Reed Hastings

Before reading this book, you should read Carol Sanford's "No More Feedback."

Before getting into the book review, I'll ask a question on epistemology: how do we choose a management theory? Just like dieting, there are books that well tell us just about anything about management theory: give lots of feedback; don't give any feedback; pay your employees well; pay your employees cheaply.

You might respond: "I'll do what works. Show me the data." But this is a cop out—different approaches have show more different micro results based on their contexts. On the other hand, practices eventually influence the noosphere, and shift the cosmology of an industry or domain. In other words, whatever management theory you implement will influence your domain—not just through its results, but also through the assumptions it makes about human nature.

Now to move into the book review:

The book is structured in a four-tiered spiral. Each cycle moves through these steps: increase talent density, increase candor, remove controls.

Now to come back to a contrast with Sanford's work—the fundamental question in both books is whether or not humans can develop, and how?

To oversimplify:

Hastings and Meyer assume a behavioral approach—people are a product of the expectations placed on them, and there's only so much we can do to work with an individual's potential. Most people aren't exceptional, so we need to put in place gated strategies that weed out the bottom nine tenths of the bell curve.

Sanford assumes a regenerative paradigm: each person, and each company, have an essence, and the capacity of both in manifesting the potential of that essence is limitless. Her basic framework aims to further internal agency, external considering, and an internal locus of control.

Hastings and Meyer's title heralds a work culture of freedom and responsibility. And yet are you really free if you're part of a team where you get fired for one improper expense, or one innovative quarter? On control spectrum, Hastings and Meyer seem to be claiming that they've moved away from control, but they've simply traded hard control (traditional hierarchies) for soft control (be creative—but if we don't like your work, we can fire you at any time). Sanford's approach, on the other hand, moves beyond both hard and soft control into something entirely different.

Is Netflix's approach comprehensible and something that can be implemented without a lot of creativity? Yes. Is it revolutionary? No. show less

As somebody who doesn't read a lot of business books, I found this one thoughtful, well-structured, and extremely easy to read. As a knowledge worker, I resonated strongly with many of the ideas proposed in the book, although how well any management theory works is up to the details and the context, so I don't pretend to avow the overall theory, just its presentation in the book. I appreciated that the book was careful to lay foundations and prerequisites - one cannot remove controls until show more one has increased talent density and candour. The repetition of the three steps in a multi-level approach drummed the point in without feeling overbearing, the whole thing is sprinkled throughout with anecdotes answering "but how does this work in practice?" I feel the only weakness of the book is lack of generalizability and empirical evidence - while there are some citations, most of the theory is supported with anecdotes. show less

A very different approach to run an effective business from the Netflix team.

It's certainly a thought provoking read and there are many strategies that could be adopted by a number of businesses. However, some are clearly rooted in American business culture and legal framework where employees have fewer rights than in Europe and the UK.

I would still recommend this book, it just needs to be read with local regulations firmly in mind.

Interesting Look At Business Practices Less Common Than Many Claim. Let me be clear here: I am a 14 year professional software developer in my "day job". I've worked for very small companies with barely 100 people and owned by a single person all the way to one of the largest companies on the planet (Fortune 50). And because I've had a 14 year career in this field as of 2021, that means this has all been done since NetFlix has been doing its thing.

And yet while I've heard that the Valley show more works a bit differently than the East Coast / Southern companies I've worked for, I'd never heard of several of the policies Hastings and Meyer discuss in this text. For this developer, most of them sound *phenomenal*, and I would *love* to work in environments that had them. Though there are others - "Adequate performance is given a generous severance" in particular - that would exacerbate issues I've already had at times in my career. Here, Hastings explains the reasons he adopted these policies at NetFlix and how they have grown over the company's existence. Meyer provides a degree of "outsider feedback" going around interviewing people at all levels from Hastings to the janitors and examining the claims Hastings makes.

Overall, this is a solid business book explaining these policies, why NetFlix chose them, why other businesses should - or should not, in certain situations - and how they can begin to be implemented in any company. More for Executives than heads down coders or low level team leads, though there are some interesting points even at those levels. It is absolutely something business leaders should read and ponder, and it is a good primer for those who may want to push for similar changes in their own companies. Very much recommended. show less