Free Essays,College Free Essays,Free College Essays at Anti Essays

Reed Hastings was born on October 8, 1960 in Boston Massachusetts. Hastings majored in mathematics at Bowdoin College, receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1983. He would then continue on and teach mathematics in the Peace Corps as a volunteer in Swaziland. After his return from Africa, he finished his graduate studies at Stanford University. He began his first job at Adaptive Technologies and later on, founded Pure Software (which would be acquired by Rage Software for ¾ of a billion dollars). Little did Hastings know however, that forgetting to return ‘Apollo 13’ would be the greatest career trigger in his life.
“I’d rented a VHS and I had misplaced it and it was six weeks late. So it was a $40 late fee. I mean it was just crazy. And I was on the way to the gym and I realized – 'Whoa! Video stores could operate like a gym, with a flat membership fee.' And it was like 'I wonder why no one’s done that before!” Hastings’ journey began when he ran down to Tower records and purchased a few DVD’s that he would mail to himself. After realizing that these DVD’s, unlike VHS’s, would not be destroyed in the mail, Hastings knew he had hit a goldmine. Using the revenue earned from Pure Software, Hastings founded Netflix in 1998 and never looked back.
Since then, Netflix has become the largest online DVD rental service with a collection of over 80,000 titles and over 6.8 million subscribers. Their main warehouse in Silicon Valley alone holds more than 26 million DVDs. To increase efficiency, Hastings has also opened up four other warehouses across the US to ensure next-day delivery. Netflix is also known for its innovative business and management practices. For example, they are known to pay workers salaries much higher than that of its competition. Employees are also allowed to choose annually how much of their compensation they want in cash vs. stock. Netflix also features a user-generated ratings feature in which recommends various DVD titles to customers...