I realised at that moment if I didn't get out, likely,
I wouldn't be found alive.
For Bill McDermott, the biggest challenge of his career
has come not in the marketplace or the boardroom,
but as a result of a domestic accident.
In 2015, when McDermott had already
been chief executive of German software giant
SAP for five years, he suffered a potentially catastrophic
setback.
Tell us what happened.
I'm sure you've told this before then.
On one of those perfect days, my dad's birthday,
we had a wonderful day - played golf,
had a little birthday cake.
The day was wrapped up, everything perfect.
And in the middle of the night, with a glass of water,
I slipped down a flight of stairs.
By the time I got to the bottom of the stairs,
the glass was between a concrete foundation and my face.
I was knocked unconscious.
I was by myself.
There was no one there.
And after a very long period of time where I was unconscious,
I woke, not even realising what happened to me -
just that I knew I couldn't see because there was so much blood
in the scene.
And I was hurt.
I knew I was very badly hurt.
What was your feeling as you lay there?
What was your first thought?
First of all, what happened?
What happened?
Among other things, one of the things
that was not so commonly known is I obviously
had a bad concussion.
And I didn't know what happened.
And I realised that if I did get up,
life was probably going to get a whole lot tougher on me.
And at that time, you start thinking about survival.
You think about your family.
Was there a point do you feel when you might have given up?
There was a point where I knew that I
had to make a break for it.
At that moment, you were either going to call it a day,
or you were going to make a fight to get out,
because I realised at that moment, if I didn't get out,
likely, I wouldn't be found alive.
McDermott underwent several surgeries,
but ultimately, lost an eye as a result of his fall.
What, at this point during this period,
did you feel about coming back to SAP?
Because other people might have said, this is now my life.
I'm going to have to change course.
Sure.
Was there ever a sense that you had?
At that point, you put your trust
in the medical professionals, and you put your trust in God.
And you know that what's meant to be will come of this.
And I had great confidence.
And I never really thought about the downside.
I just thought, I'm going to come out of this surgery.
And I'm going to see, and everything's going to be fine.
It never entered my mind that I wouldn't.
That's how I think.
Between the intensive care and getting out of that hospital
before I went into others, I was missing a board meeting.
And the first thing I did when I got to my home
is I called up the board and the chairman of the board
- now we're on like day eight or nine, I guess - to say,
I will be there at our next board meeting,
which, this was July, and the next board meeting
would be October in Germany.
So mark it down, big crayon, I'll be there.
So you never had any doubt that you would go back?
Never.
It never even remotely entered my mind
that I wasn't coming back.
It was three months, I think, roughly before SAP declared
the details of the accident, although they declared
that you'd had an accident.
Was that a difficult decision not
to give more details sooner?
The reality is when I got out of the first hospital stay
after that first little over a week,
I was in full command of my daily activities at SAP
- full command.
The only thing that I wasn't doing it
at the level I used to do it was going
on flights, because I would typically
have a surgery in the morning, and then
be out in the afternoon, and then
be back to the phones and all the things that I've done.
There was not a day where I wasn't
working as the CEO of SAP.
There really wasn't anything to report.
Once we got past the hard part, which was that first week,
we were good.
There was never any moment when you
had to activate a succession plan or anything of that sort.
No, no.
It was not life-threatening in that
once you got to the first responders.
Once I got past that first night, I was going to live.
The whole thing at that point was
there was no one covering for me,
there was no one acting for me, and there was no succession
planning necessary.
I was in the job.
Has it changed the way you lead SAP, do you think?
I think it has.
And it's tough to put my finger on exactly what's different.
But I think what is quite beautiful
about the whole experience is that a lot of people who might
have felt like my life was even too perfect
or maybe even I was a little too perfect,
have now seen that he's real.
And he can get cut, and he bleeds, and he hurts just
like all of us.
And he's one of us.
He's a human being - and just the fact
that they saw that I'm the same guy and I want their success
and all of our dreams to come true even more than I used to.
Did it change the way in which people react to you
or the way in which you felt about those people
and their reaction?
Maybe I just lightened it up a little bit more.
For example, don't feel bad for me.
I got a new eye, and it's the same colour as the old one -
just keeping it light.
I think the humanity and the kindness of people
is so beautiful.
And it's so wonderful to have people that
actually do care about you.
Long before the accident, McDermott
learned his people skills as a budding entrepreneur.
I was one of those kids that got a great deal of self-confidence
from work.
So I had three part-time jobs.
And I basically traded them in for one more
than full-time job, meaning any hour I wasn't at school,
I was at that local delicatessen.
And I started working there and then
ultimately bought that store as a teenage entrepreneur.
So you moved on ultimately from there to Xerox.
You became the youngest divisional head at Xerox
at the time, I think.
And how would you describe your leadership style there?
Was it different from how you lead now?
Not at all.
In fact, the amazing thing about my life and who I am
is the same guy I was in the delicatessen
as I am sitting before you today.
I loved my job as Xerox just like I love my job at SAP,
just like I loved my job running that delicatessen.
McDermott is astonishingly positive about the impact
of his accident.
I feel in some ways that my life actually
took on a higher purpose, because I'm not
just an underdog that made it - if you want to call it
that - to the corner office - corner store to corner office.
But I'm also a person that had to fight to keep it.
From the bottom of my heart, if you said,
Bill, could we rewind the tape to July 2, 2015,
and play that day out differently,
I really would not change a thing,
because I've gotten so much from the experience.
And most importantly, I feel like I've
been able to give so much of myself from the experience
that I feel like my life has had a greater
sense of impact because of it.
Surely, you wouldn't put yourself
through the accident again in order to experience that.
I would prefer not to -
There was a dark moment there when
you were lying at the bottom of the stairs.
Oh, it was.
It was.
But you know what's interesting?
When you're at that moment and you stare your greatest fears
down, you realise that there are some things about life that
have never been in your control in the first place.