Face value | Doing well by being rather nice | Economist.com

Interesting dare-to-be-different SAS profile

Mr Goodnight points out that it is not just the benefits that keep people at SAS—“it's the challenge of the work”. SAS is a leader in the field of “business intelligence”, which helps companies use data to understand their own businesses. It has continually increased its annual revenue, to around $1.9 billion in 2006, has always been profitable and has never borrowed a penny. Its success has made Mr Goodnight, now 64, the richest man in North Carolina, with a net worth of around $9 billion. SAS's products are used to perform analysis in data-intensive industries such as insurance, health care, banking and retailing. As other software has become increasingly commoditised, business intelligence has become a hot field. It has attracted the attention of giants such as SAP and IBM, both of which have recently acquired business-intelligence firms. (SAP bought Business Objects for $7 billion, and IBM paid $5 billion for Cognos.)

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Face value | Doing well by being rather nice | Economist.com