SAP’s Bribery Scandal

Allegations of bribery. A $200 million fine from the the U.S. government. Criminal investigation across four continents. This SAP scandal has all sorts of juicy content. As the issue is nearing its end, are there any crisis management lessons to be learned? It’s almost always impossible to see what happens behind the scenes — which comms leader team is acting professionally and honorably, which CEO is engaged and responsive, which companies are throwing massive heaps of dirt. This is always an exercise in armchair assessment.

But like all things in the business world, you’re measured on your results. And the end of the story came with an Associated Press story that wrote up the settlement as a simple matter-of-fact, even noting the statement from U.S. DOJ commending SAP for its cooperation. $200 million is a pittance for a company like SAP and the C-Suite and Board are likely elated to have this thing over and done. It will continue to appear in financial quarterly and year-end reports for the year, and the next time SAP is caught up in allegations, this issue will arise. Yet, kudos to the company for making it through with relatively minimal damage to its reputation.

The moral of the story: cooperation and transparency aren’t just keywords. When organizations truly and authentically cooperate, the key audiences (the feds in this case) will work with you instead of trying to bury you. And even the media will give you a small break. Every executive has a preferred news outlet that they would love to be featured in — and never reported about for bad things like international bribery schemes — but AP is the tops for a comms pro. This is the story that will go further and widest, and will last the longest. So again, kudos to the SAP comms team and/or the executives who led this response.

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