Day 1 — Welcome to Munich

You arrive at Siemens headquarters on Werner-von-Siemens-Straße in Munich at 8:30 AM on a crisp Monday morning. The campus is a blend of Siemens' industrial heritage and modern glass-and-steel architecture — a fitting metaphor for a company trying to reconcile 175 years of tradition with a digital future. Security waves you through with a pre-registered badge. Your name is already on the visitor board: 'ERP Programme — Project Room 4.12.'

Elena Voss meets you at the fourth-floor elevator bank. She's mid-fifties, dressed in a charcoal blazer, and carries herself with the calm authority of someone who has survived multiple ERP programmes. Her handshake is firm and her smile is warm but measured — she's reserving judgment.

"Welcome to Siemens. Let me give you the lay of the land before anyone else gets to you." She walks you to the project room — a large corner space with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Munich skyline. Deloitte's team occupies the left side: 8 workstations with dual monitors, a whiteboard covered in SAP module diagrams, and a stack of printed workshop agendas. Your desk is at the head of the room, facing both the Siemens team and the Deloitte consultants.

Elena closes the door and sits across from you. "Here's what you need to understand. Hanna Hennig — our CIO, your sponsor — championed this project. She's excellent. Politically savvy, strategically sharp. She wants it to succeed and she'll give you support. But she won't shield you from the divisions. That's your job."

She leans forward. "The real challenge isn't SAP. The real challenge is four division CEOs who all agreed to standardize in a board meeting but none of them actually want to change their processes. Cedrik Neike — Digital Industries — is the one to watch. His division has 312 custom programs and he treats every one of them like a competitive asset. He'll be polite in meetings and relentless behind closed doors."

Elena pauses. "Roland Busch set the mandate. His name carries weight. But the CEO is not going to sit in your workshops and force compliance. You need to find a way to make standardization work for each division — or at least make resistance more expensive than cooperation."