yourself. Seaman's role in SAP China used to be the person who told others the time. After years of development, the system and mechanism of the company have been gradually improved. Everyone can look at the watch and know what to do in their respective positions. There is no need to ask him about everything, and he will give the answer.

The formulation of strategy is to decide what cannot be done, but some Chinese companies want to do everything, but the result may not be able to do well. Seaman believes that whether business leaders use intuition or rational decision-making, the most important thing is to confirm what should not be done. thing. For SAP, the core thing to do is ERP. "When .COM was crazy in 1999 and 2000, some people said that SAP was outdated, but the Internet bubble burst, and we survived healthy. Now some people say that ERP is dying in China, but we think that China's ERP market is in the ascendant. Will flourish. We will continue to focus on ERP, and then do other business expansion."

Taste the pleasure of decision making

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