SAP’s McDermott counts on faster decision-making as sole CEO

FRANKFURT: SAP’s Bill McDermott, who became the German company’s sole chief executive officer on Thursday, is counting on the leadership change to speed decisionmaking at the software maker trying to accelerate growth.

Having product road map, sales and personnel actions dealt with by a single CEO lets SAP make quicker decisions, McDermott told reporters on Thursday before the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Mannheim, Germany. After more than six hours of questions on competition, growth and management, investors approved Jim Hagemann Snabe’s appointment to the supervisory board as he gives up the co-CEO position.

"We did a lot of good things for SAP," McDermott said. "We brought SAP together and role-modeled what leaders can do when they trust each other." Lately that harmony has been tested. The biggest supplier of business applications software is undergoing a transitional period as McDermott shapes the company and its management to better compete with Oracle, Salesforce.com and others for a greater share of software delivered over the Web.

Sales growth is slowing on lower demand for traditional software installed on customers’ premises. Technology head Vishal Sikka, the company’s face in Silicon Valley, resigned this month.