Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Question. Something is coming. Something hungry for blood. What is it? The Demogorgon! When was the last time you watched something on Netflix? It's not every day that a zookeeper went to prison for murder for hire.
Netflix has revolutionized how and what we watch. It's a cultural institution. It dominates streaming, and Netflix executives would tell you that's because of their company's own unique culture. Of course, a lot of Silicon Valley companies talk up their culture. But I'd say Netflix is actually the weirdest. One Korean employee I talked to compared it to North Korea because they have these self-criticism sessions where people are forced to criticize others. Employees are encouraged to constantly evaluate themselves and their co-workers.
They know they can be fired at any moment if they fall short. They think of their company as an Olympic team. So nobody is on the Olympic team forever. You're only on there when you're performing your best. And then once you're not at your best, you get cut.
Netflix even has its own language for the way people interact. Yeah, I like Keeper Test. Keeper Test is what managers are supposed to apply constantly to anybody on their team, which is the question of, are you the best person for this role? And if the answer is no, what the Keeper Test says is that person should no longer work at the company.
That might sound intense, but working in Netflix can also have a lot of upside, like freedom and responsibility, which is their way of saying employees have the power to make big decisions, often without running it by a manager first. That freedom has scored Netflix some major wins, like House of Cards. Give and take. Welcome to Washington.
How much of your ability to get this deal done, to do $100 million, two seasons, is specific to Netflix's culture? Well, 100%. Because I told Reid about the deal after we did it.
I'm Ronnie Mola. And I'm Peter Kafka. On this season of Land of the Giants, we explore all things Netflix. From the strange company culture to its bruising battle with Blockbuster. It was 20 times larger than us, which is not a good place to be. Okay, so in many ways, that's why I feel like so randomly lucky to have survived. We'll talk about how Netflix showed up to Hollywood and turned it upside down. They've seen us through a huge revolution in how we think about content. They've opened up
The ability to see somebody who looks like you on TV, who has a story that you would never see on broadcast television. It's just changed everything about the world of entertainment. And we'll explore where Netflix is heading and how they plan to win the war for our attention. Normally, as you grow, there's lots of ways to get beat.
This is Land of the Giants, the Netflix effect from Recode and the Vox Media Podcast Network. The first episode drops June 23rd. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.