Recently I visited a bookshop to pick up a pocket book to read during a long flight. I noticed something with a word
Netflix and decided to buy it. It was Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America's Eyeballs by Gina Keating.Initially I thought that's the book about technology or leadership. But it was a story about Netflix's way to success. The book was published in 2013 but it's still relevant as Netflix remains a leader in online streaming today.
The author tells Netflix’s history starting from online DVDs rental service to online movie streaming. A main part of the book focuses on Netflix’s competition with Blockbuster (it's America’s biggest DVD and media retailer at that time). It’s really interesting to see how their market and optimization strategies went through different stages of technology evolution.
I won’t retell the whole book, but there’s one moment that really impressed me. Blockbuster was one step before beating Netflix and become a market leader in online movies services. But at that critical time, disagreements among Blockbuster’s top management led to the company crash.
Most board members failed to see that the DVD era was ending and Internet technologies were the future. They fired the executive who drove the online program and brought a new CEO with no experience in the domain. This new CEO decided to focus on expanding physical DVD stores. Unfortunately, he didn't want to hear about new technologies at all. That leads to full Blockbuster bankruptcy.
What can we learn from this? Some managers cannot accept the fact they are wrong and a bad manager can ruin the whole business. Good leaders must listen to their teams, understand industry trends, and be flexible enough to adapt to the changes. For me, the book felt like a drama story, even though I already knew what's in the end.
#booknook #leadership #business