Question

Name 1 disruption that you feel is going to change the course of business. Which type of company would you be more comfortable working at…one on the bleeding edge of disruption or one that maintains a stable status quo?

Textbook:

Dual Transformation: How to Reposition Today’s Business While Creating the Future Edition: N/A Author: Scott D. Anthony, Clark G. Gilbert, Mark W. Johnson ISBN: 978-1-63369-248-0 Copyright Year: 2017 Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
HBR’S 10 MUST READS: On Change Management Edition: N/A ISBN: 978-1-4221-5800-5 Copyright Year: 2011 Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press

Answer 1

I feel Netflix is one of the disruptive innovation example that has changed the course of business in a significant way. It started its business from DVD model business to the rental business of video cassettes, to now, online streaming business, it has travelled a long way. To such kind of Companies, I may certainly like to see my future in.

Reed Hastings played a very significant role in building up Netflix. His Company helped in revamp the Television viewing concept altogether from initiating with a modest start of selling DVDs via e-mails to know winning laurels and world-class awards especially for the original Television series. Although a well known figure in the Silicon Valley, Reed Hastings is a person who is still very subtle to the Public. This entrepreneurial ability of his got especially churned out from the credits of his degree of Masters in Artificial Intelligence at Stanford. After acquiring Rational software in 1995, his initial start-up Pure Software earned over 700 million dollars from the acquisition and thereby enabling him to cofound Netflix with Marc Randolph in the year 1997. Hastings got this concept after he was charged for the late submission of the overdue rental for a Blockbuster. However, in the year 2000, Reed Hastings had offered Blockbuster to partner with his Company to cater to the online video-rental medium however the proposal did not go well with Blockbuster and hence the deal never got concretized. Netflix, back then, a retail underdog, underwent promotional strategies under the able-guidance of Reed Hastings and within the span of another five years, his company was in the favorable position to take up a considerable market share by having back then close to five million subscribers hence beating the mark made by Blockbuster in the industry. The growth story of Netflix never stopped here and by 2016, the market share of Netflix reached to more than sixteen million subscribers which a phenomenal number. In between, for a brief period of two years, Reed Hastings had also demarcated the online streaming videos from that of the DVD rental space however; it merged back the two businesses after learning the hard way out. With the original TV series that Hastings came up with called “House of cards”, the show won three Primetime Emmy awards out of the nine nominations that it had received, outnumbering several traditional TV shows as well. In stock markets as well, after the initial hiccups, it has been performing reasonably well. The story of Netflix has been thus inspiring to me.

The online web business in the entertainment space is quite luring and has a promising future as well. However, I shall prefer initially to work with a company that maintains a stable status quo because that shall let my career boost at the entry level. Once stabilized, I shall not mind starting my own business as well, that may have the bleed at the edge of disruption. But before that, to me, it is the experience that is essential to be gathered first before showing the courage.