Longlisted for the 2020 Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Netflix cofounder
Reed Hastings reveals for the first time the unorthodox culture behind one of the world's most
innovative imaginative and successful companies There has never before been a company like
Netflix. It has led nothing short of a revolution in the entertainment industries generating
billions of dollars in annual revenue while capturing the imaginations of hundreds of millions
of people in over 190 countries. But to reach these great heights Netflix which launched in
1998 as an online DVD rental service has had to reinvent itself over and over again. This type
of unprecedented flexibility would have been impossible without the counterintuitive and
radical management principles that cofounder Reed Hastings established from the very beginning.
Hastings rejected the conventional wisdom under which other companies operate and defied
tradition to instead build a culture focused on freedom and responsibility one that has
allowed Netflix to adapt and innovate as the needs of its members and the world have
simultaneously transformed. Hastings set new standards valuing people over process
emphasizing innovation over efficiency and giving employees context not controls. At Netflix
there are no vacation or expense policies. At Netflix adequate performance gets a generous
severance and hard work is irrelevant. At Netflix you don't try to please your boss you
give candid feedback instead. At Netflix employees don't need approval and the company pays
top of market. When Hastings and his team first devised these unorthodox principles the
implications were unknown and untested. But in just a short period their methods led to
unparalleled speed and boldness as Netflix quickly became one of the most loved brands in the
world. Here for the first time Hastings and Erin Meyer bestselling author of The Culture Map
and one of the world's most influential business thinkers dive deep into the controversial
ideologies at the heart of the Netflix psyche which have generated results that are the envy
of the business world. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with current and past Netflix
employees from around the globe and never-before-told stories of trial and error from
Hastings's own career No Rules Rules is the fascinating and untold account of the philosophy
behind one of the world's most innovative imaginative and successful companies.
