« Big data is powerful, but big data plus big ideas is transformational. Netflix is a technology juggernaut whose analytics, algorithms, and digital-streaming innovations have changed how customers watch movies and TV shows. But this technology has always been in service of a unique point of view — building a platform that shapes what customers watch, not just how they watch. The company has vast amounts of data on the viewing habits of its 125 million subscribers, from which movies and TV shows they liked or disliked to how long they watched an individual episode or how much they binged a new series. This powerful data system creates a rich social system that influences the movies and shows members see, based in part on which shows they’ve liked in the past what other subscribers see and like. Here’s how Reed Hastings explained it in 2005, when the company had just 3.5 million subscribers. “It’s possible to totally misunderstand Netflix,” he told me. “The real problem we’re trying to solve is, How do you transform selection so that consumers can find a steady stream of [entertainment] they love? We give everyone a platform to broaden their tastes.” This point of view has driven Netflix from the beginning, and it underscores the power of original ideas in business success. The core takeaway: Technology matters most when it is in the service of a compelling strategy. It’s always dangerous to try to learn too much from the performance of a single organization — even the most successful companies are bound to experience setbacks and disappointments. (It wasn’t all that long ago, after all, that GE was considered a model of world-class management.) Still, as more and more of us turn to Netflix for entertainment, the company bears watching as a source of insights about the future of business and work. » To See the Future of Competition, Look at Netflix | HBR | 2018 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e8T79UAf How Netflix Reinvented HR | HBR | 2014 🔗 https://lnkd.in/epR5zYgB #Netflix Culture's Manifesto ”As he has since our first culture deck was written in 2009, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince, shows us the way: If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eyVDdynr
What Netflix understands about business that many companies are still trying to figure out.
