Raphael Maciel on When Triumph and Fragility Collide
This is not a story about ERP or work. It’s a human story. Sometimes life delivers its biggest lessons not over years, but within a few startling weeks. For Raphael Maciel, December 2023 brought two moments that could not have been more different — one defined by triumph, the other by vulnerability. Together, they reshaped […]
Marissa Shipley on Designing Systems That Work for Humans
For years, Marissa Shipley did what many high performers in tech learn to do early: keep going. Deadlines, complex systems, and high expectations were simply part of the job. From the outside, her career looked exactly how success in the ERP world is supposed to look. But inside, something was quietly unravelling. “I didn’t hit […]
Chris Collins on Sliding Doors, SAP, and Never Narrowing Your World
It only takes a moment. A lift that isn’t delayed. A bus that arrives on time. A lecturer walking down the same corridor at exactly the right second. For Christopher Collins, that moment happened during his Masters of IT at QUT — and it quietly shaped the next 20+ years of his life. “If my […]
Karen Zwissler on Learning to Drive Every Car With Confidence
Karen describes herself as German by birth and global by experience. It shows. Over the past 25 years, she has led across Europe, Asia Pacific, and Australia, working at the intersection of enterprise technology, government, security, and defence. Her career has taken her into boardrooms, cabinet level briefings, delivery war rooms, and project sites. Different […]
Satvinder Singh on Doing the Right Thing at the Right Time and Learning How to Slow Down
There’s a particular kind of wisdom that only comes from staying long enough to see things change. Satvinder Singh has seen SAP evolve from its earliest days — SAP 3.1G — to the complex, high-pressure transformation environments we know today. But when he reflects on his 27+ year journey, it’s not the technology that stands […]
Tanya Jenke on Curiosity, Resilience, and the Human Side of Safety
“I’ve recently realised that curiosity isn’t just about learning or research, but also key in relationships.” What began as a simple reconnection with an old friend—hours of listening, laughing, rediscovering—taught Tanya Jenke that true curiosity is not about questions, but about presence. It’s about hearing the story someone else is telling. This shift reshaped how […]
Riane Avila on the Weight She Carried and the Choice to Breathe
Riane Avila grew up in the Philippines, surrounded by the warmth of family and the weight of expectation. From an early age, she carried a quiet determination to do well—to be the one who kept things together. In a household where love often showed up as sacrifice rather than words, she quickly learned that resilience […]
Bala Lakshmanan on Building with Grit, Grace, and Foundations You Can’t Always See
Not all foundations are visible. Some of the strongest ones lie underground—unseen, uncelebrated, but absolutely essential. Balachandar “Bala” Lakshmanan knows this deeply—not just as a mechanical engineer and SAP expert, but as a person who has built his life, career, and sense of purpose from quiet strength, deep humility, and the contributions of many. A […]
Divya Varshney on Moving Countries, Raising Kids, and Rebuilding a Career
When Divya Varshney boarded that flight from India to Melbourne, she carried more than luggage. She carried a toddler, a head full of doubts, and a career she wasn’t sure would survive the move. Moving from homeland to another this relocation felt both inevitable and overwhelming especially as the sole provider for her family. “It […]
Saurabh Kerkar on Showing Up, Staying Grounded, and Leading with Quiet Strength
He was never the loudest in the room. But he always stayed. Long before Saurabh Kerkar led complex ERP rollouts, he was standing on people’s doorsteps in the scorching heat of Mumbai, asking for donations. It was his first job in India—door-to-door charity work—and it built him for the future and taught him something that […]
