Netflix has been a roller-coaster and of late it has been going fast upwards rather than fast downwards. On the positive these weeks has been a presentation on culture, there is a great-to-reed PPT presentation on slideshare from by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings describing the seven aspects of their company culture. Sheryl Sandberg said it “may well be the most important document ever to come out of the Valley.” Here are some key points:
- Choose High Performance over mediocrity: Retaining and attracting high performance people is core to the company’s ethos.
- Context, not control: The best managers work out how to get great outcomes by setting things in context, rather than by trying to control their people. High performance people do better when they understand the context.
- Take care of your best people: Outstanding employees get more done and cost less than two adequate employees.
- Brilliant jerks need not apply: You can be the best and brightest, but difficult people hold back the fittest teams.
Netflix had a PR disaster when it disregarded its customers and the share price melted as a result. It seems to have righted its boat, the service is reportedly terrific, and the House of Cards series with Kevin Spacey is a brilliant idea. The original UK series was riveting and repulsive, and its current star Kevin Spacey, as director of the Old Vic, who I shared a conference stage with a few years ago at the Royal Albert Hall, is well enough versed in English methods and the particular brand of toxicity.
