Sas Institute

Module 2 Case Assignment

SAS Institute, the analytical software developer, grew from a project at North Carolina State University to analyze agricultural research into one of the world’s largest private software companies (Lohr, 2009). With more than 13,000 employees worldwide that support over “70,000 business, government and university sites” in 135 countries, SAS provides organizations a way to transform data into useable knowledge, and they “do it better than anyone” (About SAS, 2014). This becomes clear when one learns that, among those 70,000 sites are “91 of the top 100 companies on the 2013 Fortune Global 500 list” (About SAS, 2014). In this paper, I will discuss how SAS’s corporate values and goals create an environment that motivates its employees, but may not be appropriate for every business.

The Day-to-Day at SAS

To gain a perspective of what it is like to work at SAS, we can look at the company’s mission, the corporate culture unique to SAS, and the privileges afforded to its employees.

The company’s mission statement is “SAS delivers proven solutions that drive innovation and improve performance” (About SAS, 2014). This mission statement is backed by SAS’s values of “approachable, customer-driven, swift and agile, innovative, and trustworthy” (About SAS, 2014). Having a strong mission that employees are familiar with and believe in keeps them motivated and focused. People can understand their importance to the team and how they make a difference; SAS’s success as the industry standard is due in part to its corporate goals (About SAS, 2014). SAS strives to maintain its encouraging and innovative culture while the company’s scope spreads across the globe.

In Mark Crowley’s 2013 article “How SAS Became the World’s Best Place to Work,” SAS’s founder and CEO, Dr. Jim Goodnight, says ‘what makes his organization work are the new ideas that come out of his employee’s brains.’ He views his employees as the company’s greatest assets. Dr. Goodnight shared a few unique leadership values that he believes have created a highly productive company that employees enjoy being a part of, all of which are centered on his employees.

First, is his belief of “valuing people above all else” (Crowley, 2013). During the beginning of the Great Recession, SAS customers were buying less of its products and this shockwave was felt through the analytics software industry (Crowley, 2013). While others in the industry began laying off employees in droves, SAS and Dr. Goodnight “held a global webcast and announced that none of its 13,000 worldwide employees would lose their job” (Crowley, 2013). Rather than trying to salvage short-term profits or reduce quarterly loss by cutting people, SAS knew the value of the company was in its employees and stood by them during the tough times.