SAS R&D (India): Empowered To Find Solutions For The Future
Established in 2000, SAS R&D India, an arm of SAS Incorporated USA is located in Pune, is a key research and development center for products and solutions of SAS. Known as the leaders in the business analytics software products, SAS’ philosophy has always been “treat people well, keep them challenged with interesting work, respect them and their contributions, and they will do their best work for you”. Ask the employees what’s important to them. Start small and build from there.
A survey ranked SAS Research and Development (R&D) India No. 1 among the top 50 Great Mid-Size Workplaces in the country for 2019. SAS arm across the world participated in the ‘Great Places To Work’ assessments and consistently ranked highly amongst the World’s Best Multinational Workplaces.
Sharing the success story, Moti N. Thadani, Director, SAS Research and Development India, said: “The average tenure of an employee here is six years, and some have been with the company since its inception in India. For us, maintaining a workplace culture, where employees are valued and feel valued is important.”
The company considers if people are trained well, then they will make a difference. Through an approach of nurturing each other, the team members of the company feel empowered to find solutions, knowing their leaders will support them. He believes, “When people are energised and motivated, organisations work like a well-oiled, high-speed, precision machine.”
“My ideal company is one on a journey of continuous improvement, never satisfied with the status quo, always looking for ways to do better still. As a citizen, we are trying to preserve the best we have today and keeping an eye on the future. It is an organisation that is a leader in its area of competence and in the culture it promotes and embraces,” Thadani adds.
SAS started as a spin-off from a research project at a US university to build tools for statistical analysis of agricultural data. The company grew as it broadened its scope to business analytics – applying data-mining, forecasting, and optimising techniques to all types of business data to derive insights that guide business decisions for higher quality, efficiency, and profitability.
The company believes that rather to assess and rate people, it is better to coach them to reach their highest potential. Instead of yearly performance discussions, it has regular feedback throughout the year, which is focused on efficient and effective communication. Regular updates from the CEO, COO, and other leadership chain set the direction, highlight priorities and share progress with all. The company live by its founder CEO’s vision ‘to create a different kind of company, a company that cares, a company that makes the world a better place for all, a company with a culture of valuing employees as the bedrock’.
One of the employees working with the company feels: “I can be my best everyday, nothing stops me here.” Another shares: “I am my own hero, owner and driver of my contribution and career growth.” A few also believes: “My manager is a great listener. My manager coaches me to achieve excellence.”
For more than 40 years, SAS has believed in the power of analytics to do good in the world. SAS Founder & CEO Jim Goodnight famously said: “We are people that want to help other people. That’s the satisfaction we get out of writing programs. Knowing we’re going to make somebody else’s life a lot easier … and that we are constantly working on the future.”
