Fortune just released their 2010 list of the "Top 100 Companies to Work For" and I was pleased to see that SAS Institute tops the list this year. In large, part, I was pleased because -- as I have used SAS as an extreme and successful example of putting people first -- one of the critiques I often hear form executives and students is "it works for now, but it doesn't seem sustainable." Well, they have kept their commitment to people through the best times (when the lure of getting rich quick challenged their model during dotcom boom) and now through the meltdown. Nothing lasts forever, but you have to give CEO Jim Goodnight a lot of credit for keeping things rolling. And his firm also presents a compelling case that going public isn't always a great thing.
Speaking of privately held companies, I was even more delighted to see that Robert W. Baird moved-up from #14 to #11. I have blogged about them in fairly massive detail -- see here and here. And I pleased to see that they have continued to do well financially during the downturn and still tout their no asshole rule! As Fortune reports:
Rank: 11 (Previous rank: 14)
What makes it so great?
Congratulations to CEO Paul Purcell and his colleagues. I remember, when I interviewed him a couple years ago after the first time they appeared on the list (at #39 in 2008), I asked Paul what kinds of jerks he especially tries to screen out -- to get at how he defines a workplace asshole. He said the most toxic people were those who consistently put their own needs and wants ahead of their colleagues and the company. Unfortunately to many firms on Wall Street reward exactly those kinds of people -- see how things at least used to be at Merrill Lynch in this article by the Heath Brothers. I wonder, as all those Wall Street firms insist paying big bonuses to top performers -- what kind of behavior are they rewarding? The stars who stomp on others on the way to the top -- or the one's who help everyone around them succeed.
I don't know about you, but I've got a feeling that a lot those firms we bailed-out are handing wads of cash and stock to their selfish superstars.
I couldn't agree more and just wrote a post on the difficulty of paying for performance in a way that encourages self-sacrifice: http://compforce.typepad.com/compensation_cafe/2010/01/what-can-we-learn-about-rewards-from-a-company-with-no-rewards.html
Posted by: Laura Schroeder | January 21, 2010 at 11:59 PM