Applause for Netflix; or not?

As I’ve written before, courage is one of the key attributes of exceptional problem solvers. The courage to challenge expert opinion. The courage to think differently. The courage to suggest something you know will be met with skepticism, ridicule, or derision. The courage to be wrong. The courage to fail. Publicly.

These aren’t easy things to do.

No one likes to engage in argument, to single him or herself out as the lone point of dissension, to have their ideas laughed at. No one likes to be wrong. No one likes to fail.

But this is how we learn. As Thomas Edison once said, “Why I haven’t failed, I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work!” Trying something new, understanding why it didn’t work as planned, then using that knowledge to improve is a vitally important part of progress.

So hats off to Reed Hastings, Netflix’s CEO, who last week reversed course, shelving his plan to split the company’s DVD-by-mail service into a separate business (Qwikster) from its on-line streaming business. The two were to have separate websites, separate billing and no sharing of customer information. Customers howled at the idea and left in droves.

There are still other issues in play, of course, including Netflix’s recent 60% price increase, but at least on the point of dividing the mail and streaming businesses, forced or otherwise, Hastings has recognized his mistake and changed course.

Or has he?

In last week’s public announcement, Hasting’s reflected, “There is a difference between moving quickly – which Netflix has done very well for years – and moving too fast, which is what we did in this case.”

So, Mr. Hastings, was it really a mistake to split the business, or did you simply do it too soon? If the latter, we can only assume he’ll do it all over again, just at a later date, right?

Being wrong is hard. Admitting it is even harder.

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