Netflix's ex-manpower guru has tips on organizations' push to digital

MANILA – The push for organizational transformation into digital was front and center as the country's largest digital industry gathering kicked off here Wednesday. 

Day 1 of the conference lasting til Friday was headlined by Netflix's former top recruiter, Patty McCord, as she opened this year's DigiCon at the Philippine International Convention Center. 

McCord now coaches a small group of companies and entrepreneurs on culture and leadership. She served for 14 years as Chief Talent Officer of Netflix, where she created and operationalized the seminal 'Netflix Culture Deck' -- a bible for organizational transformation. 

How can organizations transform the workplace? McCord threw the question at the end of her keynote address to about a thousand DigiCon audience members consisting of the country's leading brands, agencies, technology suppliers, and publishers. 

McCord offered the participants with a methodology: identify the problem and tailor the manpower recruitment process as an answer to it.

"If you start with a problem that you want to solve in six months, then you can define what those differences are," she said. 

"You can say, 'I need somebody to solve this problem. This kind of skill that doesn't exist in our team'," she said. 

She said recruiters and managers must scout for talented individuals that can do the tasks assigned, loves doing it, and can come to the team and start right away. 

"That is how you transform your organization as you constantly look forward at the team you want to be, at the success you gonna have, at the customers you gonna keep," she said.

DigiCon's Wednesday morning session was rife with talk on organization-wide efforts to pivot to digital as several digital industry heavyweights tackled the issue. 

Google Asia Pacific's organizational partner manager Martin Gonzalez talked about the composition of the high-performance team.

He said psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning, and impact are what motivate teams toward high performance.

Meanwhile, Facebook Asia Pacific's product marketing lead Sumit Sharma underscored the importance of harnessing the power of cultural phenomenon like consumer bias for certain products. 

Sharma shared insights on ways to harness the power of Facebook's Stories feature.

During the breakout sessions, various experts in marketing, advertising, and media shared how to maximize the potential of digital technology in their professions. 

This year's DigiCon had the audience breaking into smaller sessions according to the following tracks: Lead, Explore, Apply, and Practice or LEAP. 

DigiCon 2019 organizer, the Internet & Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP), has been pushing for a culture of digital excellence in the country.

Since 2007, IMMAP has been advocating the use of technology for marketing and economic development in the Philippines.