Candour is a big deal for Netflix co-founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings. Having argued for “increased candour” early on in this eye-popping account of Netlix’s corporate culture, he returns to the idea some 60 pages later in a section called “Pump up candour”. Not content with that, he makes the point again, towards the end of the book, with the exhortation: “Max up candour” (Chapter 8).
At this year’s Steve Hewlett Memorial Lecture, former BBC Director-General Mark Thompson recounted a conversation he had had with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings in 2007, during discussions concerning the launch of the iPlayer. According to Thompson, Hastings told him: “I don’t know why you’re bothering, Mark, you’ll never beat my algorithm. Why not just give us all your content instead?”
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings talks to Kirsty Wark about the investment in storytelling, production and talent which helps Netflix keep its crown as Queen of the SVoDs.
Further speakers announced include Karen Blackett OBE, Chair of MediaCom UK; Howard Davine, Executive Vice President, Business Operations, ABC Studios; Sir Lenny Henry, actor, comedian and diversity campaigner; Tim Hincks, Co-CEO of Expectation; Jane Turton, CEO of All3Media; and Linda Yaccarino, Chairman of Advertising and Client Partnerships, NBCUniversal.
The 2019 event, which is set to take place at King’s College in Cambridge from the 18-20th of September, is this year entitled “Content, Consumers, and everything in between”.
