FISD Membership

Online Discussion

10:00 AM ET-11:30 AM ET

Maybe you’ve heard of a little something out of Silicon Valley called the Netflix Culture Deck. Developed by Powerful author Patty McCord, the slides describe Netflix’s philosophy for creating and retaining the best possible staff. In the ultracompetitive tech sector, Netflix has found success by increasing employee freedom which allows “innovator-mavericks” to thrive. These “innovator-mavericks” drive growth and allow a company to be flexible enough to respond to market changes. Adapting to change requires creative thinking. If you deify process over creativity, you may gain short-term stability, but you risk long-term stagnation.

Think that doesn’t sound like the market data industry? We too find ourselves in the land of giants: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook. Any of these companies might decide they want a piece of the market data pie and they’ve got the juice to make it happen. How would you remain competitive?

McCord posits that you would do well to construct a staff of only talented, high-impact employees and then give them room to run. In Powerful she shares what she learned in the C-suite and elsewhere about building the best possible team and keeping your people motivated.

This should be an illuminating read as McCord’s philosophy emphasizes her proven guiding principles over her personal “secret sauce” for leadership. Secret sauce is enjoyable, but hard to replicate. We’re hoping to learn some actionable lessons through reading and discussing Powerful.

Facilitator:

Hope Wilkes, Program Manager, Professional Certification, FISD