[Greek2017] Xerxes and Reed Hastings walk into a bar…

Tue Feb 7 21:26:16 UTC 2017

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Phil Terry" <phil at collaborativegain.com> 
Subject: Xerxes and Reed Hastings walk into a bar…
Date: February 7, 2017 at 4:14:22 PM EST
To: "Phil Terry" <pterry at gmail.com>
Reply-To: phil at collaborativegain.com

February 7, 2017

Xerxes and Reed Hastings walk into a bar…

2,500 years ago, Xerxes — King of Kings, Emperor of the Persians — invaded Europe with a large army determined to subjugate the upstart, independent Greeks. He failed miserably.
About five years ago, Reed Hastings — CEO of Netflix and a kind of modern-day King of Silicon Valley — embarked on a campaign that almost destroyed his company.
Hastings raised the prices of Netflix effectively by 60% driving hundreds of thousands of subscribers to cancel their accounts. The stock price dropped precipitously from around $350 to $50. A growing chorus of analysts predicted the end of Netflix. He then announced that he was splitting the company into two forcing subscribers to now manage two different accounts. More cancellations followed.
Today, about five short years later, the stock price has risen from a low of $50 to a pre-split price of more than $700. The subscriber base has not only stopped declining but has grown from under 20 million to more than 93 million.
How did Netflix not only survive but turn itself around? What happened?
Unlike many Kings, CEOs, Generals, or Presidents, Hastings quickly realized that he had blundered. And then he said something rare and remarkable for a CEO — much less a Silicon Valley CEO.
What did he say? He uttered the five most important words in my first book, Customers Included <http://collaborativegain.cmail20.com/t/t-l-hklrgd-iiyuokry-r/> — and these are not my words or the words of my co-author. These are his words.
He said publicly that this series of blunders had been caused by:
                   “…arrogance based on past success.”
I’ve given close to 200 Customers Included <http://collaborativegain.cmail20.com/t/t-l-hklrgd-iiyuokry-y/> talks in the last three years (at companies ranging from Apple to Walmart). In each and every one of these sessions, I have told the story of Netflix and asked my audiences to write these five words down and remember them.
How did Reed Hastings figure this out when so many in history going all the way back to Xerxes could not recognize when their arrogance had blinded them? In my sessions, I walk through some important next steps that Hastings took to focus on the basic needs of his customers and to repair the damage.
But I also like to imagine that perhaps he sat down with Xerxes in a bar near the Netflix offices. After they ordered drinks, maybe Xerxes told him about his blunder.
The Persian Empire was the mightiest empire of its day. According to Herodotus, Xerxes was able to assemble millions of soldiers and support personnel to form the invasion force (modern historians say it was a smaller but still massive army). Perhaps Xerxes explained this to Hastings and added that they not only had people, but they had technology.
For example, perhaps Xerxes boasted to Hastings that they did something no one else had done before: they bridged the Hellespont. The Hellespont is the body of water that separates Asia and Europe. This was an incredible feat of engineering and made possible the land invasion of Europe. It also boosted the confidence of the Persians making them feel invincible — nothing not even large bodies of water could stop them.
Despite, however, their technical prowess and massive army, the Persians still lost. They made a series of mistakes based on overconfidence and arrogance. Perhaps Xerxes explained all this to Hastings and warned him about arrogance and blindness. As a result, maybe Hastings left that bar determined to listen and learn from Xerxes — not to mention from his customers and colleagues.
Tonight, February 7, I’m kicking off my next Reading Odyssey <http://collaborativegain.cmail20.com/t/t-l-hklrgd-iiyuokry-j/> program - a series of discussions with a group of Collaborative Gain members, scholars, and others about a number of Greek tragedies including the oldest surviving Greek play, The Persians by Aeschylus. Written only a short time after the actual battles, this play shows some real sympathy for Xerxes, despite the fact that he had razed Athens during the war.
Why were the Greeks sympathetic to the arrogant Xerxes who had caused so much death and destruction?
They understood — thousands of years before behavioral economics confirmed — that all humans, Greeks, Persians, and everyone else — believe they cannot err and, as a result, make blundering mistakes.
P.S. I'm excited that Bard Professor, James Romm, co-editor and translator of this new edition of Greek Plays, will be joining us tonight. Later this year, Cambridge University Professor Paul Cartledge will join us. If you want to join us via phone for these readings and discussion groups, go to the Reading Odyssey <http://collaborativegain.cmail20.com/t/t-l-hklrgd-iiyuokry-t/> website.

Speaking and Workshops <http://collaborativegain.cmail20.com/t/t-l-hklrgd-iiyuokry-i/> 

I've launched my newest talk:
Artificial Intelligence and the Customer Experience - the 20 Year Curve <http://collaborativegain.cmail20.com/t/t-l-hklrgd-iiyuokry-k/>
I brought this talk recently to MasterCard and am preparing to go to Europe and across the United States with it.
Do you want me to speak at your company?
I can speak to audiences of 50 to 5,000 – from all-company retreats to management, marketing or product teams, etc.  
I can now do any of the following talks <http://collaborativegain.cmail20.com/t/t-l-hklrgd-iiyuokry-u/>:
- Customers Included
- AI and CX: The 20 Year Curve
- The Mathematics of Customer Experience (or why CX is strategic)
I've done more than 200 talks in the last 3 years, the reviews have been great and I've had a lot of fun.
If you'd like to learn more, please get in touch.

Council News

The Collaborative Gain Councils is a community of hundreds of customer-centric leaders - peers across industries - who help each other go beyond their limited perspectives and, as a result, transform their careers and companies. Leaders come together to ask for help in carefully curated councils. Members range from Apple to Spotify and Warby Parker, from Airbnb to Walmart, and many others.
New Councils Forming
We now have 25 great councils <http://collaborativegain.cmail20.com/t/t-l-hklrgd-iiyuokry-o/> of peer leaders including these new councils that are forming:
- Chief Product Officers led by TripAdvisor, Spotify, Dollar Shave Club, and others (we now have 8 product councils)
- Marketing and Data Science (for CMOs/SVPs)
- Chief Customer Officers
- B2B SaaS Presidents and CEOs
- Digital Presidents and CEOs
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Books you recommend?

In my last newsletter, I asked you what you are reading. Many readers responded with some great books.
You can see the books recommended here:
                         Books My Readers Recommend <http://collaborativegain.cmail20.com/t/t-l-hklrgd-iiyuokry-b/>
First 10 readers get a free Kindle copy of any of the books recommended by readers (in the Google Sheet above).
What about you?
Which books do *you* love and recommend to the other readers of this newsletter (and feel free to include podcasts as well as books)?
Can you add your recommendations to the list? Email us and we'll add them.

Help us find a Community Manager?

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Keep asking for help...and building great companies for customers and employees,

New Councils Coming: Chief Product Officers, Marketing, Chief Data Officers, Chief Customer Officers

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All 25 Councils in Chicago
Apr 25 and 26
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