Bela Bajaria Chief Content Officer at Netflix | Official website
In August 2009, Reed Hastings, Netflix’s co-founder, published a 125-page PowerPoint presentation on the company's culture. Its direct tone and focus on values and performance over rules and controls have enabled the company to adapt and grow since then.
Over the last 15 years, the document has been revised four times in pursuit of excellence. Today, Netflix is publishing the latest iteration for public access. This update took 12 months to develop, with every employee given a chance to contribute through a process called “farming for dissent.” The company received over 1,500 comments from employees, many of which are reflected in this revision.
Key highlights of the updated memo include:
1. The memo has been shortened by focusing on what is most important and what differentiates Netflix.
2. Some concepts from the original deck have been reintroduced, such as the emphasis on responsibility and distinguishing between good and bad processes versus no process at all.
3. The structure now revolves around core principles that best represent Netflix today — an entertainment company with over 13,000 employees operating globally.
The core principles highlighted are:
- **The Dream Team**: Aiming to have only the highest performers at Netflix, modeling after a professional sports team rather than a family.
- **People over Process**: Inspiring and empowering more than managing because employees have more impact when they can make decisions about their work.
- **Uncomfortably Exciting**: Thriving on change as success in entertainment requires thinking differently, experimenting, and adapting quickly.
- **Great and Always Better**: Focusing on constant improvement with resilience towards future goals.
As head of talent at Netflix stated: "We believe that our culture is key to our success and so we want to ensure that anyone applying for a job here knows what motivates Netflix — and all employees are working from a shared understanding of what we value most."
Addressing questions about policies at Netflix, it was confirmed that there are no formal expenses or vacation policies. While this kind of freedom might seem chaotic, it has led to significant business success despite some failures and instances where individuals took advantage of the culture. Emphasis on individual autonomy fosters creativity and innovation which are crucial in their industry.
