About this Blog

WordPress

Wed, 6 Jun 2007 01:13:39 -0400

I recently realized that iWeb is not the best business blogging engine. As of today my business blog will be on WordPress. See: http://beyond438.wordpress.com/. Over time I will transfer my iWeb entries.

Shai Agassi - Post-SAP

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 19:42:01 -0400

Shai Agassi recently left SAP AG to pursue other interests including alternative energy. Here is the press release. He is still a technology consultant to SAP with an office in Palo Alto.

His post-SAP blog is called the Long Tailpipe. You can also find a great podcast here that he recently delivered at Stanford.

What is your view of Shai leaving SAP?

SAPPHIRE 2007 in Atlanta

Tue, 3 Apr 2007 18:06:33 -0400

SAP is definitely faced with some interesting challenges at the moment. The Oracle lawsuit and now with Shai Agassi leaving. I live in Atlanta and look forward to attending SAPPHIRE. I’m sure it’s going to be an interesting event. It is now a joint event with ASUG and it is from April 22-25, 2007 at the Georgia World Congress Center.

Let me know if you are going. I look forward to seeing you there.

South African businesspeople in the US

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:25:54 -0400

As a South African businessman living in the US, I’m always interested to find and research other successful South African businesspeople in America. This is the start of a series that will continue until I run out of people to profile.

South Africa is known for a number of famous people. Nelson Mandela, Ernie Els, Gary Player, Charlize Theron, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mark Shuttleworth (Ubuntu fame) and serial entrepreneur Elon Musk. I know of a number of others, however you’ll have to wait to hear about them. My focus will be on businesspeople and not celebrities or politicians.

Next time I’ll start by profiling Elon Musk of SpaceX.

Send me an email if you want me to profile a specific businessperson.

SAP HR2007 in Vegas - Update

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:59:10 -0400

I had a very productive time in Vegas attending the SAP HR, FI and GRC conference from March 11-13. I met a number of business associates and former colleagues. This is a great conference to learn more about the SAP product set, as well as to network with business partners and customers. The Venetian Hotel is a stunning venue and a very impressive hotel. It’s also a very big venue — I got a lot of exercise walking back and forth between the exhibit hall and the coffee shops.

My good friend, Ken Kiefer, at Wispubs shared the following information about the conference:
About 4800 people attended the conference, and 1700 HR attendees,
with 96 unique vendors,
301 total presentations and
attendees from from 53 countries including: Denmark, China, Israel, South Africa and Mexico.

This is a great example of a very focused and well-executed conference. If you attended, please let me have your comments.

Interesting story: March 13 @ 2:30am the Stardust Hotel was imploded and they did it in Vegas style. See it all on YouTube.