EVC Lines Up Dan Snyder as Luncheon Keynote for November 12 Conference
Dan Snyder - From a College Dropout to Billionaire Owner of Washington Redskins
Mehul Nariyawala
Issue date: 10/28/04 Section: GSB News
In fact, Drasner took to calling Snyder the "Timex" as in "takes a licking and keeps on ticking."
"He had hit a dead end. But I thought he had the talent, so we continued to back him," Zuckerman said. A decade later, Zuckerman's $3 million wager on Snyder has been repaid a hundredfold.
Snyder, in turn, credits Zuckerman for making him "suffer."
"The only way to succeed when you're understaffed and undercapitalized and under-everything is just to work your brains out. There's a theory: "Keep on trucking". It's not from Harvard Business School, but it's from the school of hard knocks, which is what I'm from" Snyder said.
Snyder's success owes much to his sheer will to persevere. Snyder immersed himself in the details of consumer demographics and marketing trends to make sure that Snyder Communication did not suffer the same fate as his last venture.
His company began by hanging targeted advertising messages in doctors' offices and moved on, for example, to distributing Pampers to maternity clinics, selling AT&T long-distance service to homesick immigrants and marketing Prozac for Bristol-Myers Squibb using Snyder's own sales force.
By concentrating his telemarketing operation on non-English- speaking immigrants, he carved out a valuable niche in the sale of long-distance services for AT&T, and the company's payments to Snyder escalated from $1.7 million in 1994 to $25 million the next year.
Seeing a speed-up in the regulatory approval of new drugs, he acquired companies whose sales staff could help drug companies flood the market with powerhouse new medications. Today, more than 40 percent of Snyder's revenue comes from health care and pharmaceuticals.
To execute his strategies, he built Snyder Communication around his no nonsense, step-up or step-out, hard-nosed, and focused working style. He was always very direct and very fair.
Eventually he sold Snyder Communication for $2.3 billion to focus on running the team that he had loved since childhood.
In 1999, at the age of 34, Snyder bought Washington Redskins for $800 million, and became the youngest owner in National Football League. He applied his marketing prowess to Redskins, and, instantly, turned into to most profitable business amongst American sports franchises.
Attend the 6th annual Willis Stein Entrepreneurial Edge Conference on Friday, November 12 at Navy Pier to hear Daniel Snyder tell his experience in becoming "one of the great entrepreneurs."
Author's Note: This article is compiled from an excerpt of articles written in The Washington Post by Peter Behr, Saundra Torry, and Michael Leahy
"He had hit a dead end. But I thought he had the talent, so we continued to back him," Zuckerman said. A decade later, Zuckerman's $3 million wager on Snyder has been repaid a hundredfold.
Snyder, in turn, credits Zuckerman for making him "suffer."
"The only way to succeed when you're understaffed and undercapitalized and under-everything is just to work your brains out. There's a theory: "Keep on trucking". It's not from Harvard Business School, but it's from the school of hard knocks, which is what I'm from" Snyder said.
Snyder's success owes much to his sheer will to persevere. Snyder immersed himself in the details of consumer demographics and marketing trends to make sure that Snyder Communication did not suffer the same fate as his last venture.
His company began by hanging targeted advertising messages in doctors' offices and moved on, for example, to distributing Pampers to maternity clinics, selling AT&T long-distance service to homesick immigrants and marketing Prozac for Bristol-Myers Squibb using Snyder's own sales force.
By concentrating his telemarketing operation on non-English- speaking immigrants, he carved out a valuable niche in the sale of long-distance services for AT&T, and the company's payments to Snyder escalated from $1.7 million in 1994 to $25 million the next year.
Seeing a speed-up in the regulatory approval of new drugs, he acquired companies whose sales staff could help drug companies flood the market with powerhouse new medications. Today, more than 40 percent of Snyder's revenue comes from health care and pharmaceuticals.
To execute his strategies, he built Snyder Communication around his no nonsense, step-up or step-out, hard-nosed, and focused working style. He was always very direct and very fair.
Eventually he sold Snyder Communication for $2.3 billion to focus on running the team that he had loved since childhood.
In 1999, at the age of 34, Snyder bought Washington Redskins for $800 million, and became the youngest owner in National Football League. He applied his marketing prowess to Redskins, and, instantly, turned into to most profitable business amongst American sports franchises.
Attend the 6th annual Willis Stein Entrepreneurial Edge Conference on Friday, November 12 at Navy Pier to hear Daniel Snyder tell his experience in becoming "one of the great entrepreneurs."
Author's Note: This article is compiled from an excerpt of articles written in The Washington Post by Peter Behr, Saundra Torry, and Michael Leahy