Essay Renting and Netflix

Netflix finds its competition and strategic challenges against big names in the market –Google, Apple and Amazon to name a few (Roberts & Zahay, 2012). The challenge for Netflix lies in maintaining the innovative streak, which will add creativity and youth to its brand image and the brand itself. This innovative streak has to be continual and has to match the demands and preferences of the customers in their taste and liking. The brand and the company cannot afford to remain stagnant and rigid in the ever changing and demanding market place. The core competency that Netflix will have to focus on to meet this challenge is to develop and train its human resource. Effective and efficient human resource management will allow the company to tap into present and potential customers, as well as, allow the company to serve them appropriately.

Blockbuster Entertainment, Inc. was once a highly successful and profitable brick and mortar home movie and video game rental store. At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster had up to 60,000 employees and more than 9,000 stores. The idea behind Netflix came from an unsatisfied, embarrassed customer of Blockbuster, Mr. Reed Hastings, now CEO of Netflix, paid a $40 late fee because he returned the movie Apollo 13 six weeks later (Zarafshar, 2013). He began to contemplate ingeniously about a notion to change the movie-leasing pattern into a more pioneering industry. In 1997 Netflix was started as a DVD rental-by-mail business without subscriptions. In 1999, taking a stride additional in the direction of evolving the industry, Hastings began the subscription-based business mode based on renting DVDs by mail with plans reliant on the quantity of titles taken at a time. Netflix put forward 120,000 titles for limitless monthly DVD rental with free shipping no late and per title fees. Since that time Netflix has become one of the most popular subscription services in the world, and is now valued at over $28 billion and steadily increasing. What factors contributed to the success and failure of these two companies?

Netflix is an entertainment company that specializes in streaming media and online video-on-demand. Over the years, it has grown to include film and television production and other distribution services. Its business model has changed, and so has its overall production cost grown to keep up with the increased market share. As a result, its current position in the market has made it more exposed to competition from other firms, which is why it needs to develop new strategies to remain profitable. Netflix has grown over the past years despite competition and its unprofitability (Helft, 2007). Therefore, to understand its success, it is important provide a microeconomic analysis of Netflix, its history, its products, and the market.

The following is a case study of Netflix, Inc. an American-based company that provides the streaming of online media to consumers in North America, South America, and parts of Europe. This case study will provide a brief overview of the company’s history along with four present-day challenges that the company will face as it tries to stay ahead of the competition. In its discussion of the present-day challenges that Netflix, Inc. faces the discussion will also relate the proposed challenges to the managerial challenges of globalization, diversity, and ethics. After each of the four anticipated challenges have been addressed then this paper will provide an analysis of the steps that Netflix, Inc. has already taken to keep the

Netflix’s completed changed the movie renting industry. Netflix’s completely changed the movie renting industry. Netflix targeted Blockbuster customers who were inconvenienced by making two trips to blockbuster in a 24 hour period and also spent time to scan the stacks to find their movies of interest. Netflix online and mail distribution system was a way to scale Blockbuster’s barriers to entry, which is their network of stores. This is a great example of disruptive innovation as they targeted a market niche, one which has been neglected by the incumbent. Blockbuster was caught off guard by the innovation by Netflix

Netflix inventory of approximately 75,000 is significantly larger than the average video rental store. The average video rental store has approximately 5,000 titles. Traditional video rental stores rarely stock sufficient copies of popular releases to meet demand. Customers unsuccessfully seeking a particular title may leave without making a selection. The large inventory of creates added customer value through

To develop further favourable relationships with production studios in order to expand their video library

Since the launch of Netflix web-based services in 1997, subscribers can choose from over 93,000 titles and over 125 million hours of TV for their viewing pleasure. Netflix has gone globally as of January 2016, internet based TV reaches into the home of over 75 million viewers in 130 new countries around the world.

To offer a wide selection of DVDs for its consumers, Netflix worked with more than 50 studios and distributors. Revenue sharing arrangements

“Netflix, Inc. is the world's largest online movie rental service, with more than 10 million subscribers (Netflix Media Center, 2009).”

As of August 2005, Netflix employed approximately 1,200 people in the United States. About 1,000 of them work in the company 's distribution centers around the country; close to 200 employees work at the company 's headquarters in Los Gatos; and 20 employees work in studios in Los Angeles (ChronicleJobs, 2005). Netflix offers their members more than 55,000 DVD title selections. This is more than any other online rental service in the United States. In 2005, Netflix shipped more than 1 million DVDs a day. Its inventory was approximately 20 million DVDs, and Netflix spent $84.2 million acquiring new DVDs. As of September 30, 2005, the company 's balance sheet showed its DVD holdings at a net value of $52.7 million after depreciation (Maddox & Thompson, 2006).Today the revenue of Netflix reached to $440 million and continuing ways of success.

I. Wall Street Journal Article and Executive Summary ..4 I A. Wall Street Journal Article 4 I B. Executive Summary ..5 II. External Analysis ..7 II A. Industry Definition ..7 II B. Six Industry Force Analysis ..8 II C. Macro Environmental Forces Analysis, Economic Trends, and Ethical Concerns ..15 II D. Competitor Analysis ..17 II D. 1 Netflix’s Competitors ..17 II D. 2 Netflix’s Primary Competitors ..17 II D. 3 Primary Competitors’ Business Level and Corporate Level Strategy ..18 II D. 4 How Competitors Achieve Their Strategic Position ..18 II D. 5 Willingness to Pay ..21 II D. 6 Comparative Financial Analysis ..22 II D. 7 Implications of Competitor Analysis ..23 II E. Intra-Industry

This essay will provide insights and sufficient background to understand Netflix’s success and difficulties the company is facing.

Adhering to its organizational mission, Netflix was able to, over a period of about a decade, force almost all of its competition out of the market. This was the culmination of meeting its set Goals. Netflix core values seemed to evoke a very negative response by the general public at large. Consumers found their ethical means of climbing the corporate ladder abhorrent. This was damaging to Netflix for a period of several years causing investors, consumers, stock holders and product distributors to refuse to continue a business relationship with them. The core strategy for Netflix was to grow their streaming subscription business both domestically and globally. Its stated goal was to continuously improve its customer experience, with a focus on expanding its accessibility of its streaming content, and striving to enhance its users interface. This has been met as to recent by the availability of devices that users can use in the home that will allow direct access to Netflix streaming content directly from Smart TV’s and DVD players. Netflix is continually expanding and extending its streaming service to include services to new streaming capable devices as they are offered on the market while working to do so within the parameters of its consolidated net income and operating segment contribution profit targets. (Netflix) Netflix claims honest and ethical conduct, including the ethical handling of actual or apparent conflicts of interest between personal and

Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings founded Netflix in 1997 as an online movie rental company to fill a niche market. In 1999, Netflix established a subscription based digital distribution service that offered unlimited rentals without due dates for just a flat fee every month. By the year 2002, Netflix made its initial public offering (IPO) priced at $15 per share after Blockbuster declined a $50 million dollar acquisition offer (O’Neill). With the increased availability of high-speed internet to the mass market, Netflix introduced its streaming service in 2007 to test alternatives means of content distribution. From 2010 to Present, Netflix has aggressively expanded worldwide to capture market shares. As of April 2016, Netflix reported to having over 81 million subscribers worldwide (KFDA).