Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of SAP SE (SAP)

A company's Mission Statement and Core Values aren't just wall decorations; for SAP SE, they are the operational blueprint that drove its 2025 financial performance, projecting non-IFRS operating profit toward the upper end of its guidance at up to €10.6 billion.

You're looking at a software giant whose vision is to bring out the best in every business, and that focus is clearly paying off, with the current cloud backlog hitting €18.8 billion by Q3 2025, up 27% at constant currencies.

But how exactly does a core value like Sustainability at your core translate into a projected €8.0 billion to €8.2 billion in free cash flow for the year? We'll break down the specific principles-from Agility at scale to Keep the promise-that underpin this kind of consistent, high-velocity growth.

SAP SE (SAP) Overview

You're looking for a clear-eyed view of SAP SE, one of the most defintely consequential software companies on the planet, and you need the latest numbers to back it up. The quick takeaway is this: SAP is aggressively shedding its legacy software business to become a pure-play cloud and Business AI powerhouse, and the 2025 financials show that pivot is working.

SAP, which stands for Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing, was founded in 1972 in Walldorf, Germany, by five former IBM employees who saw the potential for standardized, real-time business processing. They essentially invented the category of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which is the software backbone that integrates a company's core business processes-like finance, HR, and supply chain-into a single system. Today, SAP is the world's largest vendor of enterprise application software, with its systems touching 84% of total global commerce.

The company's primary focus is now the SAP S/4HANA intelligent ERP suite, which runs on the SAP HANA in-memory computing platform, and its broader Cloud ERP Suite. This shift has seen the company move from selling one-time software licenses to a subscription-based cloud model, which creates a highly predictable revenue stream.

For a deeper dive into how this all started and is structured, you can check out SAP SE (SAP): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money.

Here's the quick math on their current scale as of late 2025:

• 98 of the world's 100 largest companies are SAP customers.
• The cloud user base is now over 300 million users.
• Approximately 80% of SAP's customers are small and midsize enterprises (SMEs).

Q3 2025 Financial Performance: The Cloud Engine Accelerates

The third quarter 2025 results, announced in October, confirm the cloud transition is driving significant financial leverage. Total revenue for Q3 2025 came in at €9.08 billion, marking an 11% increase at constant currencies compared to the prior year. But the real story is in the cloud numbers.

Cloud revenue surged to €5.29 billion in Q3 2025, which represents a massive 27% jump at constant currencies. This isn't just general cloud growth; the core product, the Cloud ERP Suite, is accelerating even faster, growing by 31% at constant currencies to €4.59 billion. This is the engine of the company's future value.

The move to subscriptions is also making the business model more resilient. The share of predictable revenue-the recurring income from cloud subscriptions and software support-increased by two percentage points to 87% of total revenue in Q3 2025. This predictable stream gives management a lot of confidence, even in an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop.

The focus on efficiency is also paying off in the bottom line. Non-IFRS operating profit for Q3 2025 was €2.6 billion, an impressive 19% increase at constant currencies. This combination of strong top-line cloud growth and profit expansion is why the full-year 2025 outlook was updated:

• Full-Year 2025 Cloud Revenue Outlook: Towards the lower end of €21.6 - 21.9 billion (up 26% to 28% at constant currencies).
• Full-Year 2025 Non-IFRS Operating Profit Outlook: Towards the upper end of €10.3 - 10.6 billion (up 26% to 30% at constant currencies).

SAP SE: The Enterprise Application Leader

When you look at the enterprise application software market, SAP SE remains a colossus. While there are shifts in the pure-play Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) market-some 2025 reports show Oracle gaining ground-SAP is the market share leader in the broader enterprise application software landscape. They are not just an ERP company anymore; they offer a comprehensive suite covering everything from Human Capital Management (HCM) with SuccessFactors to procurement with Ariba.

The company's strategy is centered on becoming the number one Enterprise Application and Business AI company. The current cloud backlog, which is a key indicator of future subscription revenue, stood at €18.8 billion in Q3 2025, up 27% at constant currencies, reflecting sustained customer demand and a strong pipeline. This is a clear vote of confidence from the world's largest corporations that SAP will continue to be their core digital transformation partner.

The sheer scale of their customer base and the integration of their new Business AI capabilities into the core Cloud ERP Suite solidify their position. To understand how they maintain this dominance and what their mission means for their future growth trajectory, you need to dig into the strategic details.

SAP SE (SAP) Mission Statement

You need to know the driving force behind a company like SAP SE, especially when their software underpins an estimated 87% of total global commerce. The mission statement isn't just a poster on the wall; it's the blueprint for their strategic moves, particularly the aggressive shift to the cloud and embedding Artificial Intelligence (AI) everywhere.

SAP's overarching purpose is simple but powerful: to help the world run better and improve people's lives. Their vision-the long-term aspiration-is to bring out the best in every business. This vision is translated into a three-part mission that guides their product development and strategic investments, which, for 2025, includes a forecasted operating profit between €10.3 billion and €10.6 billion.

Here's the quick math: that projected profit surge of 26% to 30% at constant currencies over 2024 tells you their mission is directly tied to their financial performance. If you want to understand where SAP is placing its capital and what that means for your portfolio, you need to look at these three pillars. You can find a deeper dive into these figures in Breaking Down SAP SE (SAP) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

1. Agility at Scale: Navigating Dynamic Markets

The first core component of the mission focuses on providing customers with the tools to confidently navigate dynamic markets. This is about speed and responsiveness, especially in a world where supply chain shocks and geopolitical shifts are the norm. SAP calls this 'Agility at scale.'

This commitment shows up in the rapid adoption of their cloud offerings. For the full fiscal year 2025, SAP is forecasting cloud revenue to reach between €21.6 billion and €21.9 billion, representing a growth of 26% to 28%. That's a huge number, and it reflects the demand for solutions like RISE with SAP, which simplifies the move to a cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

A key driver of this agility is the embedded intelligence in their products. Over 70% of new innovations for S/4HANA in 2025 will include AI, which means the software isn't just recording data; it's predicting outcomes and automating tasks. This is defintely a necessary shift for any modern enterprise.

2. Achieve More Across the Value Chain: Ecosystem Optimization

The second pillar, 'Achieve more across the value chain,' is about integrating everything-from the back office to external partners-to optimize performance. It acknowledges that no business operates in a silo; your success depends on how well you connect with your entire ecosystem.

This is where the sheer scale of SAP's customer base becomes a massive competitive advantage. As of April 2025, SAP serves over 400,000 customers in more than 180 countries. This vast network forms the trusted and scalable business ecosystem they refer to. The goal is to harness the collective intelligence of this system.

The financial results validate this focus on integration and quality. In the first quarter of 2025, SAP's cloud gross margin improved to a strong 75.0%, which indicates increased efficiency and scalability in their cloud operations. They are building bridges, not silos, between systems. For example, the SAP Business Data Cloud is gaining strategic significance, with 54% of surveyed IT managers considering it a cornerstone of their future data management strategies in 2025.

3. Sustainability at Your Core: Driving Positive Impact

The final, and increasingly critical, component is 'Sustainability at your core.' This is no longer a separate corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative; it's being embedded directly into business operations through next-generation solutions. The market is demanding this, and SAP is positioning itself as the enabler.

SAP is making sustainability profitable and profitability sustainable. Their investment in this area is substantial, with €4.635 billion invested in Research & Development (R&D) in 2024 to drive these kinds of innovations, among others. Solutions like SAP Product Footprint Management and SAP Sustainability Control Tower help companies track Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions in detail, making ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) commitments actionable.

This focus is driving real-world product adoption, demonstrating a commitment to high-quality, impactful services.

• Cloud ERP Suite revenue rose by 26% in Q3 2025.
• The cloud backlog grew to €18.202 billion in Q1 2025, indicating strong future demand.
• Businesses are increasingly implementing AI agents to automate complex tasks, with 29% of companies already integrating AI into their core business processes in 2025.

SAP SE (SAP) Vision Statement

You need to understand that SAP SE's vision is not a corporate platitude; it's a direct strategy map for their cloud-first, AI-first transformation, and the numbers bear this out. The core takeaway is this: SAP SE is laser-focused on enabling the intelligent, sustainable enterprise, and their Q3 2025 results show this pivot is delivering significant financial returns, especially in cloud revenue.

SAP SE's purpose is to help the world run better and improve people's lives. Their vision is simply to bring out the best in every business, which they execute through a three-pronged approach: enabling rapid adaptation, embedding sustainability, and driving greater productivity. This isn't just about selling software; it's about providing the digital backbone for a modern, resilient economy.

Enabling Rapid Adaptation and Growth

The first pillar of the vision-enabling rapid adaptation-translates directly into their cloud migration strategy, which is the engine of their growth. You can't be agile with on-premise legacy systems, so the push is to the cloud. The current cloud backlog, a key indicator of future revenue, surged by 27% at constant currencies to €18.8 billion in Q3 2025. This backlog is a defintely strong signal of future stickiness and revenue visibility.

This adaptation is largely driven by the 'RISE with SAP' offering, which bundles their flagship S/4HANA Cloud with tools and services to simplify the shift to cloud ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). The Cloud ERP Suite revenue itself was up a staggering 31% at constant currencies in Q3 2025, reaching €4.59 billion. That's where the real money is, and it shows customers are buying into the vision of a unified, adaptable business suite.

• Cloud revenue: Up 27% (constant currency) in Q3 2025.
• Cloud ERP Suite: Grew 31% (constant currency) in Q3 2025.
• FY 2025 Cloud Revenue Outlook: Expected to hit the lower end of the €21.6 - 21.9 billion range.

Driving Greater Productivity with Business AI

The second pillar, driving greater productivity, is now synonymous with Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration. SAP SE is embedding AI directly into its business processes, not just bolting it on. CEO Christian Klein has repeatedly highlighted AI as a key enabler, and the strategy is 'Suite First, AI First.'

The financial impact of this focus is visible in the profitability metrics. Through disciplined execution and the shift to high-margin cloud services, non-IFRS operating profit rose 19% at constant currencies to €2.6 billion in Q3 2025. Here's the quick math: higher-margin cloud services, coupled with AI-driven efficiency in their own operations and for customers, directly boosts the bottom line. For the full fiscal year 2025, SAP SE expects non-IFRS operating profit to land towards the upper end of the €10.3 - 10.6 billion range.

Embedding Sustainability in Operations

The final, and increasingly critical, component of the vision is embedding sustainability in operations. This is where the vision meets corporate responsibility and regulatory reality. SAP SE is positioning its software to help customers measure and manage their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) footprint with the same rigor they apply to financial accounting.

This is a major opportunity. Tools like SAP Sustainability Footprint Management and the Green Ledger initiative-which plans to integrate carbon accounting directly into the financial ledger-are concrete examples of this vision in action. It means a company can track a product's carbon emissions from raw material to customer with the same precision as its cost. This focus is part of the integrated strategy that drives their goal to exceed the previous free cash flow target, now expected to be between €8.0 - 8.2 billion for FY 2025.

For a deeper dive into how these strategic moves affect the balance sheet, you should be reading Breaking Down SAP SE (SAP) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Core Values: The 'How We Run' Principles

The core values, which SAP SE calls the 'How We Run' principles, are the behavioral guardrails for achieving their vision. They are designed to foster the culture needed for a fast-moving, cloud-based company. These aren't just posters on a wall; they dictate how the company approaches partnerships, product development, and customer relationships.

• Tell it like it is: Fosters transparency, which is vital for maintaining trust with the 400,000+ customers they serve globally.
• Stay Curious: Drives the innovation needed to lead the AI and cloud transformation, particularly in their R&D investment.
• Embrace differences: Essential for a company operating in over 180 countries.
• Keep the promise: The foundation of their customer-centric approach and commitment to delivering on their cloud backlog.
• Build Bridges, not silos: Encourages internal collaboration and external partnerships, like their long-standing alliance with Microsoft.

SAP SE (SAP) Core Values

You're looking for the bedrock of SAP SE's strategy, not just the glossy mission statement. As a long-time analyst, I can tell you the real story is in the numbers tied to the core values. These aren't just posters on the wall; they are the drivers behind the company's expected €10.3 - 10.6 billion non-IFRS operating profit for the 2025 fiscal year.

The company's values map directly to their investment strategy, showing where the money and the focus are going. You can see this commitment in their shift to cloud-first solutions and their aggressive push into Artificial Intelligence (AI). This is how they plan to grow their cloud revenue by 26% to 28% at constant currencies this year, targeting €21.6 - 21.9 billion.

For a deeper dive into the market's reaction to this strategy, you should check out Exploring SAP SE (SAP) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Innovation and Digital Transformation

Innovation is more than a buzzword here; it's a massive capital allocation decision. SAP SE is betting its future on its 'Suite First, AI First' strategy, which means embedding intelligent capabilities directly into its core Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. Honestly, this is the only way to stay ahead of the competition.

Here's the quick math: the company is allocating over €20 billion to sovereign cloud and AI solutions to secure Europe's digital infrastructure and accelerate its own product roadmap. This is a serious commitment to future-proofing the business. The intensity of this focus is clear in the R&D numbers, with expenses for the twelve months ending September 30, 2025, reaching $7.309 billion. That kind of investment defintely moves the needle.

• Cloud order entry: half included AI in Q4 2024.
• Core focus: embedding AI into the entire business suite.
• Goal: ensuring customers can confidently adopt new, responsible AI.

Customer Success and Commitment

For a software company, customer commitment translates directly to predictable, recurring revenue, which is why the current cloud backlog is a critical metric. As of the third quarter of 2025, the current cloud backlog stands at a healthy €18.8 billion, representing a 27% increase at constant currencies. That's a strong vote of confidence from the customer base.

The main vehicle for this commitment is the 'RISE with SAP' program, which helps customers migrate to the cloud. This isn't just a technical upgrade; it's a business transformation partnership. For example, the mining company BHP used SAP Signavio solutions to orchestrate a business process transformation that created €500 million of value. Also, Nestlé saved a staggering 1.5 million hours by using the WalkMe solution for digital adoption across their 270,000 employees. These are not abstract benefits; they are hard, measurable returns on investment for the customer.

Sustainability and Social Responsibility

SAP SE views sustainability as the next frontier of digital transformation, not just a compliance issue. Their vision is to help customers make profitability sustainable and sustainability profitable. This is why their commitment to achieving net-zero emissions along their entire value chain by 2030 is so important-it's 20 years ahead of their original target.

Their commitment is backed by specific, measurable initiatives. The company has planted 20.51 million trees since 2012, working toward a goal of 25 million trees by 2030. Beyond their own operations, they are using their purchasing power to drive change, aiming to allocate 5% of their addressable procurement spend to social companies and another 5% to diverse suppliers by the end of 2025. This demonstrates a commitment to social impact that goes beyond their own walls.

Workplace Inclusion and Business Health

The company has recently shifted its focus from purely demographic targets, like the previous goal of 40% women in the workforce, to a more holistic measure of employee experience. This change reflects evolving legal landscapes, particularly in the US. The new key performance indicator (KPI) is the Business Health Culture Index (BHCI).

This index measures engagement, equal opportunity, workplace health, and long-term career sustainability. For 2025, SAP SE expects a BHCI score in the range of 80% to 82%. This is a clear, quantifiable target for cultural health. To support this, they are consolidating their Diversity & Inclusion office with Corporate Social Responsibility into a unified team called 'Social Responsibility, Inclusion and Communities.' This structural change shows they are embedding inclusion into the broader social mission of the company.