Netflix, Inc. Essay Sample free essay sample

Netflix. Inc. is a company that has been around since 1997. While it started with a system of mail-order DVDs. it has grown into a mammoth imperium and has stood its land against rivals like Blockbuster. Walmart and Amazon. While the corporate central office employs about 900 people. Netflix besides has distribution centres all over the state. Netflix has come a long ways from where it started back in 1997. With more than 27 million clients in the United States. Canada. Latin America. the United Kingdom and Ireland ( Netflix Company Facts. 2012 ) . Netflix has proven that they are a force to be reckoned with. In this paper. we will analyze some of the single behaviours. the motive. teamwork. communicating and organisations alterations that Netflix has experienced in its rise to illustriousness. When you think of DVD leases. you by and large think of a picture shop or possibly an on-line seller. Back when I was turning up. heading to Blockbuster on a Friday dark was the prototype of everything that was cool. I got to shop through all the films and choice which latest releases I wanted to watch. Blockbuster was merely approximately 18 blocks off. so the thrust was speedy. Nowadays. our society has grown into one of instant convenience. Peoples have grown lazy and acquiring in the auto to drive to the nearest picture rental shop is excessively much. Or worse. if people drum up the energy to travel and lease a film. they seldom may hold the energy to return the film seasonably. therefore incurring late fees. Enter Netflix. One of the greatest draws of Netflix is the fact that they do non hold any late fees. You are able to lease a DVD online and have it shipped to your house. frequently within one concern twenty-four hours. You so can maintain that film for every bit long as you want without holding to worry approximately late fees. What an astonishing construct for those who are more on the lazy side of life! The Netflix instance every bit presented in Griffin A ; Moorhead’s book â€Å"Organizational Behavior† is surely intriguing. It provides us with the narrative of a company that started with a simple thought and has turned it into one of the most recognizable companies in the United States. and rather shortly to be the universe. Netflix started with the fresh thought of â€Å"people do non like to pay late fees† . So why non hold a company who would bear down a standard traveling rate per month for films that they could maintain for every bit long as they wanted without holdi ng to be concerned with the impression of late fees? CEO Reed Hastings came up with this program after enduring a reasonably monstrous late fee of his ain from Blockbuster. As the company began to take off. there were surely points that were of mass entreaty to the populace. Mr. Hastings realized that his client base was all about convenience: non holding to acquire off the sofa to lease a film. non holding to worry approximately late fees or due day of the months. and being able to put up your ain â€Å"queue† were all things that clients thought added value to their lives. As Netflix began to turn and boom. its effects were decidedly felt on their competition. Blockbuster began experiencing the effects and their concern started to endure badly. For financial 2008. Blockbuster’s grosss were $ 700 million less than they had been in 2003. while grosss at Netflix were more than $ 1 billion higher. A twelvemonth subsequently. Blockbuster reported losingss of about $ 200 million for financial 2009†¦in other words. Netflix is worth more than 100 times what Blockbuster is deserving ( Griffin A ; Moorhead. 2012. 2010 ) . Blockbuster did derive some land in their battle against Netflix when it began offering Blockbuster Total Access. which â €Å"replaced its late-fee policy with a plan†¦involving grace periods. automatic purchase payments. and restocking fees† ( Griffin A ; Moorhead. 2012. 2010 ) . While that helped Blockbuster out in the short-run. Netflix still continued to derive land in the movie-renting sphere and as of 2010. the organisation had more than 16 million endorsers and expected grosss of over $ 2 billion ( Griffin A ; Moorhead. 2012. 2010 ) . Meanwhile. Blockbuster is still in concern. nevertheless. non about every bit profitable as Netflix. Some may name it â€Å"too small excessively late† in the fact that Blockbuster does offer really similar services as Netflix. but Netflix was the pioneer and many people jumped on the Netflix bandwagon and are excessively satisfied with their service to see exchanging to another company. So how did Netflix acquire to where it is at today? Surely they are reading their customer’s demands right. We live in a society of convenience and people do non desire to be bothered to run out and pick up a film. They would instead remain in the comfort of their place and Netflix is providing to that desire rather nicely. â€Å"According to the company. some 96 % of clients snaping around the site receive their films the following day† ( Kolakowski. 2008 ) . That is rather an impressive statistic for the company. Bing able to form what you want to watch by run alonging up DVDs in your â€Å"queue† gives clients a sense of power and control. By â€Å"queuing† up the films or Television shows that you want to see. Netflix will automatically direct you the following phonograph record on your list once you return a DVD. It takes all the believing out of what you want to see following because you have already done the research and lined it up for yourself. Another country that Netflix is stand outing is video on demand or Netflix Streaming. If the client has the proper equipment. they are able to download and stream films straight to their device. These devices could be a computing machine. smart phone. tablet. or bet oning system. The modern consumer usually would hold one if non more of those devices and therefore can entree Netflix from a assortment of topographic points that would be convenient. Netflix Streaming is providin g to a crowd of technologically savvy persons in our ever-demanding universe of â€Å"get it now† . So how has single behaviours in Netflix contributed to its success? Let us look at the human side of this immense company. How does Netflix really map behind the ruddy envelope? Traveling through the description of the DVD Inspector provided in our text may take most people to believe that the occupation is an improbably deadening yet nerve-racking manner to do a life. One must be really speedy. thorough and accurate in order to run into the outlooks of the company. As the occupation is extremely insistent and fast-paced. your mean Joe may non cut the mustard. Person who works as a DVD Inspector must hold high attending to detail. ability to concentrate intently on the undertaking at manus. be willing to work independently. be physically able to maintain up with the insistent demands and maintain socialisation down to a bare lower limit. One might believe that this occupation would be best suited to person who is quiet and diffident ; so as non to be distracted by other employee’s idle yak. One might besides believe that this occupation should be filled by person who is extremely competitory as DVD reviews must keep a minimal figure per hr. In all honestness. a sensible individual for this occupation may be one who is quiet yet competitory. diligent. detail- and accuracy-oriented with a positive attitude that is willing to set in the clip an d attempt to seek and travel up in the company. Clearly. a DVD inspector is person who recognizes that the place is meant as an entry-level place. The anon. inspector in the book advised that the occupation can acquire rather deadening and one can experience reasonably isolated as interaction with other associates is kept to a lower limit. So what stairss could Netflix take to better the attitudes of their inspectors? Harmonizing to the inspector: †¦employees get 40-hour workweeks and full medical benefits. They can besides ear every bit much as $ 31. 000 a twelvemonth and $ 34. 000 if they move up to the occupation of quality inspector. One a new employee successfully passes a three-month probation period. he or she besides receives a free Netflix subscription and a free DVD participant ( Griffin A ; Moorhead. 2012. 2010 ) . Those sound like pretty nice inducements given the occupation is what it is. I am non certain what more could be done to better the attitudes of the inspectors. Full medical benefits along with 40-hour work hebdomads speak volumes in today’s economic system. Many people would be thrilled with those fringe benefits and some people even welcome the mindless. insistent environment that a DVD inspector would populate in. One thing that Netflix could make in respects to their work design would be to hold a kind of townhall meeting with its employees to inquire them how to hike morale. It may be that something like supplying breakfast or tiffin one time a hebdomad. or holding a less rigorous frock codification or implementing a kind of brother system on the floor. or flexible hours may be something that satiates some of the more dissatisfied DVD inspectors. While Netflix direction may believe that offering a free subscription or DVD participant may function to hike morale. it is of import to listen to their employees to see what they truly would happen valuable. The DVD inspectors surely have their work cut out for them. as humdrum and deadening as it may look. The anon. inspector advised that â€Å"veteran inspectors are expected to treat a lower limit of 650 phonograph records an hour† ( Griffin A ; Moorhead. 2012. 2010 ) . The end product of production by these DVD inspectors is really closely monitored by their computing machines. Many of the Netflix distribution installations are in to a great extent populated country and demand is high. so the company must be certain that their employees are maintaining up. So for what may look like a thankless. humdrum and headless occupation. what is the motive for an inspector to maintain doing rate? Well. the three month grade reappraisal can surely be a motivative factor for some. The impression of acquiring a rise or a free DVD participant can be adequate to promote employees to make the best they can at their occupation. â€Å"Motivation factors are intrinsic to the work itself and include factors such as accomplishment and recognition† ( Griffin A ; Moorhead. 2012. 2010 ) . These types of factors can include a need-based theory of motive. a process-based theory or a learning-based theory. Given the description of the occupation. it would look that the company uses chiefly a needs-based motivational system. Worlds have an built-in demand to accomplish the most they can out of life and their callings. By giving them short-run ends. such as the three month probation periods. a good wage and full medical benefits. Netflix is fulfilling their employee’s needs to keep a stable occupation which provides the employee with the nutriment they need for a piece. Given that the occupation is improbably fast-paced and insistent. I expect that the company would necessitate to better on their needs-based motive procedure as some worlds. regardless of whether or non they have a good occupation. necessitate to be stimulated mentally and challenged to larn new accomplishments. At the terminal of the three month probation period. there is the chance for promotion. nevertheless. I would wish to see more cross-training among the different sections. For some. seeing a different occupation that they are interested in larning more about – that desire will fuel motive in people to go on to stop up off at their current place. no affair how drab or brainless. It is the visible radiation at the terminal of the tunnel: the possibility that in the hereafter. they could be in a different place more to that person’s wishing. Motivation like that would be a authoritative definition of the anticipation theory â€Å"suggest [ ing ] that people are mo tivated by how much they want something and the likeliness they perceive of acquiring it† ( Griffin A ; Moorhead. 2012. 2010 ) . Organizational behaviour alteration â€Å"is the application of support theory to people in organisational settings† ( Griffin A ; Moorhead. 2012. 2010 ) . Or. as defined in another manner. organisation behaviour alteration is â€Å"A motivational theory proposing that an person will act in a mode that helps him or her avoid possible negative results and achieve agreeable outcomes† ( Organizational Behavior Modification Theory. 2012 ) . This theory has several different stairss involved: place performance-related behavioural events. find the baseline of the frequence of response. place bing behavioural eventualities through functional analysis. develop intercession schemes and use them. and so mensurate the response ( Griffin A ; Moorhead. 2012. 2010 ) . So would this theoretical account be of any aid for Netflix? Possibly. but improbable if the people being examined are the entry-level DVD inspectors. Because that occupation description leaves really small for the employee to stand out in. it would be hard to place behaviours. develop intercession schemes and implement them. Either the employee does a good occupation or they do non. I feel that at higher degrees within the company the organisational behaviour alteration would be of great usage. Now team work is something that does non truly seem to be on the degree of DVD inspectors. The full premiss of the occupation description is speed. inside informations and truth. It seems that each DVD inspector is on their ain lonely island. rupturing through bins of DVDs and logging them. Social interaction is really minimum as that would take away from production. The simple fact is that person has got to make the dirty occupation of opening the DVDs that are returned by mail. inspecting them. cataloging them. and cleaning them. That occupation description does non impart itself to something that could be done in a squad environment. Possibly something like an assembly line could be established where each individual has a different map ; one individual opens the mail. the following individual removes the DVD and inspects it. the following individual catalogs and cleans it. but that may take to holding excessively many people involved in something that is truly rather simple. However. Netflix could see a more team-focused ambiance to seek and hike morale. motive and prod uctiveness. Possibly by holding groups of people compete against each other for different fringe benefits. production would be increased. Another manner to promote a squad environment would be to brainstorm different ways the occupation could be improved. Could some of the work be done electronically? Is there a manner to streamline the procedure to increase efficiency? Who better to reply these inquiries than the people who do the work? Everyone has a interest in the improvement of the company. Netflix deals with its clients chiefly through the cyberspace. After all. that is how the company was set up – to be an online-DVD-by-mail company. If Netflix wanted to present a more humanity into their client interactions. it may turn out to be a small hard. The job with an on-line company is that the client neer gets any face-time with a company representative. About all communicating is done over the cyberspace and on occasion over the phone. Netflix has some great email correspondence in topographic point which allows them to advise their clients when their DVD has been received back in the distribution centre ( thanks to the DVD inspectors ) . and when their following DVD choice is traveling to transport. To set Netflix into the C ommunication Process as outlined by Griffin A ; Moorhead ( 2012. 2010 ) there must be a beginning of the message. the message is so encoded. transmitted. decoded and received. During that procedure. there may be noise that impedes or garbles the message. So if we use the illustration of the electronic mails that Netflix sends out to its clients. the electronic mail sent out reding that the following DVD is on its manner would be the encoding procedure. the existent electronic mail is the transmittal. the decryption would be the client opening the electronic mail and the receiving system is the existent client. Noise would be considered anything that impeded the message. so possibly a firewall. a bad electronic mail reference. or possibly the electronic mail went to a debris electronic mail booklet. The system that Netflix has in topographic point to pass on with its clients is truly antic for an on-line company. The attempt that Netflix has put in to pass on with its client base shows that they want to transcend in being a really prompt DVD service and they are invariably beging feedback. In order to add a more human component to Netflix’s communications. they could get down looking to pass on with clients and possible clients via wireless ads or telecasting commercials. If they focused more on the personal client experiences with Netflix. they may be able to make an audience on a deeper degree than merely by seeking to derive concern. Possibly demoing childs basking an educational show or a couple basking a quiet day of the month dark in by watching a movie†¦focusing on households being together profiting from clip spent together would make clients on a more personal degree. A great side consequence to that may be that Netflix additions more clients one time people see how their place lives could potentially better by utilizing the company’s services. Organizational alteration is something that Netflix about lives and breathes. CEO Reed Hastings is a large truster in alteration and development. He understands that engineering is invariably being updated ; bigger and better things are ever coming down the line and he wants to be on the head of those occurrences. The competition that Netflix faces from companies like Walmart. Blockbuster and Amazon are ever doing Netflix dance on their toes to guarantee that they stay in front of the curve and remain feasible and competitory in a market place that is all about consumer pick. A great illustration of Netflix implementing the organisation alteration procedure theoretical account as outlined in our text was when Netflix was founded and faced stiff competition from Blockbuster. In 2002. Blockbuster was t he large name in the move rental universe as they controlled about 40 per centum of the market-share ; no other individual company was every bit large a force ( Griffin A ; Moorhead. 2012. 2010 ) . As Netflix was still a trade name new company. they were non expected to turn over net incomes for some clip. Blockbuster. likely seeing the possible menace that Netflix posed on their concern. so started their ain mail plan where clients could lease films through the mail. They besides expanded their market into video games: something Netflix had non considered. Blockbuster besides had an border on Netflix given the fact that they besides had physical shops all over the state. so they non merely have the gross from their mail plan. but they were besides still carry oning concern the manner they had before. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. seeing his company’s stock value traveling down the lavatory instead rapidly. decided to cut the subscription costs on his ranks. Making so meant less money coming in the door for new concern. but it was surely a more attractive option for possible clients. This is something that Mr. Hastings did to stay competitory. He even admitted that: †¦ we mistakenly concluded that Blockbuster likely wasn’t traveling to establish a competitory attempt when they hadn’t by 2003. Then. in 2004. they did. We thought ‘Well. they won’t set much money behind it. ’ Over the past four old ages [ 2004-2009 ] . they’ve invested more than $ 500 million against us ( Griffin A ; Moorhead. 2012. 2010 ) . Finally. Netflix came out on top. systematically bettering net incomes and deriving clients. while Blockbuster continues to fight. Mr. Hastings recognized and defined the job his company was holding. examined the options he had. implemented the alteration and so reaped the benefits. In today’s universe. Netflix is still a strong company. It has moved into the kingdom of streaming picture. still has a really strong DVD-by-mail plan and its client base is still turning. However. Netflix has caused some contention within the company. In July of 2011. Netflix decided that they would be dividing their DVD services from their picture cyclosis services and bear downing two separate fees for them. Customers used to be able to hold both services with one subscription fee and now there would be two fees if the client still wanted both services. G ratuitous to state. the Netflix boat was confronting an turbulence. Customers were extremely upset by the alteration. Netflix lost over 800. 000 clients with their new pricing system. However. once more. CEO Mr. Hastings was speedy to repair his ways and change by reversal the pricing: As clients continued to fly. Hastings leapt into the disturbance to seek to explicate. â€Å"I messed up. † he wrote on the Netflix Blog on September 18. â€Å"I owe everyone an account. It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked regard and humbleness in the manner we announced the separation of DVD and streaming. and the monetary value alterations. That was surely non our purpose. and I offer my sincere apology† ( Cohan. 2012 ) . In the coming old ages. I feel that Netflix will go on to turn and stay on the head of engineering. They will go on to spread out their services and remain a media giant in the universe of amusement. Other companies will surely seek and best Netflix in one country or another. Just expression at the attempts put forth by Blockbuster and Walmart. However. Netflix has proven to be a solid company – a leader in what they do best: supply quality service and merchandises and retain happy. loyal clients. Having a Chief executive officer at the caput that is willing to take hazards. offer apologies and alter his company’s way to keep the client focal point shows that Netflix merely has one way that they are interested in heading. And that way is up. Mentions Cohan. W. D. ( 2012. February 22nd ) . Sing Red. Retrieved August 15th. 2012. from VanityFair. com: hypertext transfer protocol: //www. vanityfair. com/business/2012/02/netflix-201202 Griffin. R. W. . A ; Moorhead. G. ( 2012. 2010 ) . Organizational Behavior: Pull offing Peoples and Organizations. Tenth Edition. Mason. Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning. Kolakowski. N. ( 2008. June 26th ) . The Netflix Queue: How’s it Work? . Retrieved August 16th. 2012. from SoundandVisionMag. com: hypertext transfer protocol: //www. soundandvisionmag. com/article/netflix-queue-hows-it-work Netflix Company Facts. ( 2012 ) . Retrieved August 15th. 2012. from Netflix. com: hypertext transfer protocol: //account. netflix. com/MediaCenter/Facts Organizational Behavior Modification Theory. ( 2012 ) . Retrieved August 17th. 2012. from SuperGlossary. com: hypertext transfer protocol: //www. superglossary. com/Definition/Human_Resources_ % 28HR % 29/Organizational_Behavior_Modification_Theory. hyp ertext markup language Snyder. B. ( 2012. January 26th ) . Netflix Inc. Retrieved August 15th. 2012. from NewYorkTimes. com: hypertext transfer protocol: //topics. nytimes. com/top/news/business/companies/netflix-inc/index. hypertext markup language