What happens when a private-equity carve-out meets a heavily customized 20-year ECC system… and leadership decides there is no way back?

In this special Transformation Every Day episode, recorded live as an ASUG / cbs Fireside Chat, I’m joined by Zara Horn, CIO of Current Lighting, and Geoff Scott, CEO of ASUG, to unpack one of the most impressive S/4HANA journeys I’ve seen firsthand.

Current Lighting didn’t just migrate.
They executed a full carve-out and S/4HANA transformation on RISE in record time. Five months!!

No 24-month program.
No endless blueprint debates.
No “we’ll fix it later” customization spiral.

Instead:

• A radical commitment to clean core
• A strict “If it doesn’t make money, we don’t build it” rule
• One year of data instead of twenty
• Executive alignment from day one
• Business transformation, not IT modernization

Six months after go-live, the results spoke for themselves:
From incremental improvements to multi-million-dollar value creation cycles every quarter.

We discuss:

– Why legacy customization kills innovation
– How to convince the business to embrace fit-to-standard
– Why partner culture matters more than technical skills
– The real role of change management
– Why speed can be a strategic advantage
– And what’s next: BTP, public cloud, and continuous transformation

This episode is not theory.
It is what happens when leadership aligns, discipline replaces nostalgia, and cloud becomes a business decision — not a technical one.

If you are still debating brownfield vs. greenfield, clean core vs. customization, or whether RISE is “worth it,” this conversation will challenge your assumptions.

Follow Zara Horn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zarahorn/

Follow Geoff Scott here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoff-scott-ugs/

Follow Alexander: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandergreb/
Follow Johannes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johanneslangguth/

Thanks to Steven Spears for lending his voice for our podcast intro.
Theme music by Luis Álvarez a.k.a. Fourth Dogma

Guest:

• Christian Straub - Head of Customer Advisory Finance - SAP

Hosts:

• Alexander Greb - Consulting Director - cbs corporate business solutions
• Johannes Langguth - Head of Business Transformation and Architecture - SAP SE

What does it take to be a modern CFO when AI, data, and complexity are reshaping the enterprise?

In this episode of Transformation Every Day, Alexander Greb and Johannes Langguth speak with Christian Straub about how the CFO role is fundamentally evolving — from managing numbers to driving measurable business impact. Success today is no longer about closing the books faster, but about generating real outcomes across the value chain.

Christian explains why AI is not a “finance topic,” but a business topic that will impact every function — with finance right at the center. The discussion breaks AI’s value for CFOs into three key dimensions: efficiency, better decision-making, and risk mitigation — and why only efficiency is easy to quantify, while the other two often define competitive advantage.

The episode also explores why CFOs must embrace technology as a transformation lever, how the finance function is shifting toward true business partnering, and why data governance has become one of the most critical responsibilities for finance leaders. Without clean data, clear ownership, and integrated processes, AI simply amplifies existing problems instead of solving them.

You’ll hear practical perspectives on:

• Why organizational silos block effective, AI-supported decision-making
• How incremental AI use cases can deliver fast, visible returns
• Why stakeholder alignment across business, IT, and leadership is essential
• How finance is becoming increasingly AI-driven and data-centric

Whether you’re a CFO, finance leader, transformation professional, or consultant, this conversation offers a realistic and experience-based look at what it takes to lead finance into the future — balancing innovation with control, speed with trust, and ambition with execution.

Follow Alexander: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandergreb/
Follow Johannes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johanneslangguth/

Thanks to Steven Spears for lending his voice for our podcast intro.
Theme music by Luis Álvarez a.k.a. Fourth Dogma

Guest:

• Bob Evans - Founder and Host of Cloud Wars

Hosts:

• Alexander Greb - Consulting Director - cbs corporate business solutions
• Johannes Langguth - Head of Business Transformation and Architecture - SAP SE

In this special episode of Transformation Everyday, Alex and Johannes sit down with Bob Evans, the creator of Cloud Wars and one of the most insightful voices in the tech industry. Known for breaking down complex topics with nothing more than a marker and his trademark whiteboard, Bob shares the story behind his unique approach and reflects on a career that started in journalism and evolved into decades inside the world’s largest tech companies.

Together, we explore why he chose the name Cloud Wars, how to separate real innovation from industry noise and why today’s CIOs must shift their mindset from internal operations to customer outcomes. Bob also tackles some of the biggest topics shaping the future: the rise of AI, the challenges and opportunities it brings, and the growing importance of collaboration and co-creation in the tech ecosystem.

This conversation is filled with sharp insights, humor and the kind of clarity Bob is famous for. From changing customer expectations to the need for more childlike curiosity in business, this episode offers a grounded and refreshing look at where the tech world is heading and what leaders must do to stay ahead.

Whether you follow Cloud Wars or you’re new to Bob’s work, this is a must-listen for anyone navigating the next chapter of digital transformation.

Follow Bob: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobevansit/

Follow Alexander: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandergreb/
Follow Johannes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johanneslangguth/

Thanks to Steven Spears for lending his voice for our podcast intro.
Theme music by Luis Álvarez a.k.a. Fourth Dogma