Steven Snyder

Infobox Person
name = Steven Snyder

---

caption = Photo by David Sherman
birth_date = birth date and age|1954|11|22
birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
occupation = Management Consultant, Snyder Leadership
networth =
spouse = Sherry Stern
children = One
website = [http://www.snyderleadership.com/ Snyder Leadership]
footnotes =

Steven Snyder (born 22 November, 1954) is a notable figure in high technology management. He was an early employee of Microsoft where he was Microsoft's first business unit general manager, leading the Development Tool Business. He was also founding CEO of Net Perceptions, a leading company in recommender systems during the late 1990s.

Early life

Steven Snyder was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Heearned a B.S. in Mathematics from Drexel University and a M.B.A. from
Harvard. He then consulted at Touche Ross & Co.

Microsoft

Snyder joined Microsoft in 1983, and was maderesponsible for turning around the relationship with IBM,which had been faltering over the delivery of an operating system thatcould work with the networking features of the upcoming IBM PC-ATcomputer Harv |Manes|Andrews|1993|p=267. The problem was that as of1983 Microsoft was slipping behind on its delivery schedule and wasdelaying the release of the AT badly. After delivering the newsto IBM on a tough phone call, Snyder and his team got the projectback on schedule and saved the relationship with IBM, which wascrucial to Microsoft at that time in its history Harv |Gates|1984.

Snyder was then promoted to be the first general manager in Microsoft history,with responsibility for the Development Tool Business, helping developthe products into industry leaders, as evidenced by winning the PCMagazine annual awards competition two years in a row Harv |PC Magazine|1987.

Personnel Decisions International

After leaving Microsoft in 1988 Snyder joined the Ph.D. program inPsychology at the University of Minnesota. His thesis was [http://coachsci.sdsu.edu/csa/vol35/snyder.htm Task Strategy Development during Transition to Self-Managing Work Teams] .

While working on his dissertation at Minnesota, he consulted with acompany called [http://www.personneldecisions.com/aboutus/index.asp Personnel Decisions International (PDI)] ,which helps companies develop the talent of their employees. At PDISnyder helped the company develop a computer-based coaching programthat would enable leaders to develop specific leadershipcompetencies. The product had an innovative user interface forpresenting the components of leadership development: assessment,a personalized development plan, and an everyday learning process.These ideas became the basis of a US patent, held by PDI Harv|Snyder|1995.

Net Perceptions

In April 1996 Snyder met members of the GroupLens Research group. He quickly saw the commercial potential for their technology, known as collaborative filtering, a formof recommender system, and discussed the possibility of forming a company around the technology. Snyder argued that a research group from MIT had formed a companyin 1995 that was already commercializing collaborative filtering, andthat the window of opportunity was closing. (The MIT company would laterbecome Firefly). Theteam of Snyder, Brad Miller, John Riedl, Joe Konstan, and DavidGardiner founded Net Perceptions in May 1996, and licensed the technologyfrom the University of Minnesota in June 1996. Soon after theyreceived initial funding from Hummer Winblad Venture PartnersHarv |Hennes|2001.

Led by Snyder as CEO, Net Perceptions became a leading company forrecommender systems during the Internet boom through the late 90'sand early 2000s Harv |Dragan|2001. Net Perceptions had many ofthe leading Web companies as customers, and was very visible in theInternet food chain. In 2000, Steven Snyder, Brad Miller, and JohnRiedl received the World Technology Award in the Commerce categoryfor their contributions to E-Commerce, and NetPerceptions also received the MIT Sloan School E-Commerce Award forTechnology Innovation in May 1999 Harv |MIT News Office|1999.Among many other media interviews, Snyder participated an ABC Nightline show about Net Perceptions technology in Dec 1999 Harv |Krulwich|1999.

Business Ethics

When Snyder [http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/financial-performance/6056710-1.html stepped down] as CEO of Net Perceptions in 2001, he began a new career teaching,studying, and communicating about his vision for business ethics.Snyder has been teaching courses on business ethics at the Universityof Minnesota, and developing his ideas about sustainable businessleadership. His key idea is sustainability reporting, which he callstriple-bottom-line business accountability, in which traditionalbusiness reporting is expanded to include environmental and socialperformance in addition to economic performance. In January 2008,Snyder presented a [http://www.snyderleadership.com/media/pdf/JRDTataOration_1-9-08.pdf speech on his ideas] as the [http://www.coolavenues.com/bschools/080103/xlri-snyder-1.php Tata Oration] onBusiness Ethics at the XLRI School ofBusiness and Human Resource in India Harv |Cool Avenues|2008.

References

Citation
last=Cool Avenues
first =
month=January
year=2008
publication-date = January 2008
title = Steven Snyder to Deliver JRD Tata Ethics Oration at XLRI, Jamshedpur
url = http://www.coolavenues.com/bschools/080103/xlri-snyder-1.php
accessdate = February 2008

Citation
last = MIT News Office
first =
date = May 19, 1999
title = Firms honored at e-commerce awards
publisher = MIT
url = http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1999/ecomm-0519.html
accessdate = February 2008

Citation
last=Krulwich
first=Robert
date=December 10, 1999
year=1999
title = ABC Nightline: Soulmate
publisher = ABC
url = http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1999-Specials/special-1999-12-10-ABC-1.html
accessdate = February 2008

Citation
last = Dragan
first = Richard
author-link =
publication-date =
month = January
year = 2001
title = Net Perceptions for E-commerce 6.0
periodical = PC Magazine
series =
publication-place =
place =
publisher =
volume =
issue =
pages =
url = http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,107446,00.asp
issn =
doi =
oclc =
accessdate = January 2008

Citation
last = Hennes
first = Doug
author-link =
publication-date =
date = Winter, 2001
year = 2001
title = Always a Coach
periodical = St. Thomas Magazine
url = http://www.stthomas.edu/magazinearchive/showarticle.cfm?ArticleID=1007063115
accessdate =

Citation
inventor1-last = Snyder
inventor1-first = Steven
inventor2-last = Gebelein
inventor2-first = Susan
inventor3-last = Gardiner
inventor3-first = David
inventor4-last = Reinarz
inventor4-first = Jimmy
inventor5-last = Sorensen
inventor5-first = Per
inventor6-last = Langenfeld
inventor6-first = Joel
publication-date = Oct 4, 1995
issue-date = Mar 17, 1998
year = 1995
title = Window Screen for a Computer Display
country-code = US
description = Interface to a computer program for developing leadership in individuals
patent-number = D392266

Citation
last = PC Magazine
first =
author-link =
publication-date =
year = 1987
title = The 4th Annual Awards
periodical =
series =
publication-place =
place =
publisher =
volume =
issue =
pages =
url = http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2199970,00.asp
issn =
doi =
oclc =
accessdate =

Citation
last1=Manes
first1=Stephen
last2=Andrews
first2=Paul
title=Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry and Made Himself the Richest Man in America
publisher=Doubleday
place=New York
year=1993

Citation
last = Gates
first = Bill
author-link = Bill Gates
date = August 13, 1984
title = letter from Bill Gates to Steven Snyder
url = http://www.snyderleadership.com/media/pdf/Letter-From-BillGates.pdf
accessdate = 2008-01-17