Jim Hagemann Snabe steps up as Europe’s top industrialist
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Jim Hagemann Snabe this month has taken two big steps to becoming Europe’s leading industrialist.
The 51-year-old Dane was on Wednesday named as the new chairman of AP Moller-Maersk, the Danish conglomerate that dominates container shipping, only a week after being nominated to the same position at Siemens, Europe’s leading industrial group.
The twin nominations say much about how Europe’s traditional industrial heavyweights are rapidly changing given that Mr Snabe’s background is entirely in software. He spent almost all his executive career at SAP, the German software group (the sole exception was two years early on at IBM), eventually rising to become co-chief executive.
“He’s somebody who knows the old software world and the new software world as well as all types of industries from his time at SAP. He can look into energy, healthcare, mobility and say how do we digitalise these businesses,” said a former colleague from his SAP days.
Both Maersk and Siemens named his expertise on digitalisation as one of the key reasons for choosing him. Mr Snabe himself said this week: “I have a hypothesis — which is starting to be proved — that we are entering a phase where traditional companies, who are present in the physical world, begin to exploit digital ways of working to help develop their business.”
But being at SAP, Europe’s leading pure technology business, also helped Mr Snabe in getting to know a wide range of businesses. SAP’s business process software meant it was a supplier to most industries globally and gave Mr Snabe a bulging contact book.
“That’s what boards are looking for: leadership and digital savvy,” said Bill McDermott, formerly Mr Snabe’s co-chief at SAP and now sole holder of the role. “Having that insight, and that clear, declarative point of view is so important in a boardroom. Very few people have that skill and that experience.”
Mr McDermott added that the twin promotions for Mr Snabe signified corporate Europe’s recognition that digital disruption can “truly revolutionise the way people run their businesses”.
In addition to sitting on the Maersk and Siemens boards, Mr Snabe is a director of insurer Allianz, high-end hi-fi and TV company Bang & Olufsen and the World Economic Forum, as well as serving as an adjunct professor at Copenhagen Business School.
However, Mr Snabe stands out in Europe not just for his technological and business background but also his age. At 51, he is more than a decade younger than Michael Pram Rasmussen, whom he is succeeding at Maersk and a full 23 years younger than Gerhard Cromme, whom he replaces at Siemens.
As such, his appointment is being viewed as both a generation change and a professionalisation of boards, especially in Germany, away from a cosier system previously. “He is not representing the old German captains of industry. He hasn’t been running a business for 20 years. It’s a big shift, really,” said one adviser to German companies.
The two groups he will chair — Maersk from next month, Siemens from next year — both face big challenges. The Danish group is undergoing perhaps the biggest transformation in its history as it breaks itself up, selling off its energy businesses and refocusing around shipping and ports. This week, it reported the biggest annual loss by a non-financial company in Denmark.
Siemens is in ruder financial health but is facing a challenge to adapt to the so-called fourth industrial revolution, which involves big data and the “internet of things”. Siemens has been expanding its offering known as “digital factory” but questions remain as to whether it is the correct approach.
Colleagues of Mr Snabe, who lives in Copenhagen and is a keen sailor, say his strength is in strategy. At SAP, that gave him a tag as an intellectual compared with his co-chief executive, Mr McDermott, who had a reputation as more of a salesman.
Juha Christensen, who sits with Mr Snabe on B&O’s board, said: “Jim has an exceptional gift for finding a clear path through a forest of opportunities, threats and complexity. He is intensely curious, and has an ability to ask questions that both set direction and make people think.”
Comments