Milestone 1 Final
Sonja Thompson

SAS is a business analytics software company that has over fourteen thousand employees.
SAS delivers proven solutions that drive innovation and improve performance. While this was likely intended to refer to their products, it refers to their overall company as well. So much so in fact that companies like Google have modeled their own culture after that of SAS. SAS has been on the list of top companies to work for the last thirteen years (Kaplan, 2010). Initially the SAS software was designed to analyze agricultural data but it has grown into a product with practically limitless uses. Retailers can use it to determine everything from pricing to where to put their next location, banks can use it to see what services customers may respond to, even the Census Bureau uses SAS software (Kaplan, 2010).

The key to SAS’s success appears to lie with the fact that Goodnight realized early on that the key was in keeping employees happy. Employees like to know that they are valued and that they matter. SAS’s demonstrates this by actively practicing 4 main leadership values. Value people above all else: This was evidenced in 2009, when many other companies had to resort to layoffs to stay afloat. SAS employees became concerned about their own jobs. Goodnight quickly informed them that there would be no layoffs but to please watch their spending. Since employees were relieved of having to worry about job losses, this in turn allowed them to remain productive and at a time when other companies were struggling, SAS was still showing profits. To give is to get: Goodnight feels that the perks that are given to his employees show how much they are valued. This in turn creates employee loyalty and engagement. In an industry where typical turnover is about 22%, SAS experiences about 2-3% turnover. The money that is saved in “replacement” costs allows SAS to offer perks such as on-site daycare, healthcare, cafeterias, gyms and other perks. Trust above all things: Workers at SAS are surveyed on an annual basis by the Great Place to Work Institute. This allows them to give input on how satisfied with the leadership at SAS. SAS also utilizes a flexible work schedule which in turn creates trust. Ensure employees understand the significance of their work: Everyone wants to feel like they are doing something that matters. They want to feel valued and fulfilled. It is important to let people know how much they make a difference. Employees at SAS know that the products they are creating will be used by their customers for years to come.
Strategic management involves setting vision and mission statements, setting objectives, creating strategy to achieve those objectives, implementing strategy and then evaluating your performance. SAS has accomplished this not only by creating multiple products that can be used in multiple arenas but also by the corporate culture that they promote. Goodnight believes that his employees are his key assets and making them happy and coming back to work are good business sense (Kaplan, 2010). His generosity with his employees has led to the creative environment that his company needs to survive. Turnover rates are lower than the industry standards which means that he has created employee loyalty as well. By having this type of organizational culture, employees can focus more on their work and therefore create better products.
Realizing that what had started as agricultural software could be utilized in other ways allowed Goodnight to make the decision to start his own company. At a time when many others would have sold out or taken their stocks public, Goodnight chose not to sacrifice the culture and the business for the sake of money. Their commitment to ethics is also apparent in their forty page ethics handbook. The company also maintains a corporate social responsibility task force and utilizes various methods of reducing their environmental footprint ("SAS Corporate Social Responsibility | SAS," n.d.).
The Human Resources Department at SAS is headed by Jenn Mann who has shared her views on workplace culture have been shared with various journals and news shows. She has been with the company since 1998 and subscribes to the philosophy “At SAS, our goal is to offer meaningful work for our employees, an empowering management philosophy, and a world-class work environment that includes services and benefits to make employees’ lives easier at work and in their personal lives,” ("Jenn Mann, Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer | SAS," n.d.).

References: Crowley, M. C. (2013, January 22). How SAS Became The World's Best Place To Work. Retrieved February 21, 2016, from http://www.fastcompany.com/3004953/how-sas-became-worlds-best-place-work Kaplan, D. (2010, January 22). SAS is the Best Company to Work For - Jan. 21, 2010. Retrieved from http://archive.fortune.com/2010/01/21/technology/sas_best_companies.fortune/index.htm

SAS Corporate Social Responsibility | SAS. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.sas.com/en_us/company-information/corporate-social-responsibility.html#environmental-program

Jenn Mann, Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer | SAS. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.sas.com/en_us/company-information/leadership/jenn-mann.html