INTERVIEW/ DAVID ROBINSON
I t takes a specific kind of leader to look at a twenty-year tenure not as a comfort zone, but as a platform for disruption. David Robinson, the newly appointed President of SAP North America and Americas Customer Success Functions, is exactly that kind of leader. Having spent two decades navigating the intricate machin- ery of SAP—from the granular details of product engineering to the orchestration of RISE with SAP transformations—Rob- inson, in his new role, is stepping into a moment of critical convergence for the enterprise tech world. In a candid conversation with SAP- insider, Robinson reflects on a journey defined by “disrupting ourselves”. He moves past the buzzwords of digital transformation to confront the messy, human realities of IT that include the weight of technical debt, the inertia of customization, and the necessity of mov- ing from implementation to adoption. Now, Robinson’s mandate is to steer North America’s diverse customer base—from those still grappling with on-premise legacy systems to those pio- neering AI-driven innovation—toward a unified, cloud-first future. Here is a deep dive into his philosophy on leadership and why the most challenging custom- ers are often the most valuable. The Past and Present SAPinsider: For those in our commu- nity who know the title but perhaps not the person, how would you de- scribe the journey that brought you to this role? David Robinson: It’s always interesting to look back, because the journey looks different in retrospect than it did at the start. I’ve spent a little over two decades at SAP, starting deep in our product en- gineering organizations. I stayed very close to the products and, more impor- tantly, close to the early adopters—those customers who invest in SAP as the foundation of their enterprises.
I spent a lot of time bridging the gap be- tween product organizations and actual realization. I’ve been part of the rewiring that Christian [Klein] has led over the last few years, transitioning from SAP’s on-premise roots, which go back five dec- ades, to refactoring how SAP designs and delivers for the cloud. Most recently, I led RISE with SAP. We had to disrupt what we have done so well to prepare for a future designed around the cloud. That experience broadened my ho- rizons. It exposed me to the complex levers of decision-making in the rela- tionship between SAP, our partners, and our customers. It taught me that we need to optimize for efficiency and innovation simultaneously.
aligned. However, while a product drives business value, we must couple that with making it less costly and complex to im- plement and operate. That job is never done. This shifts our focus from implemen- tation to adoption. We are moving away from generating one-time value at go- live to creating capabilities that offer ongoing value creation through daily operations of the portfolio. Cloud and Customizations SAPinsider: Many CIOs struggle to marry their business demands with the complexity of moving to the cloud. What are you seeing in the field re- garding this transition? Robinson: We’ve seen something fas- cinating with our SAP S/4HANA cus- tomers. There was a fear that those who moved to SAP S/4HANA early would struggle to jump to a Cloud ERP. How- ever, we’ve experienced the opposite. Customers who moved to SAP S/4HANA had unknowingly already started their journey to the cloud. Why? Because they had already done the hard work of unwinding technical debt, get- ting back to fit-to-standard, and putting governance around their customiza- tions. That work is the natural prerequi- site for Cloud ERP. Those customers now have an accelerated path because they aren’t bogged down by the complexity of consolidation. SAPinsider: That brings up the issue of customizations. How big a hurdle is that legacy code? Robinson: I’ll share a piece of insight we’ve learned from the customers who were early adopters. When you look at these highly customized estates, whether on SAP ECC or other ERPs, most of the customizations created over the years aren’t even needed anymore. First, the business process often doesn’t require them anymore. Second,
“I spent a lot of time bridging the gap between product organization
and actual realization.”
SAPinsider: You’ve mentioned that a customer-first focus was pivotal for you. How does that translate to the strategy for North America? Robinson: It’s vital to understand that technology has changed. SAP continues to be at the forefront of enterprise inno- vation, but our job isn’t just to provide the latest portfolio. We must make it ac- cessible. We must reduce the barriers both to adoption and long term use of these innovations . I talk a lot about keeping the total cost to operate and the total cost to innovate
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