The Saic Solution: How We Built An $8 Billlion Employee-owned Technology Company

"I have known Dr. Beyster for more than four decades and have long admired him--as a scientist, a manager, and as a person. This book provides a rare glimpse of the inner workings of Dr. Beyster's highly effective business practices, and it is essential reading for anyone who hopes to build a business that makes a profit--and makes a difference."
--Melvin R. Laird U.S. Secretary of Defense (1969-73)Senior Counselor for National and International Affairs The Reader's Digest Association, Inc.

"The SAIC story needs to be told, and Robert Beyster is the one to tell it. It is a success story of technical innovation, entrepreneurship, employee ownership, and great business practices."
--William J. Perry U.S. Secretary of Defense (1994-1997)

"A must-read for those interested in improving productivity of their employees in a global economy. Dr. Beyster truly created large-scale employee ownership in the United States."
--B. R. Inman Admiral, U. S. Navy (Ret.)

"SAIC is the exemplar of the 'workers make value' modern business. "The SAIC Solution" is a valuable reminder that firms can be great by doing what is right, and offers lessons on how to do it. Boards of directors, CEOs, and shareholders: read this book and ask if your firm could do better operating the SAIC way."
--Dr. Richard Freeman Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics, Harvard University

"When the respected founders of today's leading high-tech companies were still in grammar school, J. Robert Beyster had already figured out that sharing ownership with employees would be a critical part of building a company where people worked together at solving problems in teams, backed with knowledge and research. This is a detailed, practical, and visionary description of the company that emerged, just as relevant to the current generation of entrepreneurs as to the next."
--Professor Joseph Blasi School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University

Can an employee-owned company succeed? Here is the inside story of one that thrived and grew to become a significant force in the nation's scientific and technical markets.

In 1969, Dr. J. Robert Beyster founded Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) with a unique vision of creating an employee-owned organization run according to 12 principles of success that encourage entrepreneurship and accountability. Today, SAIC has grown from a handful of scientists to over 43,000 employees-most of whom hold company equity-and more than $8 billion in annual revenue, a steadily rising stock price, and top rankings as a contractor to government and business organizations. In this book, Dr. Beyster tells the story of SAIC, and offers valuable lessons to entrepreneurs and managers on how to build a company in which loyalty to values goes hand in hand with success.

Dr. J. Robert Beyster (La Jolla, CA) is the founder of Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC). He served as CEO and chairman of the company for 35 years. Beyster continues to promote innovation and employee ownership through his Foundation for Enterprise Development and the Beyster Institute at the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego.

Peter Economy (La Jolla, CA) is Associate Editor of Leader to Leader, the award-winning publication for the Leader to Leader Institute, and a bestselling author of titles such as The Management Bible (0-471-70545-4) and Enterprising Nonprofits: A Toolkit for Social Entrepreneurs (0-471-39735-0).