If it weren't for Jim Goodnight's PhD in statistics, the CEO and founder of SAS would not have made the company's first-year revenue of US$138,000. It's no wonder then that Goodnight is outspoken on education reform.
But Goodnight says his passion lies in reforming secondary education, not limited to but particularly in the US. According to Goodnight, in the US, one-third of secondary students enter the workforce without a high school diploma.
He is a firm believer in integrating technology into all facets of secondary education. According to Goodnight, a member of the International Advisory Panel for Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor, he has told Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that such an education would be important as Malaysia develops its human capital. In fact, in 1996, together with his wife Ann, Goodnight co-established Cary Academy, an independent college preparatory school that leverages on technology.
"Today's kids, look at how many of them are using cellphones, iPods, the Internet, instant messenger and SMSes. We have the highest level of technical kids we've ever had. But when they go to school, they leave all that at home and there's only the teacher and the blackboard.
"As adults, it's our responsibility to make sure all of the generations are educated but we're failing all over the world because the kids are bored. Because the education is exactly the same as when we were growing up, it hasn't changed the way kids have," he said.
When it comes to developing human capital, SAS has launched two academic-related programmes in response to Malaysia's call to further develop the nation's knowledge-based economy.
The first is the SAS Certification Programme, which provides executives and graduates an opportunity to validate their SAS software skills and enhance their credibility as technical professionals with relevant industry knowledge. The second is the SAS Smart Placement Portal, an easy-to-use job portal designed to connect SAS-trained graduates with organisations using SAS software.
"We have to make sure they get jobs, so we have a SAS portal for employment so everybody that is going through college can register and employers can look for them there. We'll certainly be looking at some names, especially the people who are doing the certification," Goodnight says.