Communication is Key

Sitting on Edward Snyder’s desk is a “Day-Timer” from 1932, the year his parents married. It belonged to his father, the founder of Snyder Cohn, PC, a CPA firm committed to helping businesses in the D.C. metropolitan area flourish. The “Day-Timer” is a symbol of the kind of hard-working, forward-thinking, and pragmatic approach to business that has become a hallmark of the Snyder family. Eddie’s father, who married his mother on a Sunday in 1932 and was back in the office the next morning, recorded their wedding and every client meeting using initials rather than full names, protecting the privacy of those who trusted him long before HIPAA made it a requirement. He also meticulously recorded all expenditures and budgets, cognizant that how much money his company made was unimportant—what truly mattered was whether they were making more than they were spending.

“He was a natural-born leader who taught me tremendous organizational and business skills, and how to relate to people,” Eddie remarks today. “He taught me to always be building toward something and moving forward. And, perhaps most importantly, he taught me that communication is key. To me, the “Day-Timer” represents the culture that my father created and we work hard to instill in others today.”

While most young children think of school as the time where they learn the most, Eddie received his most valuable education not between the hours of nine in the morning and three in the afternoon, but instead in those early morning minutes on the drive to school. It was during those car rides that his father would impart the knowledge and wisdom that, later on, would prove more invaluable than anything Eddie learned in the classroom.

Beyond the simple joy of time together spent developing the bond between father and son, those early morning drives laid the core values of integrity, trust, and business acumen that form the backbone of Eddie’s work today. “I learned common sense concepts and how things happen,” Eddie remembers. “My father was one of seven children, and he was the leader, so I learned valuable leadership skills as well. By relaying his experiences to me and giving me the opportunity to relate to him, this wisdom and way of looking at the world was brought to life for me.”

Eddie is now the chairman of the CPA firm originally established in 1927. David E. Snyder had formed the firm out of necessity at age 22, after graduating from Benjamin Franklin University into a harsh job market where he couldn’t land a job. He wrote to friends and family declaring his intention to be a public accountant, and one by one, he picked up clients and referrals, slowly building the practice. Then, in the 1930s, he was struck with pleurisy, a lung disease that led him to the resolution that he would take on partners so his clients would never be left without service if he was incapacitated for some reason. He also formed the Society for Mutual Benefits for clients who couldn’t get loans to get through hard times during the Great Depression. Everyone in the society had to agree to consider cosigning a loan or lending money to any member in need, as long as there were two guarantors on the loan. In this way, members would lend money to one another. “My father always did what he could to help his clients, and Snyder Cohn continues in that same tradition today,” Eddie affirms.

The firm has stayed in the family for over 85 years, with Eddie working alongside his elder brother for at least fifty of them. Today, Snyder Cohn is comprised of seventy associates, a 40 percent increase since 1994, when Eddie became managing partner. With tax, outsource, and accounting and auditing divisions, the firm serves a wide range of industries that includes healthcare, food, hotel, retail, real estate, and the non-profit sectors. Snyder Cohn also works with individuals, either of high net-worth or private business owners. “Our primary focus is on entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations,” Eddie relays. “We’ve been paperless since 2008, and we’re extremely tech-savvy. Our tagline is, ‘ Supporting the life cycle of success.’”

Supporting the life cycle of success has become much more than a trademark of the company’s culture over the past several decades—even more, it is the heart and soul of the business’s day-to-day work and long-term vision. “We have experience and skill sets that fit a variety of businesses, and it’s extremely gratifying to apply them to a given situation and watch businesses and contributions to society flourish,” Eddie says. “I had a struggling client whom I helped by creating a simple financial plan. After coming up with a proactive strategy, they cut their staff by 40 percent, and a month later, they were profitable. We saved their business.” Trust and reliability are basic company values that the Snyder Cohn team weaves together with listening and learning, creating a winning approach to achieve real success.

Eddie’s natural affinity for accounting and proclivity toward entrepreneurship were cultivated consistently throughout his childhood, as his father was an accountant as well. It was perhaps his brother, however, who had the greatest impact on him. “When I was seven years old, he started hiring me to shine his shoes for a quarter,” Eddie laughs. “We went on to work together for 53 years.” His sister played quite a different role in his life, modeling a grace in how she carried herself. “She taught me how to play piano chords and was very beautiful,” he remembers. “The lessons I learned from both my siblings were integrated into my character to create a good balance between my work and personal life today.”

Eddie’s mother, as well, had a strong impact on his desire to simply help others. “She was always looking out for everybody and was a natural caretaker,” he remembers. “She was an impeccable homemaker and known as the best cook in town, infamous for her brownies and jello molds. She also got involved in cancer research.” Eddie inherited the helping gene from her, and it now forms the why behind all that he does with Snyder Cohn. “It’s so gratifying that people put their trust in us,” he affirms. “When surveyed, our clients report that they know we have their best interest at heart. The opportunity to help people is so rewarding, and it’s why I’m excited to come into work each day.”

Beyond the skills Eddie assimilated on those early drives to school, he and his brother also followed in their father’s footsteps by starting their own investment clubs at school. As did his brother, Eddie picked sixteen classmates, and the group began learning the ins and outs of finance and the investment world. They learned how to borrow money from a bank, invest, and pay it back. They learned about organizational structure and how to relate to others in a financial setting. They also had a president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary, which were rotated every six months so each member got the benefit of leadership experience.

With this unconventional immersion in accounting and finance, Eddie found himself fascinated with the concepts and began working at his father’s CPA firm at the age of 13, earning $5 a week in the summers and sharpening his skills. Every night, his father would have him add together digits from the phone book just to get extra practice, and Eddie had such a natural affinity for the field that he knew he wanted to pursue a college degree to become a public accountant. “I had a lot of background at the start of college, to the point where all of freshman year accounting was a refresher,” he says. A Washington native, Eddie attended Hebrew Academy grade school, Coolidge High School, and then the University of Pennsylvania’s renowned Wharton School of Business for college. He then returned to the D.C. area and has lived in Silver Spring, Maryland, since 1969, building a life for himself as he’s built his business skills and professional legacy at Snyder Cohn.

This life started with Maxine Snyder, the mother of his two children who was incredibly talented and a director of an agency that coordinated efforts of Hillels. “Becoming a parent was one of the most transformational and wonderful experiences of my life,” he remarks. “It’s been much less predictable than any other part of my life. The process of conveying values and being a good parent to your children is a role you take on indefinitely. My own mother is 99 now, and until recently she was making sure I wore a coat outside and that I was eating enough. It’s just a tremendously fulfilling experience, and now that I’m a grandparent, there’s just nothing like it.”

Maxine was a nurturer, activist, and president of the PTA at the Hebrew Academy. “If she heard of any injustice anywhere at the school, she would get to the bottom of it at once,” Eddie recalls. “To this day, people at the school revere her memory in awe.” Maxine passed away ten years ago after a battle with lung cancer, and her friend, Ann Wimpfheimer, also lost her spouse tragically to lung cancer. “Ann was Maxine’s friend in college who paid me a condolence call after Maxine passed away, and we got married three years later,” Eddie says. “She and I are both very energetic, and for her, there is no such thing as idle time. We do lots of traveling, play tennis, and go hiking. She’s given me new life. We both know what it means to come from tragedy and to move forward.” Committed to lifelong learning, Ann has a Masters in Social Work and earned her PsyD after her husband passed. A very health-conscious and ecologically-minded woman, she was the catalyst for Snyder Cohn’s decision to go green, and after blending their families together, Eddie and Ann are now proud grandparents.

In advising young people entering the working world today, Eddie emphasizes the importance of doing what you say you’re going to do, being honest, and thinking about where the other person is coming from so you can best meet their needs. “A good place to start is to find shared values, from which you can forge a path forward,” he recommends. Eddie likes to learn from his associates, and once a year in April, the firm holds a brainstorming session so that everyone has a seat at the table to discuss how Snyder Cohn can improve. “All seventy of us in the firm are assigned as a coach or mentor to one another to ensure the success of the group, and that includes listening with both ears,” Eddie explains. “We try to keep our associates doing what they like the most.” Thanks to this culture of communication, the firm operates at full capacity at all times, able to focus on the things that matter most to its clients and associates.

“When I see newer associates get frustrated because they don’t understand why their client has made the choice they’ve made, I try to teach them to think innovatively and like a problem-solver,” says Eddie, reminiscent of the lessons his father taught him on those early drives to school. “Think to yourself, what do they know that I don’t know? And what do I know that they don’t know?”

This simple and inquisitive effort to see eye-to-eye with people has been a major factor in Eddie’s marked success. Thanks in part to this approach, Snyder Cohn recently gained acclaim as one of the top 100 best accounting firms to work for in the entire country—a testament to the attitude of care and respect that characterizes the firm’s relationship with clients and associates alike. Indeed, to be heard and feel understood is an underestimated experience in today’s fast-paced and often transient culture, but Snyder Cohn does it well.

“Without understanding where someone is coming from, communication is nearly impossible, and without clear and effective communication, growth of any kind—personal, professional, financial—is unlikely,” Eddie affirms. “In order to communicate effectively with someone, you have to meet them where they are.” By mastering the life skill of meeting others where they are, Eddie has been able to lead them forward to new success and new life satisfaction. “Listen with both ears and respond accordingly to meet others’ needs,” he says. “In this way, you come to find that, sometimes, the best communication involves very little talking.”

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