SAP – “Strong globally diverse culture makes SAP a rich development ground for business people and technologists!”

Pros

Culturally diverse, global, strong ethics and integrity of senior management, long-range thinking and planning, attention to detail, foundational strength of the core business. It is #1 in its market space (business applications). It has a very strong community of developers (http://sdn.sap.com) and business process experts. It has a welcoming and engaged approach to its partners. SAP participates actively with its many country-based independent customer user groups. SAP listens intently to its customers in order to serve them better with more than a profit motive in mind.

Cons

Really long hours due to global timezones, hard to balance work / life, sometimes the cultures clash a bit when the "go slow and do it perfectly" doesn't mix with the "go fast and be early to market" groups don't mix well. There's a German Workers Council (like unions in the U.S.) which is a hold-over from the long-ago days of craftsmen's guilds that is outdated (but required by German law) which can slow and complicate things.

Advice to Senior Management

Simplify and focus. Do fewer things, better. Embrace a more customer-focused, market-focused approach (give up some of the engineering precision and need for perfect clarity that holds back fast innovation and risk-taking).