"According to Netflix's Rules": How to Build a Strong Team

[jisansorkar12]

In the nineties, there was a boom in Internet startups - their number grew sharply, and investors began to show unprecedented interest in them. It seemed that dotcoms, as such companies were called then, were the future, so investors did not skimp. But in the early 2000s, the dotcom bubble burst, many startups went bankrupt. Except for Netflix. It appeared at the same time, but did not close, but, on the contrary, became known throughout the world. Now everyone knows about it.



The history of Netflix is ​​interesting because it entered an already established tunisia whatsapp list market, and then created a new need among the audience, took over a large share of the market, and bankrupted competitors who were unable to restructure.

Before takeoff
Founded in 1997, Netflix began as a DVD rental service, delivering discs of movies by mail. Then customers went online, and Netflix followed suit, offering online viewing by the hour. In the early 2010s, the company began producing its own content, mostly TV series, and uploading entire seasons. Eventually, the company became a market leader, spending tens of billions of dollars a year on producing movies and TV series.

But there were many obstacles and mistakes along the way that could have been fateful. A well-organized team always saved the company from failures. Netflix created a corporate environment in which employees were motivated to achieve results. Thanks to this, the company managed to win back a large part of the market where large companies were already operating.

For many years, corporate affairs were handled by the director of human resources Patty McCord. Based on articles, insiders and the book "The Strongest: Business by the Netflix Rules", we will talk about how they managed to form one of the best teams in the history of the film industry.

Rule 1: The Power of Inspiration
Obstacles inspire. What is the main driver of growth at Netflix? When it comes to a huge company with thousands of employees, it is easy to assume the most general principle of motivation: “If you do X, you will get Y.” But in business, this rule is followed by static, unchangeable companies. Their leaders do not understand the true nature of human motivation.

Netflix isn't looking for people who are just chasing money, or people who just do the tasks they're given. The ideal Netflix employee is someone who loves solving problems and isn't afraid of obstacles.

A successful team can only consist of those who are inspired by new challenges. When the dot-com bubble burst in the 2000s, Netflix fired a third of its employees because the company was at risk of bankruptcy. Then the price of DVD players dropped, people started buying them again, and Netflix's business began to revive as quickly as it had fallen before. And the remaining two-thirds of the employees now did twice as much work. It would seem that the situation was not the best, but it was this period that employees later remembered as a happy time: everyone put all their efforts into the business and shared a common goal.

Those who love challenges value their working hours and don't have the habit of checking their watch while waiting for the workday to end. This mindset isn't typical of all companies, which is why many were so surprised by Netflix's no-vacation policy.

Employees can take as much time off as they need, they just need to discuss it with the manager in advance. Has the time off increased? It remains the same as before: a week or two in the summer, a couple of days on holidays. At the same time, this policy solved another, more important problem: by determining the time for rest, employees felt the trust of management and their responsibility, which ultimately increased their potential.

It is commonly believed that managing a large team involves a lot of bureaucratic procedures. In fact, this is not always the case, because the greatest achievements are possible when the team, inspired by the end goal, is free to choose the solution to the problem.

Rule 2. Transparency
The more decisively a company rejects bureaucracy, the more consistently it must develop channels of interaction between employees. In other words, everyone must be aware of each other's business. Everyone must understand the key goals of the company, and the manager's understanding must not contradict the understanding of the entire team.

Every quarter, the heads of all departments at Netflix gave an hour-long presentation, where they talked about key innovations and problems. At these meetings, employees not only received detailed information, but also had the opportunity to ask any questions.

One day, Ted Sarandos, one of the company’s executives, was telling new employees about the company’s content release schedule: first a movie is released in theaters, then on DVD, then on Netflix. An engineer asked, “Why is it like that? It’s not profitable.” Sarandos was taken aback: Why, really? He realized that he had long been dealing with a convention that limited the company’s capabilities. The engineer’s question prompted thoughts about a new business model: releasing all the episodes of a season at once.

To keep employees informed about the company's activities and able to help, information needs to be conveyed as clearly as possible. Because ordinary people are Netflix's clients, and customer orientation is the company's main principle.