SAP and women’s quota: Unbridled opportunism

The mistrust was there from the beginning: When companies began focusing on issues like sustainability, diversity, and equality a few years ago, critical minds quickly questioned their motives. Should business really no longer be solely concerned with quarterly profits and sales returns, but rather with responsibility and impact? Or were companies simply adapting to the zeitgeist to avoid alienating customers, investors, and talent?

Barely three months after US President Donald Trump took office, it appears the skeptics are proving right. Following the culture-warring Republican's election victory in November, companies have caved in en masse. Facebook-owned Meta, fast-food chain McDonald's, retail giant Walmart, agricultural technology company John Deere, and many others have thrown their diversity, equality, and inclusion policies out the window practically overnight. It seems as if companies can't move fast enough away from everything considered "woke" among Trump supporters.

German companies, too, are unable or unwilling to oppose the new direction dictated by the White House, as the current example of the software giant SAP demonstrates. The DAX heavyweight from Walldorf is abandoning its internal women's quota. The executive board justifies this with risks in the important US market.

While this argument isn't entirely convincing, SAP must also answer the question of what all the promises it made in the past were worth. Did it believe its own narrative that more diverse teams are not only socially and politically necessary, but also deliver better business results? Is it now willing to accept economic disadvantages in order not to jeopardize its business success in the US?

There are currently no satisfactory answers to questions like these. Therefore, the impression remains that companies like the software giant are one thing above all: unbridled opportunism.