With two swift snips of the scissors they wielded Tuesday night, Sam Yen, Chief Design Officer at SAP, and Andreas Hauser, the Global Head of SAP’s Design and Co-Innovation Center (DCC), cut the ceremonial ribbon and made it official: AppHaus Palo Alto is open for ideas.
SAP employees, corporate partners and honored guests joined the DCC staff in the exclusive opening to help mark the occasion. In between runs to the bar and sets from the string quartet, visitors heard from Yen, Hauser and Janaki Kumar, Head of DCC Americas, discuss the space and its place in a larger SAP context.
“We have gone through our own transformation about what design means to our own organization, and tried to figure out how we can transform the mindset and culture,” Yen told those gathered on the second floor of building #9 on the Silicon Valley campus. “That is what this space represents.”
Kumar talked about how the space came to be and the details that make it special, elaborating on everything from the confounding sculpture hanging from the staircase to the California National Park themed bathroom.
In their remarks, all three agreed: the space stands for something much bigger than its four walls can contain.
“What’s motivating me so much is that there is a unique opportunity for us in this industry to help change the way people work,” Hauser said.
And the great ideas that are born in this new Palo Alto space for creativity, innovation and collaboration will certainly do just that for many years to come.
Stay tuned for more from the inaugural week in our new AppHaus home.
