SAP’s statement was uncompromising. On April 20, the German software group said it would scrap its dual leadership. One co-chief executive, Jennifer Morgan, will quit; the other, Christian Klein, will take on sole power “to ensure strong, unambiguous steering in . . . an unprecedented crisis”.
I am no fan of co-CEOs, although SAP has had more success with power-sharing at the top than many. There are also plenty of other reasons, unrelated to the crisis, why SAP might want to “take swift, determined action” to reinstate a “very clear leadership structure”. The company is not, however, alone in seeking muscular direction. “This is a war,” Donald Trump said in March. “A number of people have said it . . . and I feel it, actually: I’m a wartime president.”
But a pandemic is not a war and “wartime CEOs” are not ideally suited to tackle all its consequences.