Outlandish Rewards: a Two Sided Coin

What would happen if Jim Goodnight's philosophy was applied to multiple industries? HR departments would be flooded with applications as flocks of people attempt to capitalize on the opportunity. This provides several positive effects. Employers will theoretically have a more diverse potential employment pool than before. The promise of extraordinary benefits is likely to attract highly skilled professionals and people of every race, gender, age, and sexual preference. By adding diversity to the workforce, companies would see concrete benefits such as higher creativity, improved customer service, lower litigation expenses, and a more satisfied workforce overall. Ideally, each company would experience varying levels of the “SAS effect.” This can be categorized as attaining low absenteeism and turnover, high workforce morale and satisfaction, unprecedented creativity and freedom of expression, and financial success as a result of putting employees first. Employees at SAS tend to have more positive work attitudes. Coworkers display high levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. People are happy to go to work and have a strong emotional connection to the company. Due to this bond, employees across the company volunteer more time to organizing social events (as if there were not enough “distractions” at SAS to begin with!).  As made clearly evident, the business world has much to gain by learning from Jim Goodnight. 

However, there are always two sides to each coin. While the business community could benefit from SAS’s policies, we have to consider the generalizability of this situation. It is also possible that offering such benefits could bring potentially negative effects. Leaders cannot simply offer un-worldly perks and expect productivity to jump immediately. The promise of these perks will obviously attract the attention of sub-par applicants. This goes beyond simply under qualified candidates, which can be expected at every company. No, these perks will serve as bait to a different class of applicants. Underachievers, freeloaders, procrastinators, con artists, and irresponsible workers will come to the negotiating table in the hopes of securing a golden ticket. Employers would need to take extra care when screening applicants. If one happened to make it through, employers would need to deal with the litigation of removing an employee who only has personal intentions in mind. When applied to every industry, this could create very costly mistakes and waste precious time. After considering these facts, it is clear to see that Jim has done a fantastic job managing his company. Jim Goodnight wants to reward legitimate employees who care about the company and want to make an impact by contributing quality work. He has eliminated the problems associated with employees who are only “in it” for the money and the perks. He has also moved past mitigation of losses due to this issue. He has managed SAS efficiently and effectively all while remaining profitable. This is another reason why Jim Goodnight truly is a great example of an impact player in the world of organizational behavior.

Regards,

Jarek Palmer (BBB)

Indra Nooyi Stressing Health And The Environment

One CEO that seems to float under the radar when it comes to the immense impact she has had both on her organization as a whole, as well as her employees is Indra Nooyi. Although many people may not be too familiar with Indra, almost everyone has heard of PepsiCo, the company she is in charge of leading. What sets Indra apart from most other CEO’s of fortune 500 companies is the fact that she is only one of thirteen women and one in six Asians in control of a fortune 500 company. She has been noted by Forbes as number 5 in “Most Influential Women in the World” (2007), number 1 by Forbes in “50 Most Powerful Women,” and number 22 in Fortune’s “25 Most Powerful People in Business.” In the upcoming blog I will discuss how Indra has become so successful particularly looking at what sets her apart from other CEO’s of fortune 500 companies.

Indra Nooyi has always had a clear organization vision of where she wanted PepsiCo to be. This vision concentrated on two main ideas, improving the nutritional status of the products and making PepsiCo an environmentally sustainable company. Indra realizes the importance of an organization to stress corporate social responsibility and take blame for their actions. Nooyi realizes the severe obesity epidemic in the United States and attempts to help defeat it by offering alternative healthier products. In addition to her emphasis on corporate social responsibility, she also stresses the idea of the triple bottom line theory. Instead of just concentrating on the economic revenues gained from the company, Indra attempts to look at environmental issues regarding her products as well. Indra knows the importance of the different social and environmental aspects that go beyond just the conventional economic influences. While some have criticized Indra Nooyi for being too preoccupied on long-term benefits with disregard to short-term issues, she has still managed to help increase companies profits while using this triple line type approach.

The first way in which she helped improve the nutritional status of the company’s products was by acquiring Quaker Oats and juice maker Tropicana. By buying out some of the competitors she not only helped reduce competition of potential PepsiCo products, but also gained a valuable healthier product line. Indra also made sure to reduce all of PepsiCo’s high sugar, high calorie beverages with healthier alternatives. One major alternative line she offered was the “refresh everything” campaign which offered a product line consisting of all-natural ingredients. In addition to offering this healthy product line, she also re-emphasized the launch of the Propel fitness drink Propel to consumers. Even from the very start Indra was determined to help offer consumers healthier products, which was evident when she was one of the first in the industry to cut all Trans fats from PepsiCo’s products.

Nooyi’s success has also been a result of her environmentally friendly outlook. While some companies tend to overlook this aspect of business in order to save money, Indra knew the importance in the long run to concentrate on an environmentally friendly product line. One particular area that she concentrated on was reducing plastic used on the different products packaging. She also looked for more biodegradable packaging for products in efforts to reduce hazardous effects caused from products packaging on the environment.

The last area that I would like to discuss today about Indra Nooyi is the way she treats her employees. Nooyi has always been known for holding extremely high standards from her employees and expects nothing less than perfection. She stresses the importance of finding solutions to all possible questions and pushes her employees extremely hard. As we discussed in class, one motivational technique that is apparent Nooyi uses is the reinforcement theory. In particular, Nooyi has explained that she is not afraid to punish her employees or provide them with negative feedback when they screw up. Nooyi is not afraid to help use punishment as a motivational tool to help make employees do their job and do it right the first time.

 Another thing that I found quite interesting from the article was the fact that after she beat out her competitor for the main CEO position she made sure to give him a pay raise as well as made sure he received a much larger role in decision making in the company. Although she offered him a pay raise, which could be considered a hygiene factor, she also made sure to still give him more influence in the company which probably spurred motivation and increased job satisfaction. The hygiene factor of an increase in pay still managed to help avoid making this employee dissatisfied, but it was the increase in work responsibility that most likely helped increase his overall job satisfaction and helped motivate him.

After discussing some of the key visions of Indra Nooyi it is not hard to see why she has been as successful as she has. Her leadership role as CEO of PepsiCo has helped spur profits as well as stressed new areas of corporate social responsibility. She not only understands the benefits of implementing a triple bottom line strategy, but also realizes the importance of concentrating on the long-term vision of the corporation.

Do you agree with the heavy importance Indra Nooyi is stressing regarding implementing environmentally friendly products and healthy alternatives to consumers?

Have you noticed any other recent changes in PepsiCo products that are reflected from an environmental/healthy influence?

Do you feel that Indra Nooyi should pay more attention to the possible short-term outcomes/problems of concentrating so much of the company’s time and money on environmentally friendly and healthy product lines?

http://www.minyanville.com/special-features/articles/influential-ceos-pepsi-indra-nooyi-indian/5/28/2010/id/28099

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/11/power-women-09_Indra-Nooyi_1S5D.html

Written by: Jason Dangles

A Transformational Leader

Our spotlight on Jim Goodnight continues as we discuss another facet of his management style. Based on his words and actions, I believe Mr. Goodnight has elevated himself to a distinct category of management. He has become a transformational leader. Jim has gone from merely compensating his employees to lavishly rewarding them. He has moved beyond simply encouraging employees to empowering them. In essence, he is helping his employees satisfy their upper level needs. He has addressed the employees' physiological needs by paying them competitive strategies. Safety needs have been met through the various helthcare programs. Social needs are met every day by the wide variety of perks that offer employees a chance to socialize at work.

Esteem needs are even taken care of when Goodnight endlessly praises his workers during interviews and during his personal interactions with employees. Jim Goodnight has even started to address the self-actualization needs of his employees. Every designer has her/his own office. This distinction answers esteem issues, but also contributes to self-actualization. This privacy offers the employee freedom and provides the environment that will be most productive for each individual. Educational programs and tuition reimbursements satisfy needs for growth. When Goodnight tackles Maslow's hierarchy of needs in such an aggressive manner, it is no wonder why employees genuinely love working at SAS.

A transformational leader is marked by four main characteristcs. They posses charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. While Jim may not be the most entertaining or enthralling speaker, he commands attention from his employees and they are more than happy to surrender it. His employees are confident in their leader's abilities and vision for the future. After hearing hi speak in iterviews or during Q&A forums held at SAS, the employees are committed to Jim, just as he is committed to them. Jim displays inspirational motivation primarily when he speaks about his vision. He has always talked about creating a software development company that is distinguishable from the others in the indutry. He sees opportunities where other managers have abandoned efforts and makes a convincing argument to act upon the unknown.

Intellectual stimulation is easily the behavioral characteristic that Mr. Goodnight most clearly displays. He has challenged the status quo of the entire industry and the general business model of profit. He has payed large sums of money to his employees through salaries and benefits. He has offered unrivaled perk packages and miraculously remains profitable. He provides the ultimate environment that contributes directly to employee creativity and morale. Employees are empowered and choose to work harder because they love going to work. They are challenged by the work and embrace the task with enthusiasm. 

The last piece of the puzzle is individualized compensation. Jim cares about each of his employees and does not view them as numbers on a payroll. He provides more than adequate rewards for those who work hard. The following quote was pulled from an interview with him:
 
As you can see, Jim Goodnight is no longer a manager; he is a leader. He has become a transformational leader not only because of what he has accomplished, but also becuase of the way he behaves. Mr. Goodnight has successfully aligned the agendas and goals of his employees with those of the company and they are truly committed to him. He has achieved great success without impairing any shareholders in the process. He manages to do all of these things while motivating and encouraging his workforce. This truly is an exceptional leader who leads by example.

Regards,
Jarek Palmer
Big Bang Bloggers (BBB)
"Innovation is the key to success in this business, and creativity fuels innovation," Goodnight said. "Creativity is especially important to SAS because software is a product of the mind. As such, 95 percent of my assets drive out the gate every evening. It's my job to maintain a work environment that keeps those people coming back every morning. The creativity they bring to SAS is a competitive advantage for us."

Management for the Future

The idea of management in nowadays can often be inferred as vague and misrepresented for various reasons with the ruptured economy being the overarching reason. The term bureaucracy and/or bureaucrat tends to carry negative meaning whenever used and is inferred with negative attitudes along with thoughts of corruption and scandal. This was not necessarily the fundamental definition of the word; a bureaucrat is simply a nonelective government official and bureaucracy in itself is merely a bureau of a government division or department. This relates to the another misinterpreted and largely negative term, "revolving door," in which politics and undermining intentions are thought of where profits and greed are seemingly the only reason that this term was coined.

In today's day and age where corruption and scandal run rampant, a new type of management is emerging from the fire and brimstone. In hopes of minimizing the variance and ambiguity associated with organizational practices, management has the reputation for what can be interpreted as adhering to policy. This form of management is becoming more and more obsolete and this is especially because citizens and consumers are losing trust in management within organizations in general. The rhetoric that is found in this old style of leadership is simply not enough nowadays and if a manager is thought of as a leader, should they not have the opportunity to do simply that? If managers are thought of as leaders, they should be able to use their own intuition and ideas to make their organization better for the entirety and not just for the boss in the next rung above themselves.

The management strategy of the past is no longer enough for the high expectations of consumers who are looking for what organizations have been trying to deliver since day one...value! The fact that managers undergo rigorous training and practice means that they should be able to make decisions with their own mind through the use of innovation and common sense, just to be blunt. The idea of trust and accountability is becoming much more relevant to today's organizations where transparency is a must and thinking outside the box is something much needed in order to protect those involved in the "in" group. Leaders need to be able to use their own ideas for the better of the entire organizations and adapt new ways of thinking in order to gain a competitive edge. Management needs to create new ways of thinking and sculpt their actual intentions around creating a better organization. This task for management in the years to come is paramount to a better society and economy and may even involve acting first and asking later, but if this is what it takes to make the organization better, more power to management.

A much more thorough and formal structure for managing organizations in the years to come can be found at the Wall Street Journal website under the following link:
http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2011/02/17/inventing-management-20/

Posted by: Mike Magaruh

Reaching the Pinnacle of Success and Lending a Helping Hand to Society

A leader in corporate and product innovation, Microsoft essentially helped pave the way for computer technology on a global scale.  The founder of the company is the current Chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates, who is recognized by many for his ingenious mind and as one of the wealthiest people in the world.  Bill Gates is a Harvard dropout who left college because he wanted to concentrate more of his efforts to his business of Microsoft with childhood friend Paul Allen.  Bill Gates made this drastic life change, which he obviously benefited from, because he had the vision to see computers as being a valuable asset for future society.  Gates was then able to translate this vision into his company of Microsoft by implementing dynamic organizational behavior and strategy.  This corporate strategy and objectives have obviously has been working as Microsoft reported net revenue of 19.95 billion dollars at the end of the last quarter.  The decision to drop out of college has proven to a success as Gates and Paul Allen established a solid organizational structure for the company’s objectives and behavior.

Microsoft’s mission under the influential leadership of Bill Gates has been to advance and improve software technology by making it easier, more cost-effective and enjoyable for people to use computers.  Over the years Microsoft has been able to achieve many organizational strategies because of the development of innovative products by following the listed organizational objectives which were established by Bill Gates.  Many of the objectives and strategies, along with issues he faced while trying to meet these goals at Microsoft are discussed in his book titled “Business @ the Speed of Thought.”  The company has also differentiated itself since the early days of selling BASIC and MS-DOS computer systems as Microsoft products can be found in several different areas of the technology sector.  Gates decided there would be consumer demand for products outside of computers, so Microsoft then launched its browser Internet Explorer, video game system X-BOX, along with software such as Microsoft Office or Windows Vista.  As Microsoft diversified its product base, Gates then centralized himself at the top of the company and implemented a tall structure organizational structure.  Below him separate departments, such as X-BOX or Windows Vista, work hand in hand with one another in order to meet the customer satisfactions criteria established by Bill Gates.  Microsoft employees are expected to have the general mental ability for the job they are assigned, dress to company code, and interact amongst each other accordingly.  In Microsoft employees are encouraged to openly discuss ideas with managers whom transfer the information up the tall structure chain before thoughts are turned into products.  This system has proven to work as employees feel motivated to openly discuss ideas, because they are typically rewarded extrinsically with stock options and other benefit packages.  Bill Gates has found exponential success for his company by establishing a solid organizational structure, and allowing employees to coordinate ideas amongst one another as guided by his overall company mission.

Bill Gates has found great success to come with vast responsibility as he has up and quit his job as Microsoft CEO to commit to his foundation full-time.  However, he is still a great part of the company as he holds the high ranking title of Chairman and Chief Software Architect, although he has found a greater calling in his foundation.  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is geared towards helping all people lead healthy, productive lives with the belief that every life has equal value.  You can read more information about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation at:  http://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/Pages/foundation-fact-sheet.aspx.  Billions of dollars have been donated to the foundation from various sources, influential leaders such as Warren Buffet, and Bill Gates.  Bill Gates has even vowed to donate a great majority of his savings to foundations, while leaving some money for his family.  This demonstration of social responsibility only speaks volumes about the company that he has run for over thirty years.  The organizational behavior and corporate social responsibility of Microsoft is only on par with the leader who dropped out of college to create the vision for a company which continues to innovate in a highly competitive field.  In a time which CEO’s seek immense power through corrupt behavior in recent scandals, such as AIG or even Enron, Bills Gates has demonstrated there are still influential and ethical leaders in the business world. 

Are there any other leaders of change that you can think of who have demonstrated influential social responsibility?  Do you believe that Bill Gates may start a trend of leaders being more involved with the well being of society as a whole?
-Zach Seibel

The Secrets of Steve Jobs Success and Leadership Abilities

Believe it or not Steve Jobs wasn’t a computer genius. He was just someone who knew how to be a success in the business world. Steve Jobs the CEO of Apple was a man of great knowledge. He knew what people wanted without even interacting with them. Jobs had a great mind when it came to hiring employees that he could trust to run and operate his company even when he was gone. This allowed Steve Jobs to start Pixar and NeXt, which were both very successful. Pixar was acquired by Disney and NeXt by his own Apple Computers Inc. Under Steve Jobs Apple Inc. became a force in the technological business world.

The two main lessons of leadership that Steve Jobs lives by are Persistence and Innovation. Jobs say you must never give up in whatever you do in life. If you want it bad enough it will happen and you will succeed. There will be obstacles that you face but you must overcome those to be a success. Steve Jobs gives me the confidence if I work hard and keep at it I will eventually accomplish my goals no matter how big or small they are. You also must think critically and be innovative to move up in this world. You must apply ideas to the mission you seek in life.

Do you believe you have what it takes to be the next Steve Jobs? Why or why not?

http://www.leadership-with-you.com/steve-jobs-leadership.html

How did Steve Jobs know what people wanted? Through these four secrets of innovation: Put a Dent in the Universe,  Sell Dreams Not Products, Say No to 1,000 Things, and Create Insanely Great Experiences. It wasn’t through interaction with the customer. You might think that this is strange but true. The best focus group one can have according to Jobs is your employees in your company. “We figure out what we want.” No customer really knows what they want. The customer just knows they want something better. Steve Jobs relies a lot on the people he hires. They must be creative and be able to think critically. There are a billion of things to do with technology. You must stay focused on certain things you must not say yes to everything. This is what allows Apple to be very good at the technological advances they provide. Most people want to know what they can do with the product there going to buy therefore apple shows them.

Steve Jobs has his own way of being a leader and it worked for him. There are numerous ways in which one can be a successful leader. If there is only one thing that I could take from Steve Jobs it would be that he believes in his own way of doing things and knows how to say no to people. In a position of authority you must have the ability and strength to say no to people. This may be a hard thing to do but if you learn this skill it will be helpful to you as a leader. You should listen to other people’s thoughts and feelings but don’t feel obligated to put their ideas into action if it doesn’t suit your overall mission.

Do you have a leader in your life? If so what kind of leader would you consider them?

If you work in a job currently would you consider your boss a leader? Why or why not?

http://www.thepracticeofleadership.net/2010/09/26/4-innovation-secrets-of-steve-jobs/ 

 Posted by: Mitchell Terry

A New Innovative Organizational Structure by Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin

It’s hard to think of a company that has experienced more success in the past 10 years than Google. What started out as a student project by two Stanford graduates turned into one of the most recognizable companies of all time. The two masterminds behind the relatively simple, yet very profitable idea of the Google search engine were the founders of the company, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. These two men organized their company in a very unique and unconventional way compared to other similar companies in the industry. The organizational behavior in effect currently at Google is completely opposite of the way the company was ran when it started out with 10 employees working in a garage together in Palo Alto. Although the way Larry Page and Sergey Brin decide to run their company is vastly different from similar companies in the industry, it does not mean that the way they run their company is necessarily wrong. In fact, their search engine is the most frequently used on the internet with 1 billion searches per day and their stock has grown exponentially in the last 10 years. Before I get into the details of the organizational behavior apparent at Google I would like you to watch this short video from the Today show that I included to give you a better visual aspect of what it is like to work at Google:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6h-gm01Fb0&feature=related

After watching the video it is apparent that Larry Page and Sergey Brin truly want to show their employees that they are important to the company. While all the extra benefits, such as free gourmet meals may cost the company quite a bit in the short run the hopes of these extravagant benefits is a boost in employee performance in the long run. From the success of the company it would seem that this notion is correct. Many of the employees explain that they are happy to do almost anything for the company. The company offers other services such as healthcare and daycare services to try to eliminate all potential distractions the employees might experience. While many organizational behavior experts have found a low correlation between positive work attitudes and higher performance from employees, this does not seem to hold true at Google. Since Google is a very innovative, professional career field the link between positive work attitudes is more apparent than it would be in manual labor industries where the equipment may act as a constraint to increased productivity and performance. One thing that is definitely apparent is that employees have an increase in organizational citizenship behaviors from the great perks Google offers its employees. By offering their employees such a wide variety of benefits it helps motivate the employees to help others around them.

The expected high rate of organizational citizenship behavior from Google employees is in part from the way Page and Brin decided to set up the organizational structure of the company. Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided to implement a very flat level of hierarchy in which top level management is only one step up from lower level employees. The company doesn’t concentrate on a hierarchy, but rather decides to organize into small, creative teams. In these small teams individual projects are worked on and project leaders of the teams change with nearly every new project. The members of these teams are also quite different because of the diverse makeup of Google’s employees. Google’s employees range from former CEO’s, neurosurgeons, wrestlers and even marines. The diversity of the company’s employees is what helps the company in building new innovative products and interacting so successfully in the small teams. A company such as Google strives on coming out with new innovative products and the owners of the company were so adamant in helping spark employee product development that they gave their employees 20% of their work time on self directed projects.

Do you agree with the unique way that Google’s owners Larry Page and Sergey Brin set up their company’s organizational structure? Do you see any potential problems that could arise from the way the Google Corporation is set up? In my upcoming posts I will go into greater depth regarding my opinion on some of the potential problems that Google may experience. I will also take a look at some of the other company owners that have implemented similar working environments and have experienced parallel success. I also look forward to hearing your opinions and thoughts on the subject.  Please post your comments on this issue below and feel free to bring up new arguments as well.

-Jason Dangles-

The Corruption of Enron and Jeffery Skilling the CEO

One of the worst scandals in American history was Enron. It seemed as though the company was running smoothly. It was making an enormous amount of profit and the stock just keep rising, at one point it was priced at $83.13. It seemed as though Enron was doing everything right. But this wasn’t the case Enron was modifying their balance sheet to show a favorable profit when they were slowly going down the tubes. Jeffery Skilling was one of the secret minds behind these corrupt actions. In May 2006 Skilling was convicted of 19 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, and insider trading and lying to auditors. The following is an article about Skilling’s appeal of charges of honest services. Honest services fraud is a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the "intangible right of honest services." Included under the concept are schemes to deprive the people or the government of the right to have public officials perform their duties honestly.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2010/06/enron_case_revisited

I found this article to be quite interesting. I feel that the Supreme Court made the right chose of convicting Skilling, the former CEO of Enron of honest services fraud. I hope that they end up not overruling their decision. I say this because Jeffery Skilling knew their true financial situation and he hid all that information from the shareholders and employees. He also was an advocate in addressing to the public that Enron was doing great and you should buy stock in it. Jeff Skilling wasn’t honest to the community. He lied to all those people that trusted in his judgment. He should have known better therefore I believe that he shouldn’t get this charge dropped.

What do all of you think of the ruling to revisit this case? Do you believe that Skilling has an agreement or not?

Enron was an ethical scandal that will never be forgotten. The ethics that Enron broke were there were purely executive in nature; there was lack of integrity, responsibility, creativity and control. The employees of Enron wanted to grow with the company; therefore they were willing to look over some signs that seemed to be questionable. The Ethics of the company always begins at the top, the CEO Skilling. Enron had poor judgment and committed out right illegal behavior. Enron showed profit on their financial sheets as they were going into bankruptcy. The poor ethics committed by Enron lead the government to put in place the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

-Mitchell Terry

Introducing: Jim Goodnight (SAS)

I would like to introduce the first member of our All-Star OB team. OB of course refers to Organizational Behavior, the meat and potatoes of this course. His name is Jim Goodnight. He is the founder of a company called Statistical Analytical Software (SAS). As the name suggests, the company is heavily involved in the technology industry. However, Jim does not run his company as a bland, uninteresting mass of tech developers. He has injected life and creativity into his workforce. He offers his employees a great deal of perks and benefits. I could not do the company justice by describing them all in one post. Therefore, I will be making multiple entries that highlight a particular aspect of SAS’s employment policies. But as the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. So if you don’t mind, please click on the following link. It’s only six minutes long and you will have a great foundation for further discussions of SAS. Apologies for the short commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtANL3MMjPs&feature=related

Can this be real? Set your hours at your convenience, 35 hour work weeks, a full recreation center, a personal masseuse and a hair salon, all while relaxing to a serenade from a professional pianist at lunch? No, this isn’t the “real world” we have been warned about for our whole lives. Coworkers don’t actually care about each other and employers certainly don’t care about their underlings. Or do they? To begin interpreting this, we need to look at the source: Jim Goodnight.

There are two very broad and basic schools of thought when dealing with leadership behaviors: task oriented leadership and people oriented leadership. Task oriented leaders give very specific instructions and goals to employees. The employee’s ability to carry out these orders determines the success of the group. On the other hand, people oriented leaders take a more personal approach. These leaders show genuine concern for their employees’ feelings. This type of leadership is marked with a distinct level of respect that is given from the employer to the employee. Jim fits the latter category perfectly. While he is concerned with the financial success of the company, he entrusts the success of the company to his employees. He believes that if his employees are happy, they in turn will make the customers happy. And when the customer is happy, everyone wins.  He has exerted considerable effort to make his employees feel at home while at work. From the outside in, it doesn’t look like home at all. It looks more like a vacation.

It is important to keep one thing in mind as we continue to talk about SAS: every employee at SAS is a salaried employee. Not one single job at SAS is outsourced. Gardeners, cafeteria workers, daycare providers, and even the company’s “professional artist” (whose sole responsibilities are the creation of paintings, sculptures, and other works of art) each draw a salary and are eligible for all benefits. Janitorial workers have the same health plans as senior managers and “lunch ladies” have full access to the gym. Everything is available to everyone.

Jim Goodnight has clearly challenged the status quo of the business world. By offering his employees so many benefits, he has significantly raised the cost of doing business. Medical expenses will be paid to a large number of people, someone has to pay for the buildings that have been built for the employees, and countless hours of productivity have been lost. Goodnight could be one of the most fiscally irresponsible leaders in history. Or is he one of the smartest leaders in history? Employee retention is astronomical and voluntary turnover is scraping the bottom of the ocean floor. How many dollars are saved by avoiding recruiting and training expenses? Actual occurrences of health expenditures may be low because of the personal trainers, physical therapists, and fitness centers on site. Is the cost worth it? Conventional business leaders may not be able to justify such a large outlay for employees because it would take a long time to recoup the invested capital. What do you think, is Jim delusional or is he a visionary?

Over the next couple weeks, we will look at what makes Jim Goodnight an impact player in the world of business.  In my next post, I will continue to investigate what sets Jim apart from the pack. Specifically, I will tell you why Mr. Goodnight is a transformational leader. I will reveal more special perks made available to SAS employees and discuss how these benefits affect the workforce’s morale and motivation.

-Jarek Palmer