CASE STUDY: 04 PRN NO.

1152190163

Entrepreneurship Development
Name: Aarya Jadhav
Class: SY BSc Economics

Introduction:
SAS Institutes was founded by Goodnight and Barr in partnership with Sall and
Helwig in 1976. Since, the world was fascinated by the blooming technology,
their business grew at rapid pace. The three partners left the company taking
their share and the entire responsibility was put upon Goodnight. Soon the
company started expanding overseas and within no time, SAS had spread
across 29 countries with 3 million customers using its products by 1994.
The company was prominently showcasing a profitable functioning which was
mainly due to its work culture and understanding the necessities of its
employees. During the 2009 economic crises, SAS supported its employees in
ways like no other which motivated them to work hard in favour of the
company.

Entrepreneurial skills showcased by Goodnight:

 Created Dynamic work culture
 Hire aspiring and talented employees
 Empowered and Encourage Employees to do better by balancing work
and family life.
  Gave Incentives to Employees such as
groceries, parties, picnics etc.
 Made It Safe to Share Ideas as there
were no set rules and employees could
explore any idea they want.
 Created community through social
handles to give employees voice.
 Empathetic during the 2009 crises,
understood employees’ condition and
did not lay them off.
 Managed finances effectively, such that
no looses were made even during crises.
 Transferred values by writing books and being a speaker.

Q1) The COVID situation today is worsening more and more even compared to
the previous year. The second wave has impacted India in drastically with
many big businesses laying off and small businesses shutting down
permanently. Similar conditions were observed during the Global financial
crises of 2008-09. If I were a consultant to advice firms how to tackle the
situation effectively, firstly let’s understand how SAS tackled a similar situation
and how firms today are reacting to the crises.

SAS 2008-09 firms 2020-21

1 Did not announce any layoffs Massive layoffs to cut down costs
No reduction in the benefit packages
2 No employee benefits given
offered to employees.
No job security and reckless firing of
3 Job security during the recession period
employees
Cost cuts through no new recruitment Cost cuts through layoffs and
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for time period converging business expansions
Cutting unnecessary expenses such as Cutting all expenses except utterly
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travel etc. necessary.
Committed employees and remarkable No committed employees resulting in
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profits in recession huge losses and shut downs.

Comparing how SAS responded to the recession to how firms today are
responding, I would like to suggest the companies to:
  Explore other markets which are not worse off from the Pandemic such
as Australia, New Zealand etc.
 Short term losses for long term benefits: hold on to the talented human
capital even if it would incur loss in the short-term, it will pool in great
profits in the long run.
 Explore potential products to diversify according to requirements of the
hour by entering into other sectors which are doing better in the
recession for reducing short term losses.
 Cut on unnecessary expenses but make sure the work culture and
employees are not at worse off doing so.

Q2) Suggestions to the management team at SAS would be:

 To provide benefits to families of employees like Google does by

providing them school scholarships and medical coverage also,
retirement benefits and casualty benefits etc.
 Giving employees a part company ownership to give them a sense of
responsibility and make them work harder for its betterment.
 To open up for product diversification such as production of hardware
components which will better their software functioning etc. to increase
revenue or manage finances.