No Rules Rules

The New York Times bestseller Shortlisted for the 2020 Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings reveals for the first time the unorthodox culture behind one of the world's most innovative, imaginative, and successful companies There has never before been a company like Netflix. It has led nothing short of a revolution in the entertainment industries, generating billions of dollars in annual revenue while capturing the imaginations of hundreds of millions of people in over 190 countries. But to reach these great heights, Netflix, which launched in 1998 as an online DVD rental service, has had to reinvent itself over and over again. This type of unprecedented flexibility would have been impossible without the counterintuitive and radical management principles that cofounder Reed Hastings established from the very beginning. Hastings rejected the conventional wisdom under which other companies operate and defied tradition to instead build a culture focused on freedom and responsibility, one that has allowed Netflix to adapt and innovate as the needs of its members and the world have simultaneously transformed. Hastings set new standards, valuing people over process, emphasizing innovation over efficiency, and giving employees context, not controls. At Netflix, there are no vacation or expense policies. At Netflix, adequate performance gets a generous severance, and hard work is irrel­evant. At Netflix, you don’t try to please your boss, you give candid feedback instead. At Netflix, employees don’t need approval, and the company pays top of market. When Hastings and his team first devised these unorthodox principles, the implications were unknown and untested. But in just a short period, their methods led to unparalleled speed and boldness, as Netflix quickly became one of the most loved brands in the world. Here for the first time, Hastings and Erin Meyer, bestselling author of The Culture Map and one of the world’s most influential business thinkers, dive deep into the controversial ideologies at the heart of the Netflix psyche, which have generated results that are the envy of the business world. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with current and past Netflix employees from around the globe and never-before-told stories of trial and error from Hastings’s own career, No Rules Rules is the fascinating and untold account of the philosophy behind one of the world’s most innovative, imaginative, and successful companies.

As a serial entrepreneur, Kevin Kruse has seen time and again that the leadership practices that actually work are the opposite of what is commonly taught and implemented. Close Your Open Door Policy shows how a contrarian approach can be a better, faster, and easier way to succeed as a leader. Chapter by chapter, Kruse focuses on a piece of popular wisdom, then shows with real-world case studies and quantitative research that the opposite approach will lead to better results, encouraging leaders to play favorites, stay out of meetings, and, of course, close their open doors.

An international business expert helps you understand and navigate cultural differences in this insightful and practical guide, perfect for both your work and personal life. Americans precede anything negative with three nice comments; French, Dutch, Israelis, and Germans get straight to the point; Latin Americans and Asians are steeped in hierarchy; Scandinavians think the best boss is just one of the crowd. It's no surprise that when they try and talk to each other, chaos breaks out. In The Culture Map, INSEAD professor Erin Meyer is your guide through this subtle, sometimes treacherous terrain in which people from starkly different backgrounds are expected to work harmoniously together. She provides a field-tested model for decoding how cultural differences impact international business, and combines a smart analytical framework with practical, actionable advice.

Michael thinks school would be more fun without rules and gets his wish. But is it exactly what he was hoping for?

A young teenager stays a step ahead of her parents’ sexuality-based restrictions by running away and learns a very different set of rules. A woman grieves the loss of a sister, a “gay divorce,” and the pain of unacknowledged abuse with the help of a lone wallaby on a farm in Washington State. A professor of women’s and gender studies revels in academic and sexual power but risks losing custody of the family dog. In Corinne Manning’s stunning debut story collection, a cast of queer characters explore the choice of assimilation over rebellion. In this historical moment that’s hyperaware of and desperate to define even the slowest of continental shifts, when commitment succumbs to the logic of capitalism and nobody knows what to call each other or themselves—Gay? Lesbian? Queer? Partners? Dad?—who are we? And if we don’t know who we are, what exactly can we offer each other? Spanning the years 1992 to 2019, and moving from New York to North Carolina to Seattle, the eleven first-person stories in We Had No Rules feature characters who feel the promise of a radically reimagined world but face complicity instead.

The popular Social Studies Connects series links history, geography, civics and economics to kids’ daily lives. Featuring stories with diverse characters who face situations young readers can relate to, these books support reading and social studies skills including researching, inferring, comparing, and communication. An activity to stimulate curiosity about the world is included in each book! Rules are ruining Rex’s life—or so he thinks. Will taking a break from rules make him feel better, or worse? (Social Studies Topic: Civics/Rule and Laws)

No Rules! Logos is a new survey series that rounds up the most innovative, radical, and out-there graphic solutions, from around the world. In each book, dyed-in-the-wool design rules are identified, and a range of examples demonstrate how to break those rules, to great effect. Each entry is featured in a number of illustrations, analysed and assessed, and includes feedback about impact and audience reaction. No Rules! Logos tackles perhaps the most venerated discipline of graphic design, the corporate identity and its logotype. Of course, in the world of No Rules! anything goes, especially with a young generation of entrepreneurs and boutique businesses needing logos and identities to grace products as diverse as vinyl toys, home-made recordings, recycled fashion, and limited-edition products from skateboards to pet accessories. The book identifies 10 key “rules” of logo design, such as “keep it simple,” “make a mark that is constant and unchanging,” and “keep to primary colors or black and white.”

With wounded soldiers all around her, Major Logan Sharp doesn't have time to pamper some photographer from stateside. What spare energy she does have goes to worrying what she'll do when she ships home from Afghanistan. Home—for Logan, the word means nothing. But photographer Jillian Knight is not what she expects, and certainly not what she needs complicating her last tour. Leaving her partner and daughter at home, Jillian Knight is on assignment in Kandahar to record the heroic work of medical units in war zones. She knows it'll be rough, but Logan Sharp's dedication and competence is reassuring. Jillian finds herself looking forward to her encounters with the intriguing military doctor, understanding that by-the-rules demeanor is a must for surviving in a land where life is cheap. Under the pressures of danger and conflict, the intense feelings of comrades threaten to overwhelm their good sense, but they follow the rules. After a single heart-stopping kiss, they do the only thing they must—say goodbye. Keeping in touch is not part of the plan,but when their paths cross unexpectedly more than a year later, abiding by the rules is suddenly much harder than they ever expected. Two unforgettable women try to figure out the rules for their own lives and the future in Tracey Richardson's romantic novel of wartime and coming home.