SAP’s SAPPHIRENOW online conference (for EMEA) last week was inspiring, informative and entertaining. Christian Klein, SAP’s CEO, spoke passionately about many areas that are driving positive change in business, and if you didn’t get a chance to catch the keynote speech then it is well worth checking out.
It was uplifting and reassuring to realise, as an SAP partner ourselves, that our strategy is so closely aligned with SAP’s. There were numerous themes that resonate with ten80’s focus areas and the vision for our business. I’ve delved into some of the most poignant ones for me below.
The most resilient companies are the ones that embrace technology.
Technology once supported businesses, but now technology is business – no matter what industry you belong to or what size your company is. Digital transformation has been rapidly changing every single analogue process in our professions this century – it started with administration and communication and has moved through all functions from marketing to finance to recruitment and beyond. And it is set to go even further – integrating and automating tasks and creating data and insights that will exponentially fuel and grow our organisations. If you are not thinking digital, you will get left behind, and soon. ten80 is working closely with Intelligent enterprises that embrace new ways of working and have the courage to leave traditional methods behind.
Digital was an overused term, but now we are seeing real digital transformation happen fast.
Digital transformation was already in progress, but the global pandemic took our feet completely off the brakes. Many people think of the term digital simply as an online version of an older analogue process – for example using a spreadsheet instead of a form, at a very basic level. We have come many leaps beyond this, and it is about so much more than the technology itself, it is about agile decision making, customer intimacy, leveraging expertise and enhancing employee strengths. Whereas old ways may have simply put a digital wrap around a manual process, now we see fully connected systems which increase efficiencies and real time data, which in turn enables constant learning and swift reactions. We believe that ten80 is more than a prosthetic arm you can attach on to your business to replace a lost function, we are a bionic arm that will integrate and understand you and your needs, working in collaboration with you to achieve outcomes and insights for your organisation to grow.
There is a huge value benefit of linking businesses as communities.
One of ten80’s values is to be ecosystem driven. We believe that our best service can be achieved by utilising the strength and excellence of our network of networks. Effective collaboration between partners, suppliers, customers and our internal team can achieve much more than the traditional hierarchy structure of old. Being approachable is the new superpower – not being at the top. Cooperation leads us to find solutions that can lead to success for all parties, rather than trying to claim it all for ourselves and gaining nothing.
Sustainability and purpose are key.
This is the decade we build and champion sustainability, diversity, inclusion and human rights into the fabric of how we do business. Business opportunities will increase the more we create a fairer society for all, and we cannot tackle climate change without understanding that businesses have been responsible for causing it. Being a business with purpose underpins every decision that ten80 makes, to make a difference to those in our ecosystem, the communities that surround them and the planet we live on for our future generations. Having become a father for the first-time last week this couldn’t feel any more important to me that it does right now, and I am proud to lead a team that all care intensely about making an impact on society and the environment in many ways personal to themselves and their own families.
“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle – for we do not lead single issue lives” – Audre Lorde, Learning from the 60s