What You Do Is Who You Are: An expert guide to building your company’s culture

by Ben Horowitz

The age of streaming was clearly at hand—but how could Hastings make the jump to becoming a global business built around streaming? Obviously he’d have to bundle streaming with DVD to begin with, but what next? Every time he raised this vital topic with his team, trying to hyperleap the company into the future, the conversation reverted to optimizing the DVD service. Hastings made a hard decision to demonstrate his priorities. He kicked all the executives who ran the DVD business out of his weekly management meeting. “That was one of the most painful moments in building the company,” he said later. “Because we loved them, we’d grown up with them, and they’re running everything that’s important. But they weren’t adding value in terms of the streaming discussion.” Hastings had long kept looking over his shoulder for a pure-streaming company that would run right by Netflix. He knew that that competitor wouldn’t have any DVD execs in its meetings. So why should Netflix, if it was going to be that company? You’d be hard-pressed to find a management book that recommends rewarding the loyal team generating all your revenue by booting them out of the company’s key meeting. But Hastings understood that moving the culture in the right direction trumped all other priorities. He had to shift the culture from one that prioritized content and logistics to one that prioritized content and technology. That change would affect everything from work hours to compensation strategy. But if he ...