The Best-Run Businesses Run SAP

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Be Brief May 09, 2011 by Jonathan Becher In a blog and twitter infected world, you would think that we’ve all learned to be brief.  A never-ending parade of 50 slide ppt decks, run-on emails, and hour-plus lectures reminds me that we haven’t.  It’s hard to get to the point. If you’re guilty of long emails or verbose marketing copy, remember the famous line from philosopher Blaise Pascal: Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parceque je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte. I have only made this letter rather long because I have not had time to make it shorter. — Lettres provinciales XVI, 1656 Most people think this quote was from Mark Twain. Did you? (more…)

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  I'm fascinated by the concept of aligning execution and strategy; in other words – making sure what we actually do matches what we say we will do. It might sound obvious but finding ways to close the gap between the two makes a great subject for a blog and I’ve been writing about it for years. Even as CMO of SAP, I do my best to literally “manage by walking around” but since SAP is a global company it might be more aptly called manage by flying around. While I occasionally write about marketing topics, most of my entries deal with general people and business issues. Please share your ideas and experiences in the comments.

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