Bhasmasura

Patty was the Chief Talent Officer for a small startup. Her job was to hire people for the company.

The startup was poor. It was late 90s. The company had to buy DVDs and stamps and envelopes and send customers these DVDs by post – movies, shows etc.

Around 2001 the tech bubble had burst. The company ran out of money fast and almost went bankrupt.

And Patty, who had been in charge of HIRING people, was now in charge of FIRING them.

The whole process in which Patty laid off one third of the staff, as a result of which the company turned around has become this legendary slide presentation in silicon valley.
A few years ago, they posted that presentation online, and it went viral. It’s gotten 12 million views.
This start-up was of course Netflix.
… …

The most famous slides in that presentation makes game changer idea.

-1-
“Hard work- NOT relevant“.
Meaning :

We care about your output, not your input, or how punctual you’re.

-2-
“We are a Team, NOT a Family“

If we don’t need you anymore, you’ll be cut. It may not be any of your fault.

Result:

When Netflix started streaming movies, the staff meant for mailing VCD became redundant and are shown the door.
Yet it started growing so fast that it was about to break the Internet. It’s brilliant team of engineers – the same people who had started the streaming work were now incapable of meeting the deadline. So Netflix hired Amazon data centers for the job.
It was a team of engineers that were so talented that they had basically taken Netflix to this point of explosive growth.
But the writing was on the wall.

Nobody’s family.

If you’re surplus, you’ve to leave.

Patty in the process became the Queen of the Goodbyes.

Ten Years After:

Ten years after the layoffs, still the company seemed unstoppable. It was acquiring a million subscribers a month. It was rolling in dough. From acquiring copyright of Hollywood productions, it started it’s own production.

Then something inevitable happened. The company failed. Heads had to roll. Who’s it this time ?
…
Unfortunately, Patty had no experience in movie productions, hence had no more roll in the game.