Engaging, in-depth look at Netflix's rise to success through the lens of its culture. The format is particularly interesting for the interwoven essays between the two authors creating a call and response effect, which makes it feel more like a conversation, which helps make it feel more readable.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

The book is well-written, and I agree with some of the goals they strive for but it does not sound like a place i would want to work for and I would not want that type of culture for my team. Not everyone works or is motivated in the same way and if you only have people who can perform like a 'rock-star' in this type of culture then you are probably missing out. Netflix have been innovative when transforming their delivery system from mail to digital and they do have a lot of subscribers so they are clearly doing something right - I wonder if it would be a different story if the severance packages did not depend on the fired employees keeping quiet.

Well-written book - it does go into a lot of depth and detail about the Netflix culture and what made it work. As such, it is a really good 'bible' of sorts for outside-the-box thinking in corporate and how one can make that work (or at least take a page out sometimes to rev things up)
However, that being said, this is not a practice I'd get behind - and this is just personal opinion. It seems like, in not having rules, the floor is open to the best & worst of human nature, and there's no fairness in that - the good guys will do their best, the bad guys will abuse and get away with it, so in the end, who wins? The company, yes. But are the employees 'the company' here? And that's my fundamental issue with this model. It sounds and seems, in the end, like 'corporate' at its worst, wrapped in an air of 'anything goes so we welcome your creativity', but it can then end up like 'everything goes' hour at a pre-school where everyone is a toddler and it's their 'nature' that wins - the quiet toddlers won't throw tantrums and will behave, the tantrum toddlers will throw tantrums, get away with it, and might even be rewarded for doing so.
So all in all, good expose on this corporate culture. Do you have to follow it to 'work'? That's up to you and the company & culture you want to create

This was an interesting book- not my usual type of read but I found it entertaining and informative. Definitely worth a look

No Rules Rules is meant to sound like a paradox, and it is. I come to Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer’s book about the Netflix culture with some suspicion. With a successful record of disruption and creativity, Netflix is hardly WeWork, but how different can it be, really? No Rules Rules turns out to be an extremely accessible and thought-provoking read and I recommend it to anyone thinking about corporate culture, building a team or leading change. My own organisation is as unNetflix as you can get, but there is plenty of material in this book to engage with even if it isn’t directly transferable.
The main paradox is that for an organisation with no rules, Netflix seems to operate under plenty of rules, both tacit and spelled out. They just aren’t the same rules as in a more traditional context. One of the most famous rules concerns holidays. But instead of a simple document outlining what is expected, managers have to be more hands-on ‘speaking to the team about what behaviours fall within the realm of the acceptable and appropriate’. Which sounds a bit like rules, but set semi-informally within the team. Expenses don’t need to be approved, but if there’s ‘monkey business’ then the employee is immediately and noisily fired. On the other hand, as Hastings writes, ‘When employees realise their managers are keeping an eye on expenses, they aren’t likely to test the limits much’. Which sounds like most companies.
The general adage, ‘Act in Netflix’s best interest’, is simple, but could perhaps be devastatingly effective once it’s combined with two other factors. The first is that the company is incredibly careful to provide everyone with the information and context they need to make decent decisions. The second is that employees have a relationship with Netflix that is more like that of a sports team squad than a family. Now sports and family metaphors are over-used in business discourse, but the sports team one is easy to understand and a little bit chilling: Netflix is looking to build the strongest squad and if there are better players available, employees will be put on the transfer list - by which we mean they’ll get a pay-off which is meant to be ‘generous’ by American standards but which European eyes will find quite the opposite. The idea is to build up what Netflix call ‘talent density’ which means trying to find the best people. I tend to feel that people are most creative and do their best work in a place where they feel secure and trust is maximised. Netflix doesn’t offer the first - though some of the Netflix team find the sports analogy motivating - but through its maxim ‘freedom with responsibility’ the company offers trust on turbo. The effect seems to go some way to solving the classic principal/agent problem. Conflicts of interest are possibly reduced and the idea of being exploited is reduced for the employee, especially since Netflix makes a big thing about paying top whack for its stars.
I read this book just after watching The One, a stylish but empty Netflix thriller. There is a scene in No Rules Rules in which Adam asks his boss Ted for advice about whether to buy a particular documentary for Netflix. Adam really wants to buy it but there’s a bidding war on. As Adam describes it, ‘Ted looked me square in the eye and said, “Well, is it ‘THE ONE’?”…That made me nervous. It was my ONE. But was it his ONE?’ Ted repeats the question and then concludes ‘If it’s THE ONE, get the movie.’ You can see how The One made it through. But though the scene made me laugh and I’ve made Ted sound like an idiot, the quality of the anecdotes provided both by Hastings and by Netflix employees to Meyer, makes this a particularly worthwhile book. If you stop reading, it’s probably to reflect on what you’ve just read than because you’ve drifted away.
Does Netflix have a secret sauce? Well, maybe, but the whole point is that they are still working on the recipe. Their development of rules is iterative. International culture is something they are still having to work on. In a way, I find that quite refreshing. Netflix obviously think very deeply about their internal culture and are open to change. That is easy to say but hard to do, but it is that, as opposed to rules about rules that aren’t rules but are really, which I will take back to my organisation when we get back to work.

A good book about the constant reinvention of Netflix, and how it became one of the biggest global media brands today. A look at how not sticking to the rules and treating workers like family can be beneficial to your business and employees - all while still seeming like a great place to work. (As a sidenote...every place I know of that describes their employees/team as "a family" treats their employees like a very messed up family). Lots of practical advice and insights on how a business, especially a creative business, works from higher up.

A fascinating insight into the radically different corporate culture at Netflix, and a clear deconstruction of how and why it is so successful. I almost wish all businesses could function like this, but the flaw then would be every corporation chasing only the employees at the top of their profession!

F&R (Freedom and Responsibility) are the cornerstone of the values held at Netflix. Unlimited holiday, no need to follow your bosses instructions, financial sign-off to any amount - all this F&R gives employees the sense of ownership and empowerment, and with that, Reed argues, comes greater creativity. The book is well written, with a well thought-out structure, and an easy read.

The issue I have with this book and the approach, is the so-called "keeper test". You can only give staff this level of F&R if you have fully commitment, high performing staff. Any low performers would reduce the "talent density" and make those benefits unworkable and abusable. In Jack Welch's era, all staff would be ranked and the lowest 10%, regardless of performance, would be shown the door. Netflix isn't quite that brutal - but the "keeper test" is if your employee offers their resignation would you fight to keep them? And if you wouldn't, why bother having them on your team now, just show them that door! They lessen the blow with a "generous" severance package, but they did concede that this had to be raised in European countries.

In the UK, where I live, this approach simply wouldn't be possible. You can't fire someone because they're not exceeding - provided they're doing the job they were hired to do, they're entitled to that position. I would've liked to have seen a chapter discussing this, and how to deal with 'average' staff in these situations, but the approach throughout was to simply show the non-excellent that door.

Overall, it's an interesting book, with well reasoned arguments, and I'm sure many of the practices will (and already are) being adopted by the wider IT industry.

Urgh this was a really dry read to me. I think the same information could have been delivered in a 60 minute Netflix show ironically. It is definitely for professionals but the book was so lengthy and exhaustive. I thought it would have more details on how Netflix grew to be so big and all the technical obstacles they had to over come. It just turned out to be a slow read.

Although well-written this title's structure and content has left me feeling ambivalent towards it. Firstly, I do not think Erin Meyer's input was necessary and I found it distracting, despite offering known counter arguments i.e. the status quo for organisations. Instead I would have preferred the title to focus on Reed's perspective, instead of watering down the the overall message and narrative with another 'voice'.

The constant references to 'high talent density' and 'firing' people were really uncomfortable for me to read and I gradually found the idea of 'freedom and responsibility' an excuse for an organisation to be self-interested, uncaring and remote. I appreciate the sense of treating employees as 'peers', 'adults' but I didn't get the sense that anyone would support you if you had an issue at work or in your personal life. This reliance on self-management works up to a point. I also wondered why no-one fired Reed when he made his debacle, which was even satirised on a TV show - is it one rule for one and for others....

Having said that this books delivers on explaining how Netflix scaled up, the theories and their practical application. It doesn't shy away from stating where it went wrong and explaining why, so it's a kinda manual on how organisations can work differently and effectively. I think the biggest takeaway for me is the idea of a 'creative' company organised and operating' creatively - what that looks like and how it evolves. The emphasis on 'innovation', 'reiteration' and 'evolution' hold true throughout and it's easy to understand why Netflix has become a huge success, relatively quickly.

As an original subscriber to the dvd postbox scheme I’ve always been fascinated by Netflix and its growth and success. How did it get to be such a heavy weight when other Dvd/video companies like Blockbuster faded away? This book offers a fascinating insight into how Netflix did it. Such lessons can be learnt and applied elsewhere in our current challenging and competitive business climate.

Written by Reed Hastings ( one of Netflix cofounders) and Erin Meyer this book reveals the reinvention several times over of Netflix since it launched as an online DVD service to become one of the biggest movie/tv prog producers by not following established business rules even when it has grown into a global brand.
The rules are there even if they are not written down in manuals.
Having worked in several global businesses I found this book thought provoking and interesting.
Great book for entrepreneurs and large firm managers.
Highly recommend it.

I really enjoyed this book. The style is an engaging mix of information and anecdotal which makes it an easy read.

One note of caution - this is not a how on running a successful business or how to engage with a high performing team. This is how one very specific culture has built Netflix and in my opinion the methods used would not work for most companies. The feedback and strategies used, although honest, come across as brutal.

That said it was an interesting and engaging read.

No Rules Rules boils down Netflix's principles of success. It's a mixture of common sense and "blue sky thinking" that will no doubt be useful to tech startups, but may be a little dry for those more interested in the narrative of Netflix's growth into a global behemoth.

No Rules Rules is absolutely fascinating. Full of practical advice and insights in to how to run a successful business empire. It's a book anyone who wants to run a business or be there own boss should read.

Loved this book! I learned so much about Netflix and fascinating to hear more about the company culture and the CEO. Great one!

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

I found this book fascinating. I loved reading about something that unfortunately plays such a huge part of my life. Learned so much.

This was a really interesting insight into Netflix and how it operates. It was really valuable to see how they transformed their organisation in difficult circumstances and beat other organisations going through similar transformations. I definitely enjoyed some of the insights around how staff are hired, retained and fired. However I found a lot of it probably wasn't applicable to me as a manager, especially being in the UK where some of the procedures wouldn't go down well! Definitely useful to some people and industries but not quite one for me.

I requested this book on a whim, as I'm quite interested in finding out the back-story of how businesses start and evolve.

This is certainly an interesting read that gives some interesting insights. Not a handbook, and not a book to be read in a single sitting by any means. I didn't really know anything about Netflix as an organisation before - despite being a customer. Definitely an organisation that does things differently...

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC.