Dr. Steve Safier and Josh Bellis’ Integrated Talent Management class were privileged to host guest speaker, Sergio Ezama, Chief Talent Officer at Netflix. Prior to Netflix, Sergio served as a Human Resources leader in multiple settings around the world, most recently at PepsiCo, where he was the Global Chief Talent Officer and CHRO Global Groups and Functions.
Sergio’s described as one his “biggest challenges ahead” how to ensure Netflix’s culture evolves alongside the growth of the business without losing its essence. During the last years and throughout the pandemic, Netflix experienced tremendous growth and advanced towards the goal of “entertaining the world” by offering unique stories from anywhere to everywhere. Looking ahead, and to keep consistent with its unique culture, Netflix needs to remain agile and support teams’ and employee’s empowerment and decision making.
Toward this end, Sergio described Netflix’s unique Culture and Talent philosophy, involving very few rules (or no rules at all) and centered around hiring the best people in the market and having them learn and develop from cracking difficult problems and on the job feedback. Among some of the Netflix principles we discussed during the class:
1.) Dream Team concept – We only hire and retain the best people including having “no brilliant jerks”
2.) Keeper Test – an innovative way for managers to keep talent density high in their teams
4.) Freedom & Responsibility – treat people as adults. (For example, the Netflix vacation policy is, “Take vacation.” The expense policy is “Act in Netflix’s best interest” versus more cumbersome and traditional policies.)
5.) Context, not Control – Managers are not expected to make all the decisions but, rather, set the context and empower their people to make them.
6.) Making decisions through Informed Captains – Netflix tries to be very clear about who makes the decisions after having collected the necessary input (farming for dissent) to ensure agility, ownership and accountability.
We also asked Sergio for advice for our HCM students. His very interesting response:
In your career and life, you will be given a lot of choices; sometimes you don’t have an answer, and that is okay. However, it is helpful to have and follow a personal set of values (what really matters to you) from which to base your decisions. When you are faced with these difficult cross paths, always refer back to these values to set the way.
And, don’t be in a rush. As you grow your career there will be times of acceleration and times of consolidation. Never forget about life and don’t forget about family. These are the things that really matter.
Thank you, Sergio, for your fascinating talk and your meaningful advice!
