Netflix and the Courage to Change Itself
A chapter about how Netflix moved away from a profitable DVD model to invest in streaming, then shifted from distribution to original content — not because the old product had already failed, but because the long-term mission required a new vehicle
Separating long-term goals from current products: remaining loyal to the mission, watching changes in the world and changing the vehicle before change becomes compulsory
Success can make an organization resist change
Not every crisis comes from competitors. Some organizations disappear because success makes them unwilling to change. Netflix recognized this danger while its DVD model was still working.
Netflix looked beyond the model that was working
Netflix leadership did not look only at present revenue. They looked at how people would watch movies ten years later and saw that waiting for a mailed DVD would eventually become obsolete.
Change before being forced to change
The question was no longer when change would arrive, but whether the company would change before it was forced to. Netflix invested in streaming while DVDs were still profitable.
Stay loyal to the mission, not the product
Netflix then moved from distributing other people’s content to producing original content. These shifts were not random; they served one goal: making content easier to enjoy.
The goal and the means are not the same
The deeper lesson is not streaming. Netflix was not loyal to the old product; it was loyal to the mission. When the product stopped being the best way to serve the mission, it changed.
The highest level of focus is changing yourself first
This is a higher level of focus: not only removing what is unnecessary or beginning again when needed, but changing yourself before the world forces you to.
Look again at what must change now
Ask what you preserve only because it is familiar, which product or plan no longer serves the long-term goal and which change should happen before circumstances demand it.
Focus means loyalty to the long-term goal
Focus is not loyalty to the original product or plan. It is loyalty to the long-term goal and the courage to change the means as the world changes.
The next step is the disease of doing too much
The next chapter explores the disease of doing too much — why startups with many ideas still fail and how too many directions can dissolve focus.