5 Stories Not to Miss on SAP Business Trends, Sept. 21, 2016

What differentiates you? Do your customers know? This week’s top 5 blog posts on SAP Business Trends examines the characteristics and ingredients of differentiation, the growth and profitability it enables, and how it can help you find the power (1.21 gigawatts or otherwise) to get you where you need to go.

SAP’s Björn Goerke employed a wide range of SAP technology to locally source and harness 1.21 gigawatts of electricity in order to recharge his time machine and return to 2036 — all part of his keynote speech at SAP TechEd in Las Vegas on Monday night.

SAP’s Industry-Leading Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

Even with every CEO in every industry firmly committed to paying men and women equally for the same work, many factors could block pay equity from becoming an everyday practice. Jennifer Morgan discusses a rigorous self-examination that SAP undertook in the U.S. — and what the company learned from it.

Creating the Best Future with Cloud Technology and Time Travel, #SAPTechEd

SAP’s Björn Goerke channeled his inner Doc Brown when his DeLorean got stuck onstage at SAP TechEd in Las Vegas on Monday night. Derek Klobucher examines the problems Goerke had to solve — and all of the technology he used — in order to generate the 1.21 gigawatts necessary to power up his time machine and get Back to the Future.

5 Disciplines of Differentiation

Delivering the best products and services used to be enough to win customers’ hearts, minds and discretionary income; but those days are gone. Alicia Tillman offers five ways that enterprises can differentiate themselves from their competition — and avoid perishing at the hands of more nimble upstarts.

The Art of Opportunity and Innovation with Design Thinking

Design thinking helps organizations uncover hidden opportunities, both within new products and within the back office. Kaan Turnali shares insights from a conversation about driving innovation in the enterprise and applying design thinking, which enables forward-thinking — and spurs growth and profitability.

A Passionate Team Beats a Talented Group

Samuel Pierpont Langley was well-funded and very well-connected, but he was not the first person to achieve powered flight. Jonathan Becher looks at what the Wright brothers’ team had, and what Langley’s team, despite all its other resources, did not.

Follow Derek on Twitter: @DKlobucher