Netflix’s Bleeding-edge Corporate Culture
by Miki SaxonAs long-time readers know, I have a rabid interest in all things corporate culture.I especially like stories about the bleeding edge of corporate culture where radical new stuff is tried and those about entrepreneurs who lose their corporate culture as they grow, figure out what went wrong and do it differently the next time.
When those two interests merge I really get excited. Here’s the story.
Reed Hastings founded Pure Software in the Nineties and several mergers later became part of IBM. ‘Hastings says Pure, like many other outfits, went from being a heat-filled, everybody-wants-to-be-here place to a dronish, when-does-the-day-end sausage factory.’We got more bureaucratic as we grew.”
Hastings was wealthy, but not happy. So he took two years off and did some deep thinking so that ‘his next endeavor wouldn’t suffer the same big-company creep.’
Now comes Netflix, where Hastings’ personnel policies are as revolutionary as his business model.
‘Hastings pays his people lavishly, gives them unlimited vacations, and lets them structure their own compensation packages. In return, he expects ultra-high performance. His 400 salaried employees are expected to do the jobs of three or four people. Netflix is no frat party with beer bashes and foosball tables. Nor does the company want to play cruise director to its employees. Rather, Netflix is a tough, fulfilling, ‘fully formed adult’ culture, says marketing manager Heather McIlhany. ‘There’s no place to hide at Netflix.”
Netflix is 180 degrees away from a mentality I detest—that of ‘paying just enough to attract talent but not a dollar more than they need to.’
Generally, people will give you what you expect, because your expectations color or taint your attitude and there’s no way to hide that. Even without Netflix-style perks you can build a high-performance culture by treating your people as adults.
What are your expectations?
