Essentials of Business Analytics - Essay Example

?Topic Business leadership is one of the driving forces that lead a company to success and make it among thetop 10 companies of the year to work force, based on Fortune and CNN Money reports. This year, business analysts and experts named SAS.com as number 1company in business management as it stint in its 14th year as a veteran in software engineering that served across continents around the globe with 5,629 employees in United States and 3% job growth (CNNMoney, 2012). This paper aims to analytically explore SAS.com company and attempt to explicate the nature of its business management and corporate leadership in maintaining human resource satisfaction and in attaining its goals as an organization. SAS.com prided the impact of its business analytics in responding to global business management amid such confluence of opportunities and threats. Davis (2013) explained that business analytics is instrument to achieve objectives which transformed information as data to leverage in business competition. Admittedly, they have spent tremendous amount of obtaining invaluable assets and in developing storage or database to save essential uncovered insights as knowledge-base that can be useful, for instance, in social network analysis and in behavioural studies at multiple levels (Davis, 2013). This may include concerns on retail pricing, portfolio analysis, risks positions, banking or finance management, and the empirical demand of the market based on considered demography and customer needs (Davis, 2013). This expertise on business analytics is also provided as consultancy service to pharmaceuticals, industries, companies and institutions seeking expert consultancy on organizational capacity management (Davis, 2013). In a cursory look into the organization’s performance, it is driven to empower clients using advanced analytics for organizations to make use of its internal database to improve its competence, performance, financials, and its quest for meaningful innovative information (Davis, 2013). Through this, clients are inspired to make fact-based decision-making to generate great impact (SAS Inc., 2012). The company also partner with clients in all development process to ensure that they are able to generate maximum satisfaction of relevant services (SAS Inc., 2012). Such commitment target at getting shared outcome. The organization used creative capital for high performance analytics and client empowerment. This process is undertaken by optimizing technology in resolving problems on financial services, pharmaceutical market development, nurturing retail business opportunities, valuing customer relations, business risk management, optimizing information technology networks with cross-functional solutions via information management, analytics and business intelligence (SAS Inc., 2012). SAS services are rendered to 60,000 sites over 135 countries which include 90 of top companies of on the 2011 Fortune Global 500® list (SAS Inc., 2012). The company has been an avid service provider on customer intelligence, improving governance, IT performance management, retail and supply chain in the manufacturing industry, product marketing, pricing and packaging, banking, insurance, risk management, Saas, business analytics, business intelligence, performance management, communications, health and life sciences, data integration, information management, alliances and channels, and relations (SAS.com. 2013). As of these days, it has developed 903 companies in partnerships and alliances based on its online directory (SAS.com, 2013). The success of this organization is obviously attained because they have clear vision, mission, goals, and sustained good relationship with its clienteles. They see tangible results of the SAS’s software and services (SAS.com, 2013). Their systems are matched with mixture of transformational and transactional leadership that are applied in managing in its operation, in relating to customers, and in managing its human resources. CNNMoney (2012) reported that the organization maintain high retention of employees because it has offered the best perks and benefits that workers could certainly enjoy and couldn’t refuse. CNNMoney (2012) cited that workers of SAS.com enjoy “healthcare benefit, high quality childcare at $410/month, summer camps for kids, perks for salon and car cleaning, and they can enjoy the 66,000-square-foot state-of-the-art gym incomparably. Workers prefer to stay in SAS because they are cared, attended and seriously regarded (SAS.com, 2013). The company also practice corporate social responsibility while demonstrating its core values and achievements by extending services to community but focused on management in governance, education services, providing employees’ empowerment and extending its services for environmental causes (SAS.com, 2013). In demonstrating further its leadership to its clientele, the company provide data visualization for improved organizational decision-makings and focused analyses for information and collaboration using information technology. The company facilitate access to information and making this database ready for multiple users who are determined to optimize and scale up its system (SAS.com, 2013). The company showed that the management is able to exercise a combined theory of transformational and transactional approaches in business leadership as its human resource work in a fashion that reconcile conflicting forces and used scientific decisions to the best interest of its client organizations and to the society in general. The leaders obviously manifest strong motivational and intellectual stimulation to drive superior performance instead of using 'command and control' method. It maintained an open communication, great customer relation, ability to choose transformational change management, efficiency with effectiveness in the delivery of services, goal and outcome-oriented, collegial in relations with co-workers and resource sensitive in its dynamics (Xirasagar, 2008). Notwithstanding this rigorous process in business management, the company combined this with transactional approach in a sense that the company never forgets complying the requisites in business operations and in relating with agencies (Xirasagar, 2008). It is also sensitive to the fact that performance should be measured to drive superior performance and to motivate them attain ethically-inspired goals to transcend self-interest. Good performance is valued with rewards (Xirasagar, 2008). The company is likely to have inspired participation from its workers especially in decision-making. It is also possible that the company keep all staff informed in all matters that are affecting their works and responsibilities (Xirasagar, 2008). This is to boost their cooperation, team spirit and high morale in order to attain such desired organizational behaviour that inspires admiration, respect and trust. Company administrators work to foster the integration of company vision and values to its workers to stimulate their skills, abilities and intellect (Xirasagar, 2008). Of course, as workers are dealing with varied issues and concerns of clienteles, the company has continuously considered the significance of continuing mentoring, coaching, feedback system, and linking human resource’s needs to organization’s mission (Bass, 1990). On the other hand, while the company management is practicing transformational leadership, it also combined that system with transactional method of leadership because the organization is also concern of generating profit from services and to provide rewards to better performance (Xirasagar, 2008). Exceptional management require that leaders must be watchful on the behaviours of its human resources. As such, it can be said that the leaders have practiced transformational leadership in influencing the behaviour of its human resources to build such commitment attuned to the organization's vision and mission (Xirasagar, 2008). This emphasized the essentials of organization's mission and objectives and demonstrating this ability by articulating the holistic perspective for the successes of the organization (Xirasagar, 2008). This is because transformational leadership engender trust, loyalty and respect to its workers by (a) generating strong awareness and acceptance of the purpose and mission of the organization; (b) inducing to members the transcendence of their own self-interest for the sake of the organization; and (c) making more sense of their higher needs (Xirasagar, 2008). This inspires followers to enhance the meaningfulness of their work and making them more determined to do what is right from wrong and to partake necessary responsibility to enhance their meaningfulness within the organization. By actualizing all these, the organizations maintain credibility through higher performance, greater satisfaction, and by value-based commitment (Xirasagar, 2008). References CNNMoney (2012). 100 best companies to work for. Cable News Network: A Time Warner Company, http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2011/full_list/index.html Accessed: 11 January 2013. Davis, J. (2013). 8 Essentials of Business Analytics. Sas.com. SAS Institute, North Carolina, USA, pp. 27-28 http://www.sas.com/resources/asset/8Essentials_BusinessAnalytics_SpecialReport.pdf Accessed: 11 Jan. 2013. SAS.com (2013). About SAS: Poviding organizations with the Power to Known since 1979, North Carolina, USA, http://www.sas.com/company/about/index.html Accessed: 11 Jan. 2013. SAS.com (2013). Partner Directory, North Carolina, USA , p. 1 http://www.sas.com/ctx/partners/partlist.jsp?expert=®ion=&tier=&program=&cstIndex=-1&serviceIndex=-1&x=32&y=13. Accessed: 11 Jan. 2013. Xirasagar, S. (2008). Transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership among physician executives, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA., Journal of Health Organization and Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited Vol. 22 No. 6, pp. 599-613. Read More