In Other Words - SAS Senior VP and CMO Jim Davis talks about business, analytics and technology

I had a busy travel week recently. I attended the SAS Forum Netherlands, a CIO roundtable event and the SAS Forum Belux.

All were great events and it was especially good to see SAS customers participating at these forums. We learn so much from direct interaction with our customers and nothing will ever replace that.

The theme of SAS Forum Netherlands was sustainability. I think a lot of people thought the economic downturn killed sustainability initiatives, but that’s not true at all. That attitude is really more of a reflection of what the media pays attention to.

It turns out sustainability has two kinds of “legs.” The sustainability play when times are good revolves around doing what’s right for the environment and showing that your company cares, with the resource issues important, but secondary.

In a down economy the economic benefit of optimization of resources like power, fuel, etc. moves to the forefront. The focus is different, but the outcome is the same. Companies optimize their activities in ways they might have gotten around to doing anyway, but now they’re doing it under the banner of sustainability, which is different from previous downturns.

As we come out of the downturn, sustainability will become more a part of everyone’s core business. We’re already seeing that in requests for proposals we get from customers. People who are doing business with us want to see what we’re doing ourselves to be more sustainable.

Did the economic downturn slow down your company’s interest in sustainability? Do you see signs of it coming back?