Snabe has served as co-CEO since February 2010 along with Bill McDermott, following the departure of sole CEO Leo Apotheker. SAP announced Snabe's planned transition to the board on Sunday.
"This co-CEO model worked so fabulously but only works in certain situations and [with] certain people," Plattner said during a conference call on Monday.
McDermott and Snabe are "special people who could work together without jealousy and without complexity," Plattner added. "Not having Jim is a clear indication to go ahead with what we have, which is a tremendous leader in Bill McDermott."
McDermott and Snabe have overseen a repositioning of SAP's business that included the acquisitions of Sybase, SuccessFactors and Ariba as well as the release of the HANA in-memory database platform. HANA now lies at the heart of SAP's product development efforts moving forward.
Snabe, whose appointment to the Supervisory Board will require approval from at least 25% of shareholders, called his time as co-CEO "the most exciting years of my career" but said now his priorities lie in spending more time with his family.
In addition, Snabe said from the beginning that he'd only like to remain in the co-CEO job for about four years, Plattner said. While saying that time frame was never an "exact science," Snabe did not contradict Plattner's statement.
As plans commence for Snabe's transition out of the co-CEO job, SAP is in a strong position and will be in good hands with McDermott as sole CEO, according to Snabe.
"Bill is probably the best CEO in the industry, period," he said. While most people view McDermott as being focused on sales, he has a "deep understanding" of products and technology as well, Snabe added.
While for now SAP seems intent on returning to a single CEO structure, some observers believe executive board member and HANA champion Vishal Sikka could one day take a co-CEO slot.
Sikka was recently placed in charge of all software development at SAP, a move that seemingly left Snabe, who has focused on products, with a reduced operational role.
Asked whether his decision to leave was based on having too few duties, Snabe called the notion "funny." Leadership is about "developing leaders all around you to take on bigger challenges," he said. Sikka has developed into a "full-blown innovator" in charge of 20,000 developers and through HANA has "been reinventing the database layer, which was a mature market," Snabe added. "We are in a very, very strong position with Vishal Sikka."
Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.
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