Sas Institute : The World 's Largest Privately Held Software Company

Growing up, the business world has always intrigued me, however I am far more curious and eager to develop knowledge about the operations of Business management and human resources. I have strong beliefs that the business world would not be successful without driven individuals who are respected and are developed in a positive working environment.

My place of employment, Mountain Brook City Hall, is located in one of the most beautiful cities in Alabama. In fact, the City of Mountain Brook has been named “Tree City USA” by the Arbor Day Foundation for the past 20 years (ICMA, 2014). The residents enjoy a safe environment (Safe Choice, 2014) and the employees benefit from a fiscal responsible City Council that doesn’t take a salary. While there is no perfect working environment, Mountain Brook City Hall‘s atmosphere is very relaxed which contributes to a very low employee turnover rate.

Visit at least two different companies’ website and read about how each company explicates the working environment and its expectations of employees. In your discussion post, reference the websites you analyzed. Examples of companies include, Kraft Foods, Apple, CVS Caremark, Johnson & Johnson, and Target. Identify what your selected companies do to establish a positive working environment and committed employees. Be specific in identifying behaviors, programs, or initiatives. (Note: If a company website does not provide enough information, select another company.)

Retaining employees is one way the turnover rate can decrease, Branham (2000), focuses on retaining valuable employees by incorporating four key elements. The first key elements is, “be a company that people want to work for”. There are many companies that have been labeled as, “employers of choice”. These employers all have something in common, which is how they value their employers (Branham, 2000). They treat their employees with respect and like family. With being an “employer of choice,” people are the most valuable asset; not just customers but employees too. Many companies go above and beyond for their customers, but not for their employees, yet they wonder why they are losing valuable talent.

Need to bond with our fellow humans… establish room for socialization and a strong culture. There is an enormous boost in motivation when employees feel proud of belonging to the organization and feel that they have a ‘work family’.

For over one year, it has come to my attention that a majority of the KC-based employees are working for less than 40 hours. From my observations, there are only a few workers present at 8 AM and at 5 PM, an aspect that indicates negligence. As the company’s CEO, I allowed all managers to create a culture within your team in efforts to motivate employees and promote efficiency. However, so far, this approach is not fruitful as we are experiencing problems with effectiveness in undertaking business operations.

SAS is a recognized company that creates business analyst software for all types of businesses. The acronym SAS stands for “statistical analysis system.” It was created at North Carolina State University as a project to analyze agricultural research. SAS’s founder decided to transform this research project into a viable company of its own, where he could provide business consulting services to large and small businesses alike. Shortly after becoming a company they were able to run software applications across all platforms of the business by using multivendor architecture for which it is known today for. SAS’s internal culture has remained the same since it first started, which has made them successful enough to spread

SAS Institute of Cary, North Carolina is an organization that fosters innovation, employee loyalty, and customer satisfaction. Over the past three decades, SAS Institute became the largest private software developer and enjoys a history of continued growth in every year of its existence. The success of SAS Institute is a result of its primary resource—its creative capital—which is entrenched in the company through its culture, Human Resource practices, communication, and employee motivation.

“Bottom-up” decision management philosophy was followed in SAS. Customer and employee feedback lead to many new product innovations. Internal promotion and employee referral were prominent in SAS.

The aviation industry, due to its fast paced and extremely performance oriented nature, is an ideal example of how proper organizational behavior lends to the growth, and ultimate success of a company. Often, mitigating operational hurdles and constraints becomes the focus of leadership in this industry as problems such as financial limitations continually arise. This unfortunately can result in employers neglecting the most essential part of their company, the employees. The ability for an employer to recognize and resolve threats to employee job satisfaction and security, conquer lack of employee motivation, and proactively negotiate internal and external conflict allows for a company to thrive.

SAS seems like a great company to

The SAS institute was founded in 1976 by Dr. James Goodnight and Dr. John Sall, both professors at North Carolina State University, SAS Institute, Inc. provides business intelligence (BI) software and services at more than 40,000 customer sites worldwide, including 90 percent of the Fortune 500 companies. SAS, which stands for “statistical analysis software,” is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina. It is the world’s largest privately held software company, having over 100 offices worldwide with approximately 10,000 employees. With an unbroken record of growth and profitability, SAS had revenue of $1.18 billion in 2002 and invested about 25 percent of revenues into research and development. SAS has been widely

Breakings through the chains of corporate slavery is in full affect. In other words, nobody wants to work for a heartless corporation that does not value their staff. Individuals are educated and ready to make a career change if necessary. The overwhelming feeling of being imprisoned by a job is dreadful. Even the most loyal captive will seek an opportunity to break free from a dreadful organization. The sensation of being confined within an organization with no room to grow or expand is a daunting feeling. When individuals are treated as if they do not matter, it raises the question; why stay here? If employers are naïve enough to think that there are no other options for hard working people, they are wrong. The information being

SAS set the foundation for a comfortable and motivating environment thus guaranteeing a high percentage of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. There are four work behaviors categorized in the text: Job Performance, Organizational Citizenship, Absenteeism and Turnover.

The business model of SAS is such that it in general it offers services coupled with software. Unlike typical firms in the industry it follows an annual software subscription model. Rather than sell its software, SAS leases to its customers - a strategy of immense importance in understanding the company’s relationship to its users. The fact that leases must be renewable annually creates a tremendous emphasis on customer satisfaction and quality in addition to stabilising its revenue. Furthermore, its products are made based on what customers require and its developmental process is almost wholly customer driven. There is also a strong focus on employee satisfaction leading to customer retention and loyalty which SAS