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Netflix's Annual Reports (10-Ks) used to be a work of art. What happened?

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Re: Netflix's Annual Reports (10-Ks) used to be a work of art. What happened?

#31

Post by WheelsAtLarge »

ekianjo wrote: post #29
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #18

I worked for a company that would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their annual report. Every year it was a big deal. There were meetings, interviews, photo shoots and a lot of late nights to make sure it was just perfect and on time. It was beautiful every year. Then one year a new Chief of operations was hired. She reviewed costs and saw that the creative department was too expensive. She closed it and out…

> It never came back. Just like any kind of fun left in the company?

True, once cost cutting started it became a drag to work for the company.

Re: Netflix's Annual Reports (10-Ks) used to be a work of art. What happened?

#32

Post by jcampbell1 »

heleninboodler wrote: post #25
carls wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure this is a sufficient explanation. McCarthy left in 2010. But it looks like the decline in the "designy"-ness began in 2006.

Adobe used to do these designy annual reports as well [1], and it looks like they stopped in 2003. I wonder if something in that era encouraged them to knock it off. Edit: for Adobe, it may have coincided with significantly cutting back their Marketing/Communications department, which had a huge staff of really great artists in the 90's. I believe this became viewed as an extravagance to have a stable of really talen…

SarBox came out around that time. No one was in the mood to be cute at that time.

Re: Netflix's Annual Reports (10-Ks) used to be a work of art. What happened?

#33

Post by LiberatedLlama »

ekianjo wrote: post #29
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #18

I worked for a company that would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their annual report. Every year it was a big deal. There were meetings, interviews, photo shoots and a lot of late nights to make sure it was just perfect and on time. It was beautiful every year. Then one year a new Chief of operations was hired. She reviewed costs and saw that the creative department was too expensive. She closed it and out…

> It never came back. Just like any kind of fun left in the company?

If you want fun on the company's dime, convince your boss to take your team to a go-kart track. That would provide a much better fun:money ratio.

Re: Netflix's Annual Reports (10-Ks) used to be a work of art. What happened?

#34

Post by apsurd »

Moxdi wrote: post #23
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #18

I worked for a company that would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their annual report. Every year it was a big deal. There were meetings, interviews, photo shoots and a lot of late nights to make sure it was just perfect and on time. It was beautiful every year. Then one year a new Chief of operations was hired. She reviewed costs and saw that the creative department was too expensive. She closed it and out…

Sound like it was fun, and now it's boring, was it worth it?

always

Re: Netflix's Annual Reports (10-Ks) used to be a work of art. What happened?

#36

Post by WheelsAtLarge »

Moxdi wrote: post #23
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #18

I worked for a company that would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their annual report. Every year it was a big deal. There were meetings, interviews, photo shoots and a lot of late nights to make sure it was just perfect and on time. It was beautiful every year. Then one year a new Chief of operations was hired. She reviewed costs and saw that the creative department was too expensive. She closed it and out…

Sound like it was fun, and now it's boring, was it worth it?

Yes it was fun to be part of it. The cuts were not worth it to me but it was for the company. It's been many years and the company is still around.

It happens to all companies. New executives get hired and they make their points by cost cutting and increasing productivity. Employee morale is not really part of the equation.

Re: Netflix's Annual Reports (10-Ks) used to be a work of art. What happened?

#37

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

jcampbell1 wrote: post #32
heleninboodler wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adobe used to do these designy annual reports as well [1], and it looks like they stopped in 2003. I wonder if something in that era encouraged them to knock it off. Edit: for Adobe, it may have coincided with significantly cutting back their Marketing/Communications department, which had a huge staff of really great artists in the 90's. I believe this became viewed as an extravagance to have a stable of really talen…

SarBox came out around that time. No one was in the mood to be cute at that time.

Should have known, but I had to look that up.

Sarbanes-Oxley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarbanes%E2%80%93Oxley_Act

Which is about corporate financial responsibility, generally speaking.

Signed in to law July 30, 2002

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