Monday, January 28, 2008

Netflix - Community driven success?

Steve Jobs and his feared i'Craze' corporation has entered Netflix's arena of competition. With their recently released AppleTV and movies available for streaming directly to your home, Apple will surely be the company that finally stops the success train for Netflix.... or will they? Before Apple, it was Blockbuster, Amazon, and Wal-Mart. With arguably some of the most powerful companies in the US, how has Netflix maintained its growth streak over the years??

Community Input!! http://bokardo.com/archives/designing-with-community-input-netflix-style/

I am a very satisfied Netflix customer, along with 7.5 million others (as of the 2007 4Q financial results). I personally enjoy the ease in which I search, select, receive and return movies on a weekly basis. However, this aspect isn't necessarily unique to the industry anymore with certain companies looking to capture a portion of the online rental market as well. Netflix retains and continues to capture more of the market because of its community driven feedback, as well as the member's 'community' of movie sharing information.

Reed Hastings (CEO) and company made the strategic decision early on to mimic the popularity of a social network without advertising itself as a social network. Even its developers in charge of the community will deny any claim that they are building a social network (see 'About this Blog' - http://blog.netflix.com/), but I find it hard to believe they fell into this realm by accident. Call it Social Design or Conversational Marketing, I call it seeing the opportunity to stay ahead of major competition. How else could you explain their ability to stave off the likes of Wal-Mart, Blockbuster and in my opinion Apple in 2008?

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Reality Check

I participated in a career path workshop the past 2 months at my company. The focus was on reflection and understanding your own desires for your career. We talked about each of our generations and the ambiguous descriptions that are attached by 'analysts' and 'experts' in the field of generational study. We also took a 'DISC Assessment' to figure out our own personality. So yea, I can't lie, I was, and still am skeptical of the value of this exercise.

However, despite my skepticism, I still came away thinking about a couple points that in the end I agree with. One is about me and the other is about work in general.

1 - Through the DISC Assessment, my score put me in the category of an I (I=Influence) for both my work social behavior and social behavior (outside of work). Although the description for 'Influence' as well as the other types was rather general, I was satisfied to discover (whether 100% true or not) that I tend to act with a similar personality in and outside of work. I think this is important when reviewing the 2nd takeaway.

2 - At the end of each career path session, we discussed 1-2 things that got us out of bed every day to walk/drive/metro to the office. For most sessions, people gave very stock answers (probably because our CEO was sitting in and listening half the time), but I actually enjoyed this part of the session. I felt it drove home the core value of a career path working session. Why are you at work? And if you don't know or don't like it, why aren't you doing something about it?

The reality check that I took away from the past 2 months of reflection is rather cliché, but in my opinion one of truth. To overcome any myths, disadvantages, inefficiencies surrounding informal networks, one has to have the passion for the work they are doing and set genuine goals to reach and aspire to attain such goals. As a CEO, Manager, or even an entry-level employee, if your purpose is to just walk in and walk out every day without inserting some kind of passion for what you do, then there will be know reality check in terms of informal networks within an organization.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Talking Head 1

“On my honor, all posts on this blog are my own”

I am blogging for a class, this is my first post.