Netflix founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings and author Erin Meyer have come up with a book on Netflix’s unorthodox company culture, titled No Rules Rules. The book features never-before-told stories and interviews with more than 100 Netflix employees past and present, from Singapore to Amsterdam, from Alphaville to Los Angeles.
Serving as a guide for how other creative companies might institute a similar ‘Freedom & Responsibility’ model, it is also designed to spark a debate about how a company’s culture can help it succeed. In interviews about the book, Reed spoke about how Netflix employees are less like a family and more like an Olympic sports team, always trying to have the best players in every position and a collective sense of improvement and success.
Reed discussed the importance of being open with employees about all aspects of the business. “We want to be very transparent, very open with employees, and have them feel very trusted. What we get back is a sense of commitment and that they really go the extra mile because they care.” And does Reed gets the candid feedback that he preaches from other employees at Netflix? “All the time!” he told.
No Rules Rules co-author Erin Meyer, a business school professor at INSEAD in Paris, had written The Culture Map, which many at Netflix have read. When she agreed to do the project, she was a sceptic. The result is a book that not only shows how the culture has helped us reinvented ourselves – from DVDs to streaming, US to international and buying others’ shows and films to making our own – but gives a realistic inside look.
The book can be bought here.
