Life at SAP – with Arsim Jahii
As a child, Arsim from Volketswil, Switzerland wanted to be a doctor when he grew up, but he is currently a Sales Leader for Digital Supply Chain & Internet of Things (IoT). We spoke to him to find out about his Life at SAP.
What did you study at university?
I have a Bachelor’s with majors in Business Administration and Strategic Entrepreneurship as well as a Master’s in Business Administration majoring in Corporate Development.
What has been your career journey at SAP?
I jump-started my career at SAP within the SAP Sales Academy program in 2016. Previously I was a working student at IBM for the Services Head – Switzerland, supporting customer-facing activities like joint account planning, innovation workshops (business model canvas) and sales operations support.
After the SAP Sales Academy, I became an Account Executive for Digital Supply Chain & IoT which was quite a new team and supported a significant growth for the business. My enthusiasm and knowledge helped to build the team, set the right priorities and drive growth. Through this growth I became a Sales Leader.
What qualifications did you need for your current job?
Firstly, expertise in the supply chain / logistics domain was required as I need to be able to speak to businesses and IT. Secondly, in my current position as Sales Leader, there was a need to structure, prioritize, draft a joint vision with the extended sales team to leverage the network strengths and finally be the glue between different stakeholder groups within SAP, driving business through “lateral” leadership.
What do you think the key skills needed to do your job?
Business process knowledge, combined with a high degree of innovation and motivation, is required to convince customers of your ideas. But on top, I would emphasize the need to have customer empathy; being able to put yourself in the customer’s shoes and realize how SAP’s ideas might lead towards change and the required willingness for it. For the leadership position, specifically, you need to have a clear vision with your team and become the “glue” within your network, respect each opinion and drive decisions.
What does your career at SAP mean to you?
It means a lot – SAP is a great company with a convincing strategy, great people and a lot of development opportunities. As motivations might change over time, this is quite a critical aspect. But overall, I do not see myself being with any other company than SAP.
What does success look like to you?
Success has different dimensions to me, for sure driving growth and innovation at customer is one key aspect. But internally I define success as result of being able to unleash the full potential of my employees and the relevant people around me – strengthen the strengths and weaken the weaknesses, by motivating all towards a jointly shared vision.
If you could go back in time and give your 18-year-old-self one piece of career advice what would it be?
Enjoy your studies – you might think it’s hard/real life, but it’s not. What I would have told myself is: “don’t try to operationalize the future, we might aim to have plans for our life but life sometimes has a different plan for us”. Consider the opportunities resulting out of it, not the downsides based on “rigid” plans.
To see where Life at SAP could take you, click here.