Thread by @CultureXInsight

1/ @netflix's #culture evokes strong reactions.

@sherylsandberg said the deck describing Netflix culture "may well be the most important document ever to come out of the Valley,"

The @WSJ had a decidedly less positive take

wsj.com/articles/at-ne…

2/ It would be great to analyze @netflix culture using data not anecdotes

Today we launch the @mitsmr #Culture500 to analyze the cultures of 500+ major companies by analyzing the free text from 1.2 million @Glassdoor reviews

sloanreview.mit.edu/culture500?utm…

3/ Over the next few months, we'll use the @mitsmr @netflix #Culture500 to analyze the #culture of some of the world's best-known companies, starting with @netflix

jobs.netflix.com/culture

4/ @Glassdoor reviews a 1-5 rating of a company's #culture & #values

This chart shows the average @Glassdoor culture/values rating for Netflix (red), the Internet (blue) and media & entertainment industries (orange) from 2014-2018

@netflix is in line with those industries

5/ Average ratings alone provide limited insight on #culture because employees don't explain their rationale for the rating

A more powerful analysis would show how a company does on specific dimensions of culture, particularly a company's core values

@netflix core values

6/ Rather than relying on aggregate rankings, we'll explore how @netflix is doing against its 5 core values, starting with "avoid rules".

The @netflix official culture statements explains the risk of too many rules as companies grow

7/ This argument echoes the point Kathy Eisenhardt and I made in our book #SimpleRules--too many rules and processes can impede agility

Here are some examples of ways @netflix avoids rules

8/ @netflix avoids rules to ensure the company can adapt to changes in the market more quickly and effectively than competitors.

So how is @netflix doing in terms of #agility compared to other Internet companies?

9/ We used NLP & ML to classify free text responses from @Glassdoor reviews into cultural topics

This #Culture500 chart plots how frequently employees discussed agility (x axis) & sentiment (y axis)

(0 = industry mean, & axis labels are standard deviations above/below mean)

10/ The chart above shows @netflix employees mentioned #agility at roughly the same frequency of the average Internet company

@netflix employees talked about agility 1.7 standard deviations more positively than the average firm--tied with @amazon & a bit below @Uber & @Facebook

11/ As @netflix creates more original content, you could argue that the right comparison set is not Internet companies but Media & Entertainment companies like @HBO or @Disney

How does @netflix stack up against media companies on #Agility?

Spoiler alert: Very well

12/ One of the topics included in agility is "red tape" which measures employees' assessment of how paper-work and administrative overhead slow them down

@netflix employees speak very favorably about the company's lack of red tape

13/ Reducing processes and rules should simplify work in @netflix

@netflix scores very high on #simplicity compared to other Internet companies

14/ It's interesting to note, however, that fewer rules do not seem to translate into fewer or more effective meetings at @netflix

Fewer rules may increase the need for communication to discuss decisions and coordinate activities

15/ The punchline-- @netflix ranks very highly on #agility in the Internet industry, which itself ranks highest on agility of the 33 industries we studied

@netflix "avoid rules" policy appears to be a key element of the company's agility

16/ My next thread will explore how well @netflix is living up to its core value of encouraging independent decision making.

Stay tuned