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A comment on Culture Change at Google. Parent comment

Re:Culture Change at Google by fuzztester on Friday January 19, 2024 @04:37AM (#39053485)
>I wonder if there's a way to prevent the growth at all costs that is demanded by the financial markets.

Many companies used to do that both in the US and other countries. Some probably still do.

SAS Institute (well-known maker of statistical and other software) did, for many years, last I checked. Don't know if they still are that way.

Update: Looks like they are:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAS_Institute

[ In July 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported that the semiconductor giant Broadcom was in talks to acquire SAS.[37] In a July 13, 2021 email, SAS CEO Jim Goodnight stated that the company was not for sale.[38] ]

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Re:Culture Change at Google by jasode on Friday January 19, 2024 @05:25AM (#39053793)
>I wonder if there's a way to prevent the growth at all costs that is demanded by the financial markets.

>>SAS Institute (well-known maker of statistical and other software) did, for many years, last I checked. Don't know if they still are that way. Update: Looks like they are:

No... SAS Institute actually wanted to go public earlier in 2020 and then 2024 but they've now pushed the timeline back again to 2025 because of market conditions: https://www.google.com/search?q=SAS+Institute+ipo+2025

Instead of a "no growth" philosophy, the founders Goodknight and Sall have been trying to spread the narrative about SAS's "recent growth" after losing money in 2020 so potential investors will be receptive to an IPO. : https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sas-charts-path-to-...

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Re:Culture Change at Google by Booourns on Friday January 19, 2024 @05:46PM (#39062401)
Part of the reason they are going public is Goodknight is getting up there in years and something about a succession plan.
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Re:Culture Change at Google by cool_dude85 on Friday January 19, 2024 @04:45AM (#39053530)
If SAS is the paragon of a company not pursuing growth at all costs, then maybe we do need to start looking at quarterly metrics. As a customer their business model sucks and they are doubling down on "either we're a solution for your whole enterprise or else."
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Re:Culture Change at Google by fuzztester on Friday January 19, 2024 @04:32PM (#39061488)
Why does their business model suck for you as a customer? Interested to know.
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Re:Culture Change at Google by cool_dude85 on Friday January 19, 2024 @06:43PM (#39062987)
Little capacity for code sharing and lack of reasonable tools to do so. That and the fact that newer statistical / ML techniques are extremely expensive mean that if you wanted to do e.g. a transformer you'd have to either pay out the nose or roll your own from scratch.

That and my department of about a dozen can't justify the cost to upgrade to their more enterprise focused, cloud ready new version Viya, but there's not really an upgrade path for 9.4 other than minor maintenance releases. Since no young new hires come in with SAS experience and the whole thing seems like a ticking clock, we decided just supporting Python for new development is a better plan.

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