(Live blog entry from Cary, North Carolina) “The employee-company relationship – this is the thing we do very, very well at SAS,” says Jim Davis, SVP & Chief Marketing Officer of SAS (delivering his keynote “Faster than a speeding bullet” at Ragan’s “Corporate Communications in a Web 2.0 World” conference”). “You have to think about your employees as your most important and valuable asset.”

Business analytics / business intelligence leader SAS is an incredible success story that owes its success to many factors, not the least of which is its employees:

• Profitable every year since 1976
• Revenue growth every year since 1976
• 10,000 employees, 44,000 customers
• 4,000 employees at headquarters in Cary, North Carolina
• Continually ranked by Fortune magazine as a top employer
• Average employee turnover is 4% (average in the software industry is 22%)
• Privately owned company – at SAS we don’t care what we say
• Don’t use outside agencies – all creative is done internally
• No technology is out-sourced – the people cutting the grass are employees
• Internal marketing team of over 1000

Employee tools at SAS:

• SAS Wide Web (intranet in multiple languages)
• Using SharePoint 2007 (MOSS)
• Employee Blogs
• Employee Wikis
• SAS Video portal (executive updates, podcasts, webcasts, town hall meetings)
• Two sound stages at SAS working every day

“People blog like crazy here now,” says Davis. Blogs are monitored and governed by an Employee Code of Ethics. In short, the blogging is self-policed. “Very few problems…” adds Davis. Training is also available including a program on “How to blog better.”

SAS encourages web use that is not necessarily directly related to the business: “I hate to hear companies that are blocking Facebook, YouTube and other sites…. It’s dumb! The only thing we block at SAS is porn!”

Four Critical Dimensions (Insight into change):
1- Human Capital
2- Knowledge Processes
3- Culture
4- Infrastructure
…
What’s next?

• “The data explosion – what are its sources and how can organizations cope?”
• “Is your organization ready for Generation Y?”
• “How are companies leveraging unstructured data?”
• “Is it technology or attitude?”
• “Web 3.0?” (speed and latency independent of the platform)

Davis cites Professor Deming: “It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” (W. Edwards Deming)

“Change is a must; we have to change,” says Davis.

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Editor’s note: SAS is a very progressive organization that is well worth watching (and reading about). I’ll be speaking in a little over an hour on “The latest and greatest in WCM: Trends, traps & tips.”

More to come…