Reed Hastings, Netflix: Stanford GSB 2014 Entrepreneurial Company of the Year
Netflix
The future for the industry
Management Style
Founder: Reed Hastings
Spend several years serving in the peace corp as a high school maths teacher
Work in the AI lab in Schlumberger
His first company Pure Software was acquired by in 1997 in Scotts Valley
Established in 1997
Competitors
Blockbuster
Youtube
Had a huge advantage as they were 15-20 times larger than Netflix
Netflix had the advantage of starting it first
When Viacom spun them out ,they were left with billion dollers debt and a lot of tough convenants
Eventually went bankrupt due to the fall of the DVD industry
Streaming started actively
Netflix launched their first Streaming product but it was not very succesful
Challenges
1st stage
Freedom of responsiblility
"incredible people don't want to be micro-managed"
Manage through setting context and letting people run
Reed tries to make as little decisions as possible
Creating a sense of I want and able to make a difference
Mobile phones will be widely used for everything
The Tv will just be like a huge Android tablet
Shows will be only on demand
Everything will be more personalized
"Less than friends"
More and more young people live the internet ife
Advices
Building Culture and Value
As people grow, more ideas are generated
''We create great stories for pure,uninterrupted enjoyment''
getting profitability and stop consuming cash
2nd stage
Blockbuster
launched in 2004
getting more global and more into original content
compete for entertainment time
Woman seeking for board
Board directors will mostly choose candidates they are comfortable around with
Make an effort to try and accept people of other genders
Work Life integration
"Freedom and responsibility"
Focus on accomplishment and not process
Plan your own schedule out of work