In today’s rapidly changing world, it is increasingly clear that values matter. As we confront pressing issues such as social justice, climate change, and the weakening of democratic principles, it becomes essential to embrace core values like diversity, integrity, equality, and adaptability — not merely as ideals, but as necessities for progress.

To navigate these challenges effectively, we must also cultivate resilience and, perhaps most importantly, develop the ability to learn how to learn, rather than focusing solely on acquiring specific skills. So, how do we maintain our values, stay adaptable, and build resilience in a world that never stands still?

Values Matter Now More Than Ever

Discrimination, for example, remains a significant problem across the globe, in fact discrimination worsened in 70% of countries between 2021 and 2022. As our societies become more diverse, we must work to respect each other’s backgrounds, beliefs, and rights. This foundation of respect helps foster a democratic society where everyone has a voice, and where decisions reflect the needs and rights of all, not just a select few.

Democracy: A System of Rights and Responsibilities

Democracy, too, requires an ongoing commitment. In times of crisis or division, democratic values can sometimes take a backseat. But a healthy democracy depends on citizens who uphold the principles of justice and transparency. Sometimes, especially during crises and economic downturns, people are drawn to “loud voices,” but this should not be mistaken for good leadership. The democratic process, while sometimes perceived as slower, remains essential for ensuring fairness and thoughtful decision-making.

Democracy is more than a system of government; it embodies the values of freedom, equality, and justice to empower individuals. In democratic societies, innovation and creativity thrive because people are free and able to express ideas, challenge norms, and pursue progress.

It’s easy to take democracy for granted, especially in societies where it has long been the norm. History, however, teaches us that when we become complacent, democracy can quickly unravel. We need to actively uphold democratic principles, protecting our freedoms and those of future generations.

In a world where global issues affect everyone, democratic values remind us that our rights and freedoms are not guaranteed — they must be earned, defended, and nurtured.

Adaptability and the Art of Learning to Learn

The days of acquiring a fixed skill set and building a stable, unchanging career are long gone. Today, the rapid evolution of technology and industry means that many jobs look different in the future. So, one of the most valuable abilities we can cultivate is learning how to learn. In fact, according to the World Economic Forum, 44% of employees’ core skills are expected to change by 2027. This immense shift underscores the need for adaptability as workers learn to stay relevant in an evolving job market.

A significant part of this transformation is being driven by artificial intelligence (AI). As AI automates routine tasks and streamline workflows, some jobs are becoming obsolete, while entirely new roles are emerging. To thrive, workers must embrace lifelong learning and flexibility, acquiring skills that help them adapt to new roles or pivot into different fields altogether.

Being adaptable and willing to learn continuously empowers us to evolve as our world does. It enables us to take on new challenges, shift our perspectives, and solve problems. As Albert Einstein said, “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” That challenges our educational systems to keep up.

Learning how to learn prepares us to thrive in an uncertain future. By building this skill, we are equipping ourselves to step confidently into unfamiliar territory and to adapt to whatever comes our way. This adaptability goes hand-in-hand with resilience — an ability to bounce back from setbacks, rethink our approach when needed, and maintain our motivation even when the path ahead is unclear.

In the age of AI and rapid technological advancements, it’s not enough to develop technical skills alone; we must also cultivate a mindset geared toward adaptability, critical thinking, and empathy. Our attitude shapes our willingness to embrace change, understand diverse perspectives, and approach challenges with curiosity. These qualities define how effectively we learn, grow, and evolve. By fostering this mindset, individuals and organizations can navigate complexity with confidence and build a sustainable future.

Developing Resilience for a Complex World

In a world where uncertainty is the only constant, resilience is essential. It’s the inner strength that helps us face adversity and continue pushing forward. Resilience is not a trait we’re born with; it’s something we need to cultivate.

Building resilience begins with self-awareness. Recognizing when we need to take a step back, recharge, or reach out for support is vital. Reflection is key! Being deeply aware of our own strengths and weaknesses, while also embracing failures as opportunities to learn and grow, is crucial. By reframing setbacks as lessons, we build the mental and emotional tools needed to navigate challenges more effectively.

Resilient people also tend to maintain a positive yet realistic outlook. They’re optimistic about the future, but they also accept that setbacks are a natural part of life. Embracing a mindset of growth rather than a fear of failure helps build resilience and keeps us open to learning, improving, and adapting.

Moving Forward with Purpose

We live in a world filled with challenges, but we also live in a time of boundless opportunity. When we stand by our values, stay open to continuous learning, and cultivate resilience, we can face uncertainty with a sense of purpose and strength.

Thomas Saueressig is a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, leading Customer Services & Delivery.

A new SAP Learning Journey called “Applying a Human-Centered Approach to Identify and Define Business AI Use Cases” launched in late November 2024. It enables learners to run customer workshops and explore, discover, and design SAP Business AI use cases to be built with SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP).

With the rise of SAP Business AI solutions, the SAP AppHaus and SAP Solution & Innovation Experience teams joined forces to develop an SAP Learning Journey based on the existing SAP Business AI Explore and Design workshops, both available in the innovation toolkit. These formats were designed based on experiences gained in co-innovation projects with customers. In these projects, diverse teams of users, partners, designers, coaches, and enterprise architects worked on identifying use cases in their respective business scenario that could be enhanced and redesigned with the help of SAP Business AI.

As Karen Detken, SAP AppHaus strategic designer, puts it: “This journey aims to equip business executives, development teams, and innovation practitioners with a structured approach to identify and define AI use cases that benefit both the company and the end users. The collaborative exercises described in the journey are explained in detail to enable anyone, even those without extensive facilitation experience, to conduct these sessions on their own. Our ultimate goal is to bring innovation into the hands of people and make best use of the latest technologies.”

Who Are the Learners?

This journey is designed for anyone interested in finding meaningful use cases for AI that can benefit end users and businesses. Here are some scenarios on how different people at an organization can benefit from it:

Early Talent Anil Heads to a Customer-Facing Role

Anil just finished university and joined SAP as an early talent. His role is in the field organization and he would like to consult customers on innovative solutions built with SAP BTP. With this goal in mind, he took design thinking training at university.

The SAP Learning Journey’s course material, templates, and guidance will enable him to help customers identify use cases that offer great innovation potential when redesigned with SAP Business AI. For Anil, the journey is an opportunity to support his new customer account team in the context of the latest AI technology and work with the customer teams along well-described workshop steps.

What’s more, the acquired learning badge comes in handy and can be shared via social media.

Experienced Account Manager Sophie Relies on Continued Learning

To serve her customers best, account manager and business coach Sophie wants to be at the forefront of future-oriented learning. After completing trainings and gaining experience with generative AI applications, she is now happy to get hands-on help through this new SAP Learning Journey on how to work with customers and evaluate business challenges that can be turned into innovation opportunities with the help of SAP Business AI. She hopes to reach her ambitious goal of doing this customer-facing workshop with the customer team and identifying different use cases.

As one of the first attendees who completed the course, she happily adds the course badge to her different social and HR accounts as a kind of personal unique selling point, but not without first sharing a summary of her key takeaways on LinkedIn.

SAP Partner CEO Jacky Wants to Apply the Knowledge to Benefit Customers

In Jacky’s role as founder and CEO of one of SAP’s consulting partners, Jacky always looks for the latest enablement and training opportunities for the team. In the case of the new journey “Applying a Human-Centered Approach to Identify and Define Business AI Use Cases,” Jacky was very curious to participate early on. Based on his basic knowledge of generative AI as well as the intrinsic consequences of this new technology, legal regulations, and other factors to be considered in customer projects, this workshop added complementary material and guidance for customer-facing work. Right after completing the course, Jacky recommends the SAP Learning Journey to the entire global team.

What’s more, Jacky sets up a task force with three volunteers to plan a customer roadshow to share this knowledge. He sees this workshop format as a good way to pique customers’ curiosity regarding innovation potential that can be unlocked with the help of SAP Business AI. What’s more, this roadshow could also position his team as cutting-edge technology consultants and trusted AI advisors.

Developer and Enterprise Architect Lenny Wants to Learn How to Gather Requirements Early On and with Customers

After years in classical development roles, Lenny has grown her expertise and become an enterprise architect. She likes the exchange with customers and seeing how new SAP solutions improve their work and user experience.

In a recent meeting with her manager, Lenny heard about a new SAP Learning Journey on co-innovation workshops with customers where requirements for a new solution are gathered during the first two workshop sessions. As this directly complements her work as an enterprise architect working with customer and account teams on new solutions, she wants to start the journey right away. Lenny can’t wait to support customers in designing new solutions with the help of SAP Business AI built into the core business processes and existing SAP BTP landscapes.

Valuable Insights for Many Purposes

No matter if people are in a similar situation as Anil, Sophie, Jacky, or Lenny, or just curious about investigating around new AI solutions, the SAP Learning Journey can provide valuable insights for many different purposes.

When asked, what it is that sets this journey apart from others, both Mariam Lolua-Hessler, SAP Global Product and Solution Learning, and Sreekanth Sreedharan, SAP Partner Solution Enablement, replied: “Unlike most courses that dive deep into the techy side of AI, this journey really focuses on why we need AI in the first place. It’s more about understanding the reasons behind it, which makes this training stand out.”

Imke Vierjahn is SAP AppHaus communications lead at SAP.
Image courtesy of Karen Detken, SAP AppHaus strategic designer

December 10^th marks Human Rights Day around the world and commemorates the anniversary of one of the world’s most groundbreaking global pledges: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). With societal inequality, conflict, political polarization, and intensifying climate change on the rise, it is ever more important that businesses play their role in living up to this pledge. They should not infringe on human rights and respect the dignity and fundamental rights and freedoms of all individuals who are affected by their activities, products, or services.

I talked to Stephanie Raabe, human rights officer at SAP, and asked her three questions about SAP’s progress in embracing this role in the past 12 months.

Q: A year ago, you explained how SAP was working to take its human rights due diligence processes to the next level. The aim was to improve how SAP “knows and shows” where its actual and potential negative impacts on people are and what actions are taken to prevent or mitigate these. Was this achieved?

A: We are getting there step by step, but there will always be room for improvement. Together with all the teams that are part of our human rights due diligence program, we have further refined and harmonized our methodologies and processes to assess our impacts on people. This provides the basis for defining and fine-tuning appropriate measures.

We now have a deeper understanding of the salient human rights issues across our value chain – be it through the product and services we procure, our own business operations, or the products and services we sell and deliver. We now know better which risks are already well managed through effective policies and measures and where we still have to close gaps.

Q: What does this mean in practice? Can you specify what your findings were?

A: Absolutely! In this year’s assessment cycle, the following impacts were identified to be salient:

• In our own operations: non-discrimination
• In our direct and indirect supply chain: decent living wages
• Related to products, services, and customers: non-discrimination and privacy

When breaking down these impact areas, we found that, firstly, in our own operations, many effective measures are already in place to address non-discrimination in our workforce, for example through SAP’s Global Anti-Discrimination Policy, mandatory anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training, or SAP’s comprehensive diversity and inclusion programs. The teams involved are doing such a great job that currently no additional measures are required.

Secondly, in SAP’s supply chain, SAP has established contractual assurances through its Supplier Code of Conduct, which also sets the expectation for suppliers to pay an adequate living wage. Yet, we recognized that further mitigation measures still need to be defined. We therefore conducted a hot spot analysis by country and industry for this topic. We started to discuss the results with relevant procurement category teams in dedicated workshops. The next steps will include identifying which suppliers to focus on first, engaging with them for better insights, and collaborating to improve the situation where necessary.

Thirdly, when we talk about human rights impacts in our downstream value chain, artificial intelligence (AI) is top of mind. While there is great positive societal potential that AI can help to unlock, it is a priority for SAP to handle AI responsibly and avoid negative impacts specifically in the areas of discrimination and privacy. This is why, many years ago, SAP launched its Guiding Principles for AI Ethics and implemented dedicated due diligence governance and processes. In 2024, SAP updated its Global AI Ethics policy to align with UNESCO’s “Recommendation on the Ethics of AI.” We further strengthened SAP’s commitment by establishing an AI ethics office consisting of two teams and maturing our AI ethics assessment process for all AI use cases. Finally, just last month, a new mandatory AI ethics training for all employees was launched.

Q: Looking back at the past year, are there any lessons learned that you can to share?

A: One key thing that I took away is that there is no silver bullet to human rights due diligence. While frameworks like the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights serve as a North Star, there are different approaches and methods on how to implement the principles in your day-to-day operations. Companies should not be afraid of making mistakes, even if there might not yet be any proven practices yet. This is one of the experiences we made when preparing for our first human rights report in line with the German Supply Chain Act this year. There is no point in waiting until you have found the perfect approach before taking action. Rather, it is important to be open to continuously revisit, challenge, and develop your approach. Exchanging with peers is very valuable in this context, which is why our human rights team engages strongly in networks such as the business and human rights groups in the UN Global Compact, Business for Social Responsibility, and econsense.

Another lesson learned for us was that it can’t be underestimated how important it is to engage internal stakeholders across diverse lines of business in an ongoing manner. We already started with role-specific trainings and capacity building but recognized that it needs time and multiple iterations until awareness, understanding, and mindset and behavior changes are established to truly integrate human rights considerations into business processes and decisions. Furthermore, our efforts have to extend to additional critical roles since, for example, it is not only important to get colleagues from SAP’s procurement organization onboard, but also all other decision-makers involved with supplier selection.

Christine Susanne Mueller is deputy human rights officer at SAP.