The Financial Post has an interview with Jim Goodnight the founder and chief executive of SAS Institute. In this interview, Goodnight claims that Tough times are good times for analytics because companies try and improve their internal operations and get help to optimize the way theyre doing things.
"'Tough times are good times for analytics,' Mr. Goodnight said in an exclusive interview with the Financial Post during a recent marketing event in the heart of Ontarios cottage country.
"'In difficult times, companies turn to us to try and improve their internal operations, to see if we can help optimize the way theyre doing things. Of course, in the hard times, theyre also trying to get the most out of their marketing spend and advertising dollars, so they tend to want to use more analytics to help them make the right decisions.'
"While his name may evoke images of a James Bond villain, having a conversation with the soft-spoken 67-year-old software mogul makes one feel as though you are listening to the stories and lectures of a kindly, but stern, grandfather.
"Since founding SAS in 1976, Mr. Goodnight has watched as the advanced analytics software his company specializes in migrated from university research labs to the boardrooms of the worlds largest multinational organizations."