When you try your best but you don't succeed
When you get what you want but not what you need
When you feel so tired but you can't sleep
Stuck in reverse
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
I will try to fix you
Why do I begin my blog with a couple of verses from the Coldplay song “Fix You”? I recently watched a presentation given by Steven Birdsall to a room full of Villanova Business School students and this is exactly how he began, by playing this Coldplay song. To Birdsall, who is the Global Head of SAP’s OEM Sales and COO of the Global Ecosystem & Channels (E&C) organization, this song evokes emotion and causes him to consider the passions that inspire him, like his family. To watch his presentation, see the video below.
His main message to the students was this:
No matter what you choose in life, no matter where you go, you have to be passionate about what you’re doing.
You achieve success by spending your life doing things that you are absolutely passionate about and that excite you every day. Passion is not only crucial to your happiness and your career, but to the success of organizations as well. At SAP, passion is the foundation of the company’s mission and vision.
SAP is a for-profit organization, of course, but we’re inspired to do much greater things than just be a business. The company’s vision is to innovate for a better run world. Over 66,000 employees are rallied around this purpose of making the world a better place, improving lives and helping every customer become a better run business.
SAP’s ability to do incredible things materializes through the enablement and use of technology. We’re in a world of accelerated change. In just the past five years, we’ve witnessed dramatic transformations in the technology landscape, which have made a profound impact on business and everyday life.
Here’s a snapshot of what’s happening:
- An emerging middle class growing to 5Bwill strain already diminishing resources
- 1 billion people in social networks will rewire business and personal
- 15 billion web-enabled devices by 2013 will create a universe of intelligence everywhere
- Data doubling every 18 months will create new opportunities and risks for value creation
- More mobile devices than people will require fresh thinking designed for an “always-on” world
When businesses take advantage of the technology and data we have access to today, they can not only outperform competitors, but change the world. One great example is the impact of real-time data analysis on the healthcare industry. Patients suffering from cancer often have to wait many years for a therapy to be effective, but this doesn’t have to be the case. The analysis of masses amount of data using in-memory computing enables the development of individual, highly adjusted therapies against cancer. This technology can improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients–just imagine the impact. That’s the power of passion.
So seek passion in everything you do. When you find happiness, you can improve the lives of the people around you and elevate yourself to greater things. At SAP, we've been innovating for 40 years, and we're just getting started.
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