SAP Executives Share Their Vision and Strategy with the SAP Community
In my search for European Corporate Blogs I find this really interesting. Four of SAP's Executive Board Members are blogging, and their writing seems to be tightly integrated into the SAP Community. Considering SAP's reputation and credibility, they could be one of the most important forerunners in blogging, not only in Europe.
Three reasons why I was surprised to find SAP execs blogging:
1. It's a German company
I don't want to generalize too much, but it's commonly said that most German companies have a more conservative culture than would, for example, their US equivalent. If SAP can do it, many more can.
2. SAP's target group
SAP sell systems that influences many, if not most, parts of their customers' businesses. The decision to buy SAP's products/services is a decision by the CEO and the board. Of course all major investments are, but I would say that the CEO is more involved with SAP than he or she is with Dell or Macromedia (or many of the other big companies with blogs). And if SAP with its target group isn't deterred by the potential risks of executive blogging, many others won't be either.
3. The level of professionalism
I'm not surprised that SAP are professional. But it was surprising, at least to me, that the blogs are so seamlessly integrated into their web communications in general. I believe in this method, I think this is the way to go to make corporate blogging something else than personal blogging (which it is and must be, even if the two share common ground). SAP is doing this a lot better than, say, Sun Microsystems.
Thanks to Neville Hobson for showing me the SAP blogs.