Sean Park Portrait
Quote of The Day Title
In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind there are few.
- Shunryu Suzuki

I wish my old firm had been like this.

Image representing Netflix as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

I finally got around to reading the now infamous Netflix presentation on corporate culture. I had more than a dozen people point it out to me and must admit this actually raised my level of skepticism – “sure, ok another vapid corporate culture slideshow…”

I was wrong. I wish I had written this. These 9 values and how they should be implemented align entirely with my thinking and – my former colleagues will have to confirm / refute this – how I tried to run the businesses I was responsible for at DrKW, and how I tried to use my influence on the Management Committee to get the firm to adopt these values. In this latter goal I would have to say I failed miserably. As for the former, I think I was more successful but ultimately it was perhaps futile, surrounded as we were by a sea of culture that was strikingly different.

The sad thing is, I’m convinced had we adopted this culture – and as a relatively small investment bank it was within our control – I think the financial and business outcome for DrKW would have been quite different. I would go so far as to say it would continue to exist today and would have thrived as a nimble and unique competitor in the financial wreckage of the past two years. Instead, it was inevitably destined to disappear: to small to save, big enough to blow up.

But DrKW was unfortunately not unique in rejecting this positive culture. I can’t think of any investment banks that would entertain truly practicing even two or three of the Netflix values, let alone all nine. (I’ve only ever worked for three banks so maybe I’m wrong. Please correct me if you think this is the case.) And yet were they run along these lines, I am certain that the worst of the afflictions that beset the financial system would not have materialized. The crisis would not have been. I know that is a pretty strong statement. But I don’t think it is hyperbole.

There are many talented and extraordinary people in the financial services industry who, fed up with the toxic cultures, leave it as soon as they can afford to. I’m sure you could build an incredibly successful company by attracting this talent with a cultural framework like this. Maybe we’ll be able to do it. I’m sure someone will. I can’t wait.

Culture
Related articles by Zemanta
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Permalink||Comments|Filed under 'Digital Generation, Financial Services, Management, Peak Hierarchy'
  • I also love these values (and thanks to Stu for pointing these slides out to me).

    My only comment would be that I think there's a limit to the complexity of an organisation that can support this culture. Once it grows beyond a certain point you'd have to either abandon the culture or restructure the organisation.

    My vote would be to restructure the organisation into separate, simpler, autonomous operating units that share these values and retain the "highly-aligned, loosely-coupled" behaviours.

    Still, dealing with the issues of growth is a problem we'd all like to have.
  • So how many of the nine boxes did DrKW tick? Digital Markets? ;)
  • Agree, but would also (like you) suggest that when you reach this level of (unmanageable) complexity, it's time for the cell to divide so to speak. It's the natural consequence of Coase's theory imo.
blog comments powered by Disqus