The People Factor

#4 - Stefan Ries | Ex-CHRO SAP | HR Punk


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About the guest

Stefan Ries is a highly experienced Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and Labor Relations Director. He served in these roles at SAP SE and was a member of the Executive Board with global responsibility for HR.

With a background in executive roles at companies like Microsoft, Compaq, SAP, and Egon Zehnder International, Stefan is also passionate about sports, particularly German football, tennis, and European Handball.

These days, he enjoys supporting HR tech startups as a business angel and is an external advisor for McKinsey on digital transformation projects.

Shownotes:

00:00:00 Intro & Summary
00:02:25 Stefan’s start in Tech in the 90s
00:05:40 IBM’s focus on Hardware and the early vision of Microsoft
00:07:40 Microsofts expansion strategy
00:11:37 HP & first manager experience
00:14:45 Analogies from handball teams
00:20:15 Team size & biggest gap in skillsets
00:28:30 Crossfunctional teams & People product development
00:31:30 Old school HR structure, static
00:35:30 Scaling SAP from 40.000 to +100.000 people
00:40:00 From on-premise to cloud
00:45:00 SAP founders, Sr. Executives and Eghon Zehnder
00:57:50 Mergers & Acquisitions
01:04:40 Advisory & HR Tech Angel investments

Links:

Linkedin Stefan Ries: https://www.linkedin.com/in/riesstefan

Book recommendations:

  • The inner game of tennis: https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Game-Tennis-Classic-Performance/dp/0679778314
  • Winning ugly:
  • https://www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/067188400X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=TROW17W0GOFF&keywords=winning+ugly+by+brad+gilbert+hardback&qid=1676287137&s=books&sprefix=winning+ugly%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C180&sr=1-1
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    The People FactorBy Thomas Kohler, pplwise