- Reed Hastings is applying a Netflix management technique to his latest venture: a Utah ski resort.
- Hasting bought a controlling stake in Powder Mountain last year and is overhauling its model.
- He uses the “Keeper Test” to evaluate employees, similar to what he introduced at Netflix.
Reed Hastings says he is bringing his famous management technique to his post-Netflix venture: one of the largest ski resorts in the US.
The Netflix cofounder and former CEO said that running the streaming giant and Powder Mountain, a ski resort in Utah in which he bought a controlling stake last year, can be similar.
On a Monday episode of the Prof G podcast, he said the businesses share a subscription model — monthly for Netflix, seasonal for skiers. And he’s using some of his signature management philosophies with Powder Mountain, chiefly the “keeper test” and high compensation.
“The ‘Keeper Test’ is: If someone was going to quit, would you work hard to keep them to change their mind?” Hastings said on the podcast. “It’s using that as the firing criteria rather than the traditional, ‘Have they screwed up so egregiously that we should fire them?'”
Netflix publicly embraces the “Keeper Test” along with other principles on its careers page.
Hastings served as Netflix’s CEO from 1998 to 2020 and as co-CEO until 2023, and he is now the executive chairman. As CEO, he and other leaders used the “Keeper Test” to evaluate employees and fire underperformers. Hastings reportedly used it to fire his product chief and longtime friend who worked at the company for 18 years.
If an employee doesn’t hit the “keeper” threshold, they’re “promptly and respectfully given a generous severance package so we can find someone for that position that makes us an even better dream team,” Netflix has previously described.
A 2018 Wall Street Journal investigation into the company’s culture found that the principle made some employees uneasy because they worried they would lose their jobs daily and felt pressured to fire others.
At the time, Netflix said that the test allowed the company to maintain a high-performance culture and that “fewer controls and greater accountability enable our employees to thrive.” In June, the company updated its culture memo to add a disclaimer to a line about the “Keeper Test,” BI previously reported.
Over in Utah, Hastings is remaking a ski resort about 80 miles north of Park City.
Last year, he invested $100 million, inking a 10-year development deal to reinvigorate the financially struggling resort. Part of the ski resort, which has been around since the 1970s, was closed off to the public in favor of homeowners and private skiing. New residents can purchase a lot of raw land starting at $2 million per lot, The New York Times reported in March.
The company’s jobs start at $20 an hour with benefits, per Powder Mountain’s website.
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