Steven Snyder to deliver JRD Tata Ethics Oration on Triple Bottom Line

Snyder will present his speech on January 9, 2008, at XLRI School of Business and Human Resources in Jamshedpur. Snyder will deliver a speech titled, Triple Bottom Line: Pathway to a 21st Century Business Paradigm. Triple-bottom-line business accountability, which is also gaining global recognition as sustainability reporting, is the practice of expanding traditional business reporting to take into account environmental and social performance in addition to financial results.

The annual oration is one of the most sought-after events on the schools calendar and is watched closely by business leaders. Past JRD Tata Oration lecturers include University of St. Thomas Business Ethics Professor Ken Goodpaster, and Peter Eileen, founder and chairman of Transparency International, the worlds leading organization fighting against corruption.

Each year our esteemed guest lecturer is carefully selected from the worlds foremost leaders on business ethics, said Fr E Abraham S.J ., director of XLRI. Dr. Snyder was chosen because he is an eminent leader known for his intelligence, enterprise, social and ethical concern.

Snyder began his acclaimed career after earning a bachelors degree in mathematics from Drexel University and a masters degree in business administration from the Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar. Snyder began corporate career at Microsoft where he secured the companys relationship with IBM and helped shape the history of the personal computer industry. He introduced organizational and process innovations that have become hallmarks of Microsofts strategy. As co-founder and CEO of Net Perceptions, Snyder successfully commercialized the groundbreaking technology, collaborative filtering, to enable the real-time personalized recommendations that have become central to the online shopping experience with Amazon.com. Snyder also teaches a masters-level business ethics course as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Minnesotas Carlson School of Management.

It is truly an honor to present as part of the JRD Tata Oration, said Steven Snyder. Sustainability reporting, or triple-bottom-line business accountability, is an emerging concept in India. But with the countrys rapidly growing economy, it is important to make sure businesses are accountable for the long-term impact they are having economically, socially and environmentally to ensure a strong future for India and its people.

The JRD Tata Oration on Business Ethics, which began in 1991, is supported by an endowment from Mr. JRD Tata of the Tata Group, Indias largest conglomerate company.