Netflix - a learning organization in the making Established as a small dot-com company in 1997, Netflix has grown quickly to become the industry leader in the movie-rental and entertainment market with over 24 million subscribers. Such growth is not coincidental rather it is steeped within the company's tradition of innovation and growth. The company was inspired by the experiences of its founder and CEO, Reed Hastings, who was charged a $40 late fee for his late return of a rental of Apollo 13. Hasting began to reflect upon a better model for supplying home entertainment. He realized that gym membership allowed members to pay a flat monthly fee and work out as often or as little as they liked, and he wondered whether such a model might work in the movie-rental business. This experience inspired the Netflix business model of an all-you-can-watch monthly subscription service. Revolutionizing the way in which consumers engaged with home entertainment, Netflix entered into a market dominated by the two video giants of Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. Initially, Netflix introduced a mail-order, video-rental experience, whereby customers selected across a library of over 100,000 titles with the DVD delivery by post to the customer's door, but this service has been replaced by instant streaming, whereby customers download movies and TV programs directly onto their TV, PC, tablets or other enabling devices (including Wii, Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 console). With an expanding presence in over 43 countries, Netflix has harnessed the power of technology to deliver home entertainment service to customers in an easy, accessible, inexpensive way. Thus, the Netflix model has totally altered the governing rules of the video-rental market by changing rental delivery and access system dynamics and guiding customers towards a new, more convenient model of home entertainment Alongside using internet to allow customers to access the service and stream content, the Netflix offering is also enhanced through content licensing agreements and the Cine-watch service. With deals concluded with the main movie studios (Warner Bros., Universal Studios), Netflix has ensured that its customers have exclusive access to the top movies and TV program ahead of its rivals. In many cases, this has reduced the inclination of customers to sign up to expensive pay-per-view cable channels and provided a one-stop shop entertainment service. The Cine-watch service is Netflix's predictive analytics tool, which offers customers with personalized movie recommendations based upon members' ratings and the user's own previous movie-rental behavior. By rating movies using one to five stars, members are directed to new titles which align with their interests and tastes. The Cine-watch service also offers enormous benefits to Netflix as it allows the company to gain insights into what their customers like and improves its ability to spread targeted marketing information among its subscribers. Blockbuster's filing for bankruptcy in the US in september2010 marked a significant transition in the move from bricks-and-mortar towards on-demand, subscription-based online movie and TV services, it also cemented Netflix's arrival as the key dominant player in this new market. moving to streaming movies eliminated Netflix's need to invest in DVD warehouses and pay hefty postal fees. Building a comprehensive cloud-based infrastructure using Amazon web services allowed Netflix to build a highly resilient customer-focused website enabling its members to download content faster and onto more devices, improving the customer experience and customer satisfaction. In September 2013, it was revealed the Netflix actively studies TV and movie piracy sites to help it decide on programming to add to its online streaming service. Netflix vice president of content acquisition, Kelly Merryman, disclosed that through examining movies and TV shows that were heavily downloaded on piracy sties, Netflix gained a valuable insight into customer tastes and content likely to have popular appeal. Questions 1. Analyze how systems thinking is important and help to understand the internal dynamics of Netflix operations? (Minimum 300 words) 2. Assess the challenging issues Netflix encountered through going forward and the role of leadership in the development of learning organization? (Minimum 300 words) 3. Evaluate the key differentiators that Netflix possess in the new instant- streaming movie market? (Minimum 300 words)