Business Chief USA July 2019

LEADERSHIP
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Progress is a cyclical journey. Creation leads
to hype, which leads to a bubble, followed by
a return to earth and, finally, true adoption and
advancement of the market. With the perspective
of over 20 years in the business intelligence
leadership space, Sean Thompson, Senior Vice
President of Business Network and Ecosystem at
SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass, is familiar with the
process. Having witnessed and been deeply
involved in major technological cycles like natural
language processing, ecommerce and now the
Big Data boom, Thompson is well aware of the key
strategies that help push the envelope and work
towards lasting growth. “As the gray haired guy in
the room, looking around and having seen different
cycles unfold, it’s an amazing time to be alive and
in the software business,” he reflects. “My career
has been a journey that has, in many ways, come
full circle.” We sat down with Thompson to discuss
a career spent at the forefront of business
intelligence, and how SAP Ariba’s new partnership
with American Express highlights one of his core
teachings: embracing collaboration to unlock the
power of the ecosystem.
Thompson’s own entry into the software
ecosystem began in the early 1990s at professional
services giant Deloitte. “Back then, process
re-engineering was all the rage,” he recalls. “We were
consultants helping companies figure out their
business processes and how to make them more
JULY 2019