Netflix considering ad revenue

Netflix is open to introducing cheaper, ad-supported tiers for its streaming service — after years of resisting the option. The shift comes as Netflix said it lost 200,000 subscribers in its first quarter — the streaming service’s first decline since 2011. This sent shares plunging 25pc last week. Netflix’s share price is about 40pc lower year-to-date. “It’s pretty clear that it’s working for Hulu. Disney is doing it. HBO did it,” co-CEO Reed Hastings said. “I don’t think we have a lot of doubt that it works.” The company’s forecasting the loss of another 2m subscribers in its current second quarter and said revenue is not growing as fast as it would like in the near term. Needham [an independent investment bank and asset management firm specialising in advisory services] analysts estimated in a January 21 investor note that Netflix could make $9bn a year in potential revenue by adding ads.

(Adapted from “Netflix’s CEO says he’s open to creating a lower-priced tier with ads as the company bleeds subscribers,” by Huileng Tan, published on April 20, 2022, by Business Insider)

Indian companies moving out of Russia

Two of India’s biggest businesses are moving away from Russia, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi refrains from taking a tough stance against Moscow over the war in Ukraine. Tata Steel, one of the largest steelmakers in India, said that it has “taken a conscious decision to stop doing business with Russia.” The company, which is also one of the biggest steel producers in Europe, said it has a plan in place to ensure minimal disruption to its business. Tata Steel is part of Tata Group, one of India’s biggest multinational conglomerates. Its announcement comes just days after Infosys, one of India’s largest tech companies, said that it has started moving its operations out of Russia. The halting of operations by the Indian corporate giants comes at a time when New Delhi is reportedly stepping up its purchases of Russian oil, now trading at a heavy discount because of Western sanctions.

(Adapted from “Some big Indian businesses are joining the exodus from Russia,” by Diksha Madhok, published on April 22, 2022, by CNN)

Design work that people love

Resignations are at an all-time high, and companies desperate to fill vacancies are trying everything from pay raises to trendy perks. But those interventions are falling short; the real problem, according to Marcus Buckingham, the head of people and performance research at the ADP Research Institute, is that so many jobs feel stressful, meaningless and unlovable. Mr Buckingham’s data on what keeps employees engaged suggests that companies should change their approach to performance management to take advantage of each employee’s unique skills and passions. That necessitates three mindset shifts: viewing employees as the key stakeholders in the organisation; moving away from standardisation in performance management tools; and trusting employees to accomplish their performance goals the way they see fit. The idea is to attract and retain the best people, jobs must be redesigned around the simple but powerful concept: love for the content of the work itself.

(Adapted from “Designing Work That People Love,” by Marcus Buckingham, published in the May-June 2022 issue of Harvard Business Review)

Crimes using crypto

One spring day in 2017, residents in a village west of London saw a man being muscled into a car in front of a nearby house. Inside, cops discovered a cannabis-growing operation, but a separate search of his home uncovered something more intriguing — some of the first cryptocurrency that would ever be seized by UK police. Back then, discovering a USB device that held 295 Bitcoin was a novelty. Five years on, police officers are seizing crypto in amounts that often eclipse traditional assets like cash, gold, cars and real estate. Last year, in London alone, police seized £300m ($390m) of digital assets linked to crime. The US Marshals Service held 22 cryptocurrencies valued at about $919m in December. One federal prosecutor called the value of the recent seizures is “staggering.

(Adapted from “Staggering Crypto Seizures Have Cops Struggling To Keep Up,” by Ellen Milligan and David Voreacos, published on April 12, 2022, by Bloomberg)

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, April 25th, 2022