SAS Institute

Authors: Bankert, Ellen; Lee, Mary D.; Lange, Candice
Source: Wharton Work/Life Integration Project
Company Name: SAS Institute, Inc.
Number of pages: 15

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Abstract:

SAS Institute is the world's largest privately held software company, with sales in 1998 of $870 million - double its revenue only six years earlier. In 1999, they exceeded $1 billion. Founded in 1976, the company makes statistical analysis software that it leases to a widely diverse group of customers. The company's customer base has grown from 100 customers in 1976 to more than 30,000 in twelve countries, including all but two of the largest U.S. public companies. SAS Institute has 5,400 employees; 3,400 are at the company's campus headquarters in Cary, North Carolina. John Goodnight, SAS Institute's founders and CEO, owns two-thirds of the company, while John Sall, a senior vice president, owns the other third. In recent years, SAS Institute has received considerable media attention for the "utopian" environment for which it has become known. The company's physical surroundings are country club-like, and include two childcare centers, a fully staffed health center, private offices for all, a pianist in the company-subsidized cafeteria, state-of-the-art athletic facilities, and many other perks. In terms of noteworthy non-tangibles, the company offers unlimited employee sick days and a 35-hour workweek. What's not available is perhaps even more telling: there is no executive dining room, no reserved parking spaces (except for company vans), and no coveted offices for executives. The compelling case story behind SAS Institute is not tied to a specific change initiative or the many perks, but is about the work environment created at the company's outset and sustained over time. The case focuses on capturing the essential elements that define the SAS Institute culture: employee-centered values, employee interdependence, a spirit of risk-taking, freedom, challenging work, richness of resources, and the company's physical surrounding. In describing the background and motivation for creating this type of environment, the case explores issues related to Goodnight's own value system and philosophy of work. In the section on maintaining the work environment, the case describes four strategies that have been initiated to support the company culture. These include a "hire hard" recruitment strategy, the 35-hour workweek, employee and manager surveys, and the compensation system. The case also presents the results from the company's internal surveys, as well as specific employee data from the business press.