Sports have always been an important part of who I am. Being part of a team, being competitive, sharing wins, learning from challenges, and nurturing a collective feeling of belonging can have such a strong impact on someone’s life.
Coaching, playing, and watching one’s favorite players and sports teams brings forth emotion, passion, loyalty, and drive. It’s a feeling of association and experience that is unlike anything else. Sports are a great unifier.
SAP has a long history of working with sports franchises through technology enablement, sponsorships, and community impact. Earlier this week, we were recognized for our commitment to sports for good and named as one of the world’s most impactful brands in the second annual Laureus Sport for Good Index, a list of companies using sport to drive social change.
Our sports sponsorships and advocacy of sports for good relate directly to our purpose, vision, and values.
SAP’s Purpose
SAP’s purpose is to help the world run better and improve people’s lives with sustainability at the core. That means aspiring to a world with zero emissions, zero waste, and zero inequality. In line with our purpose, SAP’s objective is to create positive economic, environmental, and social impact.
Our purpose extends to working in collaboration with iconic sports brands worldwide. By partnering with SAP, sports leagues, teams, and players work with us to make a difference in their organizations’ operations, in the performance of athletes, and in the communities they touch by using SAP technology to advance social, economic, and environmental mandates.
Tapping into this excitement and exploring purposeful and impactful activations with sports brands helps SAP humanize our company, reach more people, and demonstrate in a real way how we make the world run better and improve people’s lives.
Sports for Good
Helping people, communities, and society is core to SAP’s promise and how we exemplify our brand.
I am proud of the work we do to advance science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) and education with the San Francisco 49ers EDU, how we support the NBA and WNBA, FC Bayern, and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in their endeavors to create the best possible experience for fans, players, and employees. And our collaboration in golf with the Cameron Champ Foundation and Els for Autism aids Black-owned businesses and drives positive change.
Through the use of SAP solutions and technology, sports brands can make informed, sustainable choices for people and performance. We have the technology to help sports venues better understand their carbon footprint to ultimately reduce their impact on the planet by consolidating and tracking utility data and then using analytics to make more informed, sustainable choices.
As someone whose life has been influenced by my experiences as a player and a coach, I am excited by SAP’s drive to deliver positive social and environmental impact through sport, demonstrating the potential of technology to help sports organizations become both more successful and sustainable.
To this day, I believe that there is no better feeling than coming together and succeeding as a team. Partnering together to help sports scale impact requires us to bring our strongest team spirit to the table — and I’m here for it.
Scott Russell is a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE.