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Anna deDufour
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Blog #1—SAS
Our visit to SAS yesterday ultimately served as a unique experience for me, particularly because it allowed me to gain an interesting perspective on the inner workings of a truly successful corporation. From what I learned through the presentations of Ann Marie Streeter and Wes Avett, it is evident that SAS’s success is rooted in its transcendent sense of camaraderie, community, integrity, and creative innovation. Its mission is to give large and small companies alike the power to make progressive, efficient business decisions, fueling innovation and development across the globe. Although SAS is now a multi-billion dollar business supplier, it still maintains the values of approachability, customer service, responsiveness, and trust that are reminiscent of the small-business nature of SAS during its fledgling years in the 1960s. Over the past four decades, SAS has made great strides in business development and analytics, as it controls 35.2% of the entire market share. Its employees have worked with a range of clients in various fields. Among these fields of focus are government, communications, life sciences, education, banking, and retail.
Not only was I impressed by the spirit of empowerment and loyalty that SAS and its mission embodies, but I was also fascinated by the methods and processes that SAS has adopted to maintain healthy business relationships both with the myriad of clients it serves across the world and within the corporation itself. Built upon a global network of employees who are passionate about empowering others and administering tools for success to their customers, SAS has been able to grow exponentially through both the satisfied clients and workers it comprises. In her presentation, Ms. Streeter addressed the business plan SAS has acquired so as to increase productivity and satisfaction among its own employees. Benefits such as on-site child and health care, flexible management policies, the lack of strict employee hierarchies, and the aesthetic beauty of the company campus have not only garnered the loyalty of SAS employees but have also encouraged greater opportunities for innovative and creative thinking. In addition to its employees, SAS aims to treat its customers with equal honesty, respect, and concern. Unlike its competitors, such as IBM, SAS leases its research and analysis technology to customers, so that customers can always stay up-to-date on the newest technologies. Mr. Avett claimed that this business method not only allows SAS employees to keep in contact with their clients through supplying the most advanced services, but it also ensures that the businesses that rely on SAS can constantly move forward and fulfill SAS’s goal to spread progressive innovation. In addition, revenue from leases are reinvested into software development, so as to keep optimize efficiency and keep business intelligence moving ever forward. Furthermore, SAS is privately owned so that, instead of having to cope with strict boundaries set by public policies, it can shape its business plan to reflect the evolving market and customers. Such individualized focus on clients has increased customer satisfaction, fueling a growing network of clients and a growing company profit.
It is evident that the five questions posed by Drucker in his book have been addressed by SAS, whether or not it was intentional. As one of the most successful corporations in the world, SAS has established a mission and plan to ensure the success of its clients, thereby ensuring the success of the company as a whole. Its flexible corporate structure, unprecedented affinity for integrity and innovation, and dogged focus on customer service has made it stand out among other organizations, and I consider it a business paradigm for other corporations seeking success.