GET TO KNOW...
On the lighter side of things, we ask the
industry experts what makes them tick. . . .
Darren Koch,
Chief Product Officer – SAP Ariba and SAP
Business Network
W
What would you describe as your
most memorable achievements?
It feels like every day that answer changes in
the set of business circumstances that I’ve
been put in over my career, especially in the
last 10 years, I have a series of taking on
challenging roles for increasingly larger and
more global and higher profile companies.
And so, it feels like every day today is my big
achievement. The scale and speed of our
business has never been bigger or faster.
What Val Blatt said on stage at SAP Ariba
Live in Barcelona, that ‘today is the slowest
day your business will ever see’ is how it feels
every day for me and for my team.
What made you first think of a
career in technology?
I grew up in the age of personal computers
making their way into homes. I was in third
or fourth grade and we had a TRS-80 show
up and the book of command lines to get
the computer to do something.
It kind of started with that and then
transitioned through to video games and
then the advent of the Internet and when
I was finishing school, the.com boom was
going on in California.
It was the dream of working for one of the
mega technology companies.
www.intelligentcio.com
What sort of management
philosophy do you bring to your
current position? them to get more faith and go faster, while
helping us build something that scales and
delivers consistent results over time.
I firmly believe that the decisions should be
made as deep in the organisation as possible
because here you have the most informed,
highest fidelity people. What do you think is the current hot
topic in terms of IT?
When are we going to move past the hype
of AI and deliver some real business value,
We have good smart people, we empower
them to make good decisions. That allows
“
I . . . BELIEVE THAT
THE DECISIONS
SHOULD BE MADE
AS DEEP IN THE
ORGANISATION
AS POSSIBLE
BECAUSE HERE
YOU HAVE THE
MOST INFORMED,
HIGHEST FIDELITY
PEOPLE.
INTELLIGENTCIO
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