Over the years I have heard about so many opportunities which were presented to CEO’s of successful organizations and were ignored. Yahoo had the opportunity to buy facebook and Google, Verizon didn’t want to work with Apple to develop the first iPhone, Comcast didn’t connect with Disney, and Blockbuster passed up Netflix’s repeated appeal to buy them out.  This story of Netflix still strikes me as amazing and I often wonder how it could happen; my teenage children certainly spend enough time pursuing Netflix and have no idea what Blockbuster Video was, it has vanished.

Being aware of how the environment changes around us is so important.  Even if there are no ripples of change currently in our industry or if the winds of change are blowing somewhere else across the globe it is important for us to know that there is change happening somewhere which will eventually impact us.  Having optimistic and innovative foresight  rather than regretful hindsight is the optimal outcome but it is not so easy.  It is possible for a great idea to precede the technology that is required to make it successful.  Leonardo Davinci invented concepts of the helicopter (http://www.da-vinci-inventions.com/aerial-screw.aspx) hundreds of years before the first one flew.  In education, The year 2000 initiative (https://www.bctf.ca/publications/TeacherArticle.aspx?id=44129 ) in BC pre-dated the cultural and technological infrastructure to support it by no more than 20 years.  Our world is so complex and influenced by so many political, social, environmental, and economic factors that making predictions seem nearly impossible.  How could the CEO of blockbuster have possibly known that Netflix had the potential it does? What if internet speeds didn’t increase rapidly, or Apple hadn’t created lean back technology in the form of the ipad?  Would Netflix have become the success it has become today? Perhaps sometimes we just get lucky.

Without leveraging the perspective of hindsight it may be impossible to consider how any company should have done something different.  In his video  about keys to success, Jack Ma provides a template about developing a professional flow chart which could help an organizational leader from becoming obsolete, outdated and unemployed.  If deployed correctly these ideas may allow any leader to increase their success in  considering the right ideas in the right way at the right time.

Jack Ma says to work hard and that good ideas take time to develop. Consider the following:

Before you are 20- be a good student and learn all that you can

Before you are 30 – follow somebody else and learn about vision and passion

Before you are 40 – Work hard for yourself and develop your own ideas and vision

Before you are 50 – realize that things may begin to change around you but continue to work at what you are good at

Before you are 60 – Work for young people, they are aware more aware of what the future holds.

It seems that Netflix has been successful in applying this type of thinking as their company has grown and aged. Netflix has gone from being sent away by the leadership at Blockbuster Video as a mail delivery DVD service to a multi-billion dollar company creating its own original programming.  It has accomplished this by continually innovating.  As a company it offers a completely different product than it did at its outset.  Netflix has changed  the platform, delivery method and viewing experience of its customers. Continual innovation has lead the company’s response to changing market environments to become known as the Netflix way (Castillo, 2013). My advice to this company is that they would continue to listen to the younger and newer voices around them and to continue to innovate as they have successfully done to this point.

 

Castillo, J (December 2013) The Netflix Way: Learning from Failure, Constantly Innovating: When Blockbuster laughed at a partnership proposal from Netflix in 2000, it jump started one of the most revolutionary companies of our time. streaming magazine. Retrieved from http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/The-Netflix-Way-Learning-from-Failure-Constantly-Innovating-93680.aspx

E-learning (2016, June 23) Keys to success from Jack Ma | self-made billionaire and CEO of Alibaba [Video File]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WjHZ5wLe6w