1. SAS INSTITUTE
A DIFFERENT APPROACHTO INCENTIVES & PEOPLE
October 10, 2015

2. AGENDA
• Who is SAS?
• Company Background and
Leadership
• Organizational Structure & Design
• Job Design and Selection
• Employment Deal
• Threats and Sustainability
• Recommendations

3. WHO IS SAS?
• Mission Statement:
“SAS delivers proven solutions that drive innovation and improve
performance.”
• Values
• Approachable
• Customer-Driven
Source: SAS Institute Website
• Swift & Agile
• Innovative
• Trustworthy

4. BACKGROUND
• SAS was developed in 1970 at North
Carolina University
• Company was founded in 1976 by Jim
Goodnight and John Sall
• 13,811 employees located in 140
countries
• Reported $3.09 billion in revenue in 2014
Source: SAS Institute Website

5. LEADERSHIP
Goodnight and some of his North
Carolina State University
colleagues created the software to
analyze agricultural-research data
Jim Goodnight
Chief Executive Officer, SAS
From the date of establishment in
1976, Sall designed, developed and
documented many of the earliest
analytical procedures while also leading
research and development efforts
John Sall
Co-founder and Executive Vice President
Source: SAS Institute Website

6. BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
• No single competitor
• Competition in some segments of the business
• Multiple goals
• 25 product system

7. ORGANIZATION DESIGN
• No organization chart
• Hybrid
• Flat
• Informal

8. LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE

9. JOB DESIGN
John Boling, a SAS employee, said this about the employees, “We
assume that you have talent, creativity, and initiative. You have to be
able to take that and run with it” (HBR).
• Freedom to make choices - decentralized
• Little supervision - working managers
• Flexible to meet customer needs

10. COMPANY FIT: PROS
• Business environment is uncertain
• Software needs are always changing
• Moving to the Internet/cloud-based
• 1,000 employees doing development work
• Large organization
• 13,000+ employees
• 140 offices around the world
• 31,000 customer sites

11. COMPANY FIT: CONS
• Limited interaction across departments
• Less diverse ideas
• Slower pace of development
• Inefficiencies from duplicate efforts

12. TALENT SELECTION
• A competitive labor market
• No stock options
• Lowest turnover rate in the industry
• 28% of jobs filled by internal promotions
• 23% jobs filled by referrals

13. EMPLOYMENT AT SAS
• 4% turnover rate
• Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For
• How does SAS keep employees coming back?
Source: Case

14. EMPLOYEE “NEEDS”
Source: Book

15. EMPLOYMENT “DEAL”
• Work Environment
• Company Culture
• Competitive Compensation
• Work/Life Balance
• Benefits
Source: SAS Institute Website

16. EMPLOYEE “NEEDS”VS “DEAL”
• Physiological - Salary, physical work environment
• Safety - Low turnover, medical and wellness benefits
• Belongingness - Co-workers, managers, customers
• Esteem - Hired, freedom, private office
• Self-Actualization - Work/life balance, training, growth

17. STRENGTHS & LIMITATIONS
• Family Friendly
• Competitive Salary
• Max employee profit
sharing retirement
• No Stock Options
• Nepotism
• Flat/informal
Organization
Strengths Limitations

18. OPEN SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
Labor Markets:
growing need for computer-
literate workers
Customers:
Customer needs
Sociocultural/Economical:
general environment
Technological:
drive competition
Task
General

19. KEYSTO SUCCESS
• Customer driven development
process
• Attraction and retention of
talent
• Inventory of skills and
experiences

20. THE FUTURE:THREATS
• Heavy investment in creative capital may not pay off
• Limited talent in the industry
• Lack of diversity impedes creativity
• Maintaining competitive work environment
• Individual offices hampers creativity

21. THE FUTURE: SUSTAINABILITY
• Competitive benefits/work life balance
• Focused on intrinsic motivation
• Egalitarian management style
• Substantial investment in employees

22. RECOMMENDATIONS
• Restructure offices to create a more open environment
• Implement a more frequent feedback/communication
process
• Provide a clearer promotion process to improve morale
• Expand recruiting efforts
• Open new development office to attract younger recruits

23. –Jim Goodnight, CEO
“Treat employees like they make a difference and they
will.”

24. ThankYou

25. REFERENCES
• Daft, R. (2014). Management Eleventh Edition. South-Western,
Cengage Learning.
• Pfeffer, J. (1998). SAS Institute:A Different Approach To Incentives
and People Management Practices in the Software Industry. Graduate School of
Business Stanford University.
• SAS Institute Website (2015). Retrieved 9/27/2015
from: http://www.sas.com/en_us/careers/life-at-sas.html
• SAS Institute Website (2015). Retrieved 9/27/2015
from: https://www.sas.com/en_us/company-information.html#1966-1976