Lessons from No Rules Rules, Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention — Part 1

Introduction

With it’s name being synonymous to being the platform that everyone thinks of when you talk about streaming-video, it’s rather hard to imagine that the company itself was actually founded way back in 1997 — back when it was renting out DVDs by mail. The main competitor then was Blockbuster, and since then Netflix has kept reinventing itself and redefined the industry on what the norm should be when it comes to media consumption and creation.

This post takes a look at the latest book written by Reed Hastings, the co-founder, chairman, and current co-chief executive officer of Netflix.

Together with Erin Meyer; the book dives into the various ideologies that takes place at the heart of Netflix, uncovering their origin, implications, and how they were fine tuned — as Netflix became one of the world’s most innovative and successful companies in the world.

The following are my notes and comments based on the first few chapters of the book.

A Culture of Freedom and Responsibility

1. A Great Workplace Is Stunning Colleagues

• Netflix came upon this understanding from having to layoff a third of…