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Star from '69 Founded in 1969, Science Applications International (SAIC) has built its business practice upon increasingly complex scientific and engineering contracts with the Department of Defense. SAIC has played a role in high-profile projects from the cleanup of Three Mile Island to the construction of the Hubble Space Telescope. Government contracts currently account for two thirds of SAIC's business, more than half of which is directly related to matters of national security. This level of involvment has placed SAIC sixth on Washington Technology's Top 100 list for 1998 of technology firms contracting services to the federal government. With over 150 locations, SAIC provides scientific and engineering services to major U.S. and foreign corporations. The company's current services include software development, computer system development and integration, tech support, and others. In 1999, SAIC climbed the ranks of the Fortune 500 list, coming in at number 313, up from 347 the year before. And on the Forbes Private 500 list, SAIC was ranked an impressive 23. Employee-owned What is most unique about SAIC is its ownership structure. The company's 38,000 employees control more than 90 percent of its stock, making SAIC the largest employee-owned high-tech outfit in the world. The stock is traded on its own internal exchange, only by company insiders (departing employees are required to sell their stock back to the company). SAIC believes that employee ownership results in better motivation, teamwork, and overall success. Already, SAIC has made more than 1,000 of its employees millionaires. 95 percent of current employees hold stock, as the company encourages all levels of employees to be involved in the running of the company. This structure has established itself as a sure thing, since in its 30-year history SAIC shares have been traded 104 times and they have only gone down twice; they dropped once after the market crashed in October 1987 and again at a time when business was doing exceptionally well. SAIC is now the largest employee-owned research and engineering company in the nation. New deals SAIC has based much of its success on its aggressive policy of acquiring other company's to increase growth. Recently, the company has averaged spending $200 million a year on acquisitions, with most deals under $50 million. Now, instead of just buying all the assets of smaller companies, SAIC also began purchasing larger companies, pieces of companies, and even taking over existing government and commercial contracts. In 1997 it acquired Bellcore, formerly known as Bell Communications Research. February 1999 saw the company purchase Oacis Healthcare Holdings Corp. in a deal worth an estimated $53 million. Other dealings include joint ventures with Rolls-Royce, the expansion of its Cleveland office, and a $10 million contract with the FBI to build a background check system for handgun buyers. Breaking the $50 million per deal rule, SAIC purchased Boeing Information Services Inc in July 1999 for an estimated $150 million. For the future, SAIC expects to be investing more in Internet and next-generation technology ventures.
At any one time, SAIC regularly has more than 1,500 open positions around the world. The company's employment site on the Web lists current openings by category and location. The site is updated regularly and offers applicants the opportunity to submit their resumes electronically - the method of resume submission that SAIC prefers. It also lists internship opportunities in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, Health Sciences, and Business Administration.
Entrepreneurial, to some SAIC's business "is set up essentially like a bunch of pseudo-independent smaller companies, tied together by the corporation." Reports one insider, "The experience you have is very dependent upon which of these 'divisions' you work for." To generalize across divisions, "the culture is very entrepreneurial in most places. SAIC was founded by technical people who wanted to grow the business and to do the work, and that very much still holds." Another insider remarks: "People move around within the company a lot, and anyone with a good idea is welcome to share it. If that person is capable as well, they get to promote, develop, and reap the benefits of the idea." Others are less impressed with the imprint that SAIC's origins have made: "The 'employee-owned' shibboleth that you will hear when interviewing means nothing." And according to one source, "Many younger staff here feel under-utilized - analysts with MAs being used as administrative assistants - and leave for positions where they will have more responsibility." Flexibility Most employees are more satisfied. Observes one source: "We joke sometimes that SAIC means Saturdays Are InCluded, but in general people keep to 40 hours or so, except in special cases when deadlines are approaching." Flex-time is "up to the individual managers." While the company's core hours are 8 to 5, many people come in anywhere from 6:30 to 9, and leave from 4:30 to 6, insiders say. One source says that the flexible hours don't affect the movers and shakers of the company since "the people who are most successful work the longest hours." Some measure of flexibility carries over to the dress code. "As management, I wear a tie every day," says an insider. "But many of the people who work for me just wear business casual attire. The coats and ties come out when we have to get in front of the client. In our division, Friday is casual day and blue jeans and tennis shoes are pervasive." Again, many aspects of the office culture vary from area to area. For instance, laments a source, "some perks that other portions of the company have, we don't. Friends I have in other divisions get multiple training courses in addition to the general benefits we all get."
Human Resources
Computer systems integration;Software development;Environmental studies;Electronic hardware development;
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