That I had a world to do
Ere I could set up my rest,
Where to choose and choose the best.
Last night we heard from Paul Kenny and David Symonds on how to manage performance in Sales. The common theme was that you need to observe and give feedback on the behaviours that connect to customers, rather than simply rewarding results.
David went into more detail in the case of SAS, rated the best company to work for in the US by Fortune, contrasting it with his own previous experience of Oracle. SAS make statistical software for decision making, and David serves Retail clients like Tesco, where it is used to analyse the Clubcard data and make merchandising decisions; Waitrose, where it is used for forecasting and preventing stock outs; Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury and others.
SAS and Oracle are roughly the same age, but while Oracle is publically listed and grew rapidly through acquisition, SAS has remained private and grown mainly organically.The pressure of quarterly reporting to the markets drives heavy discounting at end of quarter and year in Oracle, while there is little discounting in SAS. Oracle spends around 12% of turnover on R&D while SAS spends 23%.
Interesting stuff for technology entrepreneurs trying to understand how to attract and retain the best people - and connect to customers around the world.
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