Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 20:55:12 +0000
From: Tom West
Subject: Jim Goodnight vs Jeff Starkweather
Jim Goodnight vs Jeff Starkweather
Jim Goodnight is a financial partner in the Preston Development Company, the developer of Chatham Park.
James “Jim” Goodnight (born January 6, 1943) is a businessman and software programmer. He co-founded SAS Institute as a faculty member of North Carolina State University in 1976. Since then he has been the CEO for more than three decades. His leadership style and the work environment he created at SAS, now a multi-billion dollar company, have been studied by other businesses and by academics.
Goodnight joined other faculty at North Carolina State in a research project to create a general purpose statistical analysis system (SAS) for analyzing agricultural data. The project was operated by a consortium of eight land-grant universities and funded primarily by the USDA. Goodnight along with another faculty member Anthony James Barr became project leaders for the development of the early version of SAS.[11] When the software had 100 customers in 1976, Goodnight and three others from the University left the college to form SAS Institute[12][13] in an office across the street.[5]
Goodnight remained CEO of SAS Institute for more than 35 years as the company grew from $138,000 its first year in business, to $420 million in 1993 and $2.43 billion by 2010. Under his leadership, the company grew each year. Goodnight became known for creating and defending SAS’ corporate culture, often described by the media as “utopian.”[9][17] He rejected acquisition offers and chose against going public to protect the company’s work environment.[2] Goodnight has maintained a flat organizational structure[18] with only 27 people who directly report to him.[19]
Goodnight at the World Economic Forum in Cologny, Geneva.
HSM Global described Goodnight’s leadership style in a framework of three pillars: “help employees do their best work by keeping them intellectually challenged and by removing distractions; Make managers responsible for sparking creativity; eliminate arbitrary distinctions between ‘suits’ and ‘creatives’; Engage customers as creative partners to help deliver superior products.”[20]
In 2004, Goodnight was named a Great American Business Leader by Harvard; that same year he was named one of America’s 25 Most Fascinating Entrepreneurs by Inc. Magazine. He has also been a frequent speaker and participant at the World Economic Forum.
Jeff Starkweather is the former leader of the Chatham Coalition hate group.
As the liberal Independent Weekly noted: “As the primary force behind the Chatham Coalition, Starkweather has become a lightning rod for divisiveness, engendering a political backlash to the coalition’s agenda. Additionally, his
tendency to embrace complex processes over efficient outcomes and to BROWBEAT those who don’t share his views detract from his potential to govern. With Chatham’s recent churn, what’s needed on the dais now are cool heads and the ability to compromise.”
How positive can your message be when you have to BROWBEAT people who disagree with you? How can you trust a leader of a Chatham Coalition hate group that became so unpopular that they had to disband?
The choice is simple.
Who would you rather deal with? Who is more likely to build up the future than tear it down?
SAS Founder Jim Goodnight, who puts his money where his mouth is or Jeff Starkweather, who basically just runs his mouth?