Pixar - Creating A Culture of Candour

414-128-1
You are permitted to view the material on-line and print a copy for your personal use until 12-Sep-2017.
Pixar
Please note that you are not permitted to reproduce or redistribute it for any other purpose.
Creating a Culture of Candour
Purchased for use by maiken bakøy on 12-Sep-2016. Order ref F277144.

Case Study
Educational material supplied by The Case Centre
Copyright encoded A76HM-JUJ9K-PJMN9I
Order reference F277144
This case was written by Punithavathi Srikant, Amity Research Centers Headquarter, Bangalore. It is
intended to be used as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or
ineffective handling of a management situation. The case was compiled from published sources.
© 2014, Amity Research Centers Headquarter, Bangalore.
No part of this publication may be copied, stored, transmitted, reproduced or distributed in any
form or medium whatsoever without the permission of the copyright owner.
Distributed by The Case Centre North America Rest of the world

www.thecasecentre.org t +1 781 239 5884 t +44 (0)1234 750903
case centre All rights reserved f +1 781 239 5885
e info.usa@thecasecentre.org
f +44 (0)1234 751125
e info@thecasecentre.org
414-128-1
Pixar – Creating a Culture of Candour
Author: Punithavathi Srikant

Abstract: Pixar Animation Studios (Pixar) was a leading animation film producer known for its path
breaking quality films which delivered 14 hit movies in a row, ever since its incorporation in 1986. Ed
Catmull, Co-founder and the long time head of Pixar constantly challenged the conventional wisdom
and through innovation kept on creating magical experiences for his viewers. Sustaining the
creativity was the heart of any successful business enterprise and Pixar had effectively figured this in
its high risk film business. Pixar attained consistency in its product delivery by nurturing creativity
and promoting the culture of candour in the organisation. It emphasised on continued learning of its

employees with openness, honesty and humility which was the signature of success for Pixar. Pixar’s
Braintrust, one of the key management tools employed by Pixar was a peer review system with
senior people actively involved in giving critical feedback while the decision to execute vested solely
with the Director. Applying Pixar’s management principles to other organisations would certainly
create great products and services. Against this background, it had to be pondered upon how to
replicate the success of Pixar in other organisations by balancing creativity and good practices in
management.
Case Study
“What I’ve learned running Pixar applies to all businesses, I apply the term 'creativity' broadl ... it’s
problem solving. We are all faced with problems and we have to address them and think of
something new and that’s where creativity comes in.”1
“The Braintrust merely helps tease out the errors in logic or focus. But it only works if you create and
protect a culture of candor at your company in which anyone can communicate with anyone else
without fear of reprisal.”2
– Ed Catmull, Pixar President
‘T oy Story’ produced by the nascent Pixar Animation Studios (Pixar) and released in November
1995 had transformed the world of film making. San Francisco based Pixar Animation Studios
(Pixar) was led by John Lasseter (Lasseter), the brilliant director Steve Jobs and Ed Catmull (Catmull),
a visionary technologist. Pixar had gone on to create box office hits consistently with films like Toy
Story, A Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc. and Wall-E that were not only critically acclaimed but also
financially successful. Learning together by involving all its employees in a collaborative environment
was perfected at Pixar and this democratic approach of sharing ideas and working with trust had
1
Davis Kathleen, “Pixar President Ed Catmull on how to Run a Creative Business”,
http://www.fastcompany.com/3029190/bottom-line/pixar-president-ed-catmull-on-how-to-run-a-creative-business,
th
April 17 2014
2
Schawbel Dan, “Ed Catmull: What You Can Learn About Creativity From Pixar”,
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2014/04/08/ed-catmull-what-you-can-learn-about-creativity-from-pixar/,
th
august 4 2014
“© 2014, Amity Research Centers HQ, Bangalore. All rights reserved.”
Page – 1
414-128-1
enabled Pixar to make giant strides in the animation industry. Through constant collaboration and
fostering of creativity without the fear of failure, Pixar under Catmull was able to deliver 14 hits
consistently. Catmull would often say, “You can't manage what you can't measure"3, was a wrong
maxim and managing a creative organisation like Pixar was itself a creative task. In this context, it
was worth pondering on the fact that whether Pixar’s sustained success could be replicated in other
organisations as well.
Origin of Pixar – From Dream to 3-D Reality

The most acclaimed Pixar Animation Studios was located in Emeryville, California. It had been
creating animated feature films and short films for more than 25 years.4 Pixar was a trendsetter in
the entertainment industry by creating family-friendly movies that were truly inspirational. John
Lassiter (Lassiter) was the brain behind computer animation who was initially working for Disney.
Later, he met Catmull and was immediately hired as the creative artist for Pixar. In Pixar, scientists
were developing computer animation technology and were in need of a creative artist who could
push their technology into artistic pursuits to create a full-length feature film.5

But, financially Pixar was not doing well and it was bought by Steve Jobs of Apple Computers who
struck a deal with Disney to produce a full-length computer animated film.6 From being a hardware
company, Pixar ventured into computer animation and its first successful animation film was Toy
story. It was released worldwide through a distribution deal struck with Disney in 1995 and was a hit.
Soon Pixar went public. In 2004, relations between Disney and Pixar soured and in 2005 Pixar CEO
Michael Eisner left the company.7 Later in 2006 Pixar was acquired by Disney for $7.4 billion.8
In 2006, Pixar celebrated its 20th anniversary and had appointed Catmull as its President and Lasseter
as its Chief Executive officer. Release of Toy Story 3 in 2010 had brought another laurel to Pixar as it
became the highest-grossing animated film reaching a billion dollar mark.9 Pixar was able to bring
out critically acclaimed and financially successful films like Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2,
Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Cars.10 Monster University was released in 201311
and the company went on to receive several awards and accolades for its quality and box office
performances12 (Annexure I).
Pixar was successful in creating consistent hits in the risky filmmaking business that usually involved
big budgets and also had an unparalleled record in achieving both commercial success and critical
acclaim. The major reason being Pixar had worked as a company in a distinctive way and conveyed
the key message, “You can’t win big unless you change the game in your field.” 13 Pixar had defied
the conventions of Hollywood and the film industry and went on to make films in a different way.
Unlike Hollywood model, where actors and technicians joined together for a specific project and
3
Reeves John, “10 wise lessons from Pixar”,
th
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/05/19/10-wise-lessons-from-pixar/9186851/, May 19 2014
4
‘Pixar Animation Studios”, http://www.pixar.com/about
5
“The Pixar Story”, https://www.movieguide.org/reviews/The-Pixar-Story.html
6
ibid.
7
“His Other Gig: How Steve Jobs Turned Pixar Into A Billion Dollar Empire”, http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-
jobs-pixar-2011-10?IR=T#2006-disney-buys-pixar-for-76-billion-making-steve-jobs-very-very-rich-9
8
Marr Merissa and Wingfield Nick, “Disney Sets $7.4 Billion Pixar Deal”,
th
http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB113813740822755125, January 25 2006
9
“The Pixar Timeline: 1979 to Present”, http://www.pixar.com/about/Our-Story
10
“Steve Jobs is officially a Disney Legend”, http://www.macworld.com.au/news/steve-jobs-is-officially-a-disney-
th
legend-104853/#.VCJSNJSSwqM, August 14 2013
11
“The Pixar Timeline: 1979 to Present”, op.cit.
12 th
Taylor Bill, “Pixar's Blockbuster Secrets”, http://blogs.hbr.org/2008/07/pixars-blockbuster-secrets/, July 8 2008
13
“Pixar's Blockbuster Secrets”, op.cit.
Page – 2
414-128-1
after completion moved on to other projects that brought in maximum flexibility for them. But it
resulted in minimum royalty, whereas, Pixar’s model promoted long-term collaboration with each
one striving for improvement with every production.14
An instance to be noted was that ‘Wall-E’s and ‘Finding Nemo’s Director Andrew Stanton15 did not
yield to lucrative offers from competitors in the industry but went on to focus on his next project in
Pixar. Pixar employee’s affiliation and contribution had helped in Pixar’s growth in the long run.16
Pixar University was the center of Pixar’s workplace agenda and had 110 courses right from
complete filmmaking curriculum to creative writing, painting and sculpting. According to the Dean of
Pixar University, Randy Nelson (Nelson), who was with Pixar since 1997, “Pixar’s specific critique of
the industry’s standard practice. Contracts allow you to be irresponsible as a company. You don’t
need to worry about keeping people happy and fulfilled. What we have created here — an incredible
workspace, opportunities to learn and grow, and, most of all, great co-workers — is better than any
contract.”17 Nelson added, “We offer the equivalent of an undergraduate education in fine arts and
the art of filmmaking. This is part of everyone’s work. We’re all filmmakers here. We all have access
to the same curriculum. In class, people from every level sit right next to our directors and the
president of the company.”18

These classes put Pixar employees to see the company in a new perspective and Nelson further
elaborated on the benefits of attending courses in Pixar University, “The skills we develop are skills
we need everywhere in the organization. Why teach drawing to accountants? Because drawing class
doesn’t just teach people to draw. It teaches them to be more observant. There’s no company on
earth that wouldn’t benefit from having people become more observant.”19 The core of Pixar
University’s model was ‘Alienus Non Diutius’, the Latin inscription that conveyed, “Giving people
opportunities to fail together and to recover from mistakes together.”20
Continuous learning of employees with openness, honesty and humility was the signature of success
of Pixar. Even Catmull acknowledged this fact and said that building a successful organisation was
like an iterative creative process. He frankly admitted, “There is a lot about this process which I find
mystifying still. There’s certain things that I think we’ve got right and certain things we’ve got
wrong.”21 (Exhibit I).
Karl T. Ulrich, Wharton’s Vice Dean of innovation commented on the sieving process undertaken by
Pixar to produce exceptional results as, “Pixar, to the outside world, looks like an organization that
periodically produces a brilliant film because of its creative genius. Pixar has plenty of creative genius
but it is quite disciplined in evaluating several hundred story lines for movies before it decides what
to do. So what we see as consumers at the end of the process is really the result of a very careful and
structured process of evaluating ideas and developing ideas in order to identify those that are really
going to work well.”22
14
15
Had won two Oscars with his films’ record box-office collection of $840 million.
16
17
ibid.
18
ibid.
19
ibid.
20
ibid.
21
Sims Peter, “What Google Could Learn From Pixar”,
th
http://blogs.hbr.org/2010/08/what-google-could-learn-from-p/, August 6 2010
22 rd
“What Is Innovation?”, http://kwhs.wharton.upenn.edu/2013/10/innovation/, October 23 2013
Page – 3
414-128-1
Exhibit I
Ed Catmull on Pixar’s Creativity
Source: Mavity Anne, “Ed Catmull: Creativity, Inc. Interview”,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTVnB3YAMgA
The Pixar Touch – Creating a Culture of Candour
“One thing I don’t believe in is the notion of a perfect process. Our goal isn’t to prevent all the
problems; our goal is making good movies,” said David A. Price (Price), the author of popular book
on Pixar called ‘The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company’.23 Pixar had acknowledged that it had
encountered many difficulties while making good movies. As such there was no perfect process to
make a good movie and many times Pixar had completely restarted films like Toy Story, Ratatouille
and The Good Dinosaur after it was found not up to its standards.24
Even with employee strength of around 1,200, Pixar was able to guard against information from
leaking to the public on its ongoing projects mainly due to its employees’ ownership of their projects
and the trust the company had placed on them. Price opined, “My belief is that the way you keep
secrets is you tell people the information; you let people know what the problems are so they have
ownership in the solution. If we don’t trust them, so we’re trying to keep secrets away from
everybody, then they feel less ownership and in fact they’re more likely to talk about it outside. So
it’s by an act of collusion that we get the ownership that keeps the problems in-house.”25
Catmull was able to deliver sustained success with box-office hits, from Finding Nemo and Monsters,
Inc. to Up, Wall-E and Brave. Creating a sustainable environment in a risky business, he placed trust
on people. He was of the view, “Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they will screw it up. Give
a mediocre idea to a great team, and they will either fix it or come up with something better.”26
Also Pixar believed in running the organisation in its own way and did not want to interfere in the
culture of its allied organisations and followed it in toto. Pixar believed in local ownership and
geared to adapt itself to meet new technological challenges and innovations.27
23
Price A. David, “Managing Creativity: Lessons from Pixar and Disney Animation”,
th
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/04/managing-creativity-lessons-from-pixar-and-disney-animation/, April 9 2014
24
ibid.
25
“Managing Creativity: Lessons from Pixar Managing and Disney Animation”, op.cit.
26
Rose Michael, “Creativity, Inc: The Story Of Pixar”,
th
http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/books/1291211/creativity-inc-story-pved ixar/, April 27 2014
27
“Managing Creativity: Lessons from Pixar Managing and Disney Animation”, op.cit.
Page – 4
414-128-1
Catmull took pride in his company’s growth and development and stated, “The company has worked
hard to establish an environment that encourages creative breakthroughs by shaking complacency
and encouraging employees to challenge the ideas of their superiors. And these breakthroughs are
not only on-screen. Pixar has also revitalized the field of animation through the development of
software products that have become the industry standard in modeling, lighting, digital rendering
and production management.”28
Pixar promoted a team culture where emphasis was placed more on the team than on an individual.
It compensated both its artistic and technical crew equally and that resulted in lowest employee
turnover in the industry. Constant collaboration was encouraged and Pixar’s ‘experiment and refine’
approach helped it to undertake risks which was crucial for an organisation to innovate.29 Nelson
explained further, “We made the leap from an idea-centered business to a people-centered
business. Instead of developing ideas, we develop people. Instead of investing in ideas, we invest in
people. We’re trying to create a culture of learning, filled with lifelong learners…”30
‘Pixar Habitat’ provided the right environment to foster creativity in the organisation as it had design
elements overseen by Steve Jobs himself and it was centered around an atrium that forced
employees to interact and share.31 (Exhibit II).

Exhibit II
A Peek into Pixar Studios
Source: Ryzik Melena, “A Rare Look Inside Pixar Studios”,

th
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXtsEhUwTmc, February 10 2011
Another hallmark of Pixar was involving all its employees in a collaborative environment where they
shared their learnings. Brad Bird, Pixar Award-Winning Director highlighted his democratic approach
of sharing ideas and working with trust that made Pixar to make giant strides in animation industry.
He asked Pixar employees to, “Learn Together. Because creating a film involves many different
talents, skills, and capabilities, the company is careful to constantly engage disparate departments in
a collaborative environment where learnings can be shared… As individual animators, we all have
different strengths and weaknesses, but if we can interconnect all our strengths, we are collectively
the greatest animator on earth. So I want you guys to speak up and drop your drawers. We’re going
28
“Case Studies Pixar”,
http://futurethink.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/03/Case-Study-Free-Download.pdf
29
ibid.
30
ibid.
31
ibid.
Page – 5
414-128-1
to look at your scenes in front of everybody. Everyone will get humiliated and encouraged together.
If there is a solution, I want everyone to hear the solution, so everyone adds it to their tool kit. I’m
going to take my shot at what I think will improve a scene, but if you see something different, go
ahead and disagree. I don’t know all the answers.”32
Equal emphasis was placed on postmortem analysis of each project, so that employees realised their
mistakes which they could not figure out by themselves. (Exhibit III).
Exhibit III
Operating Principles of Pixar
Everyone must have the freedom to communicate with anyone.
It must be safe for everyone to offer ideas
We must stay close to innovations happening in the academic community.
Source: Catmull Ed, “How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity”,
http://www.resourceful-humans.com/Documents/Catmull-CollectiveCreativity.pdf, September 2008
Nelson also pointed out how Pixar undertook risks, “You have to honor failure. Failure is just the
negative space around success.” Also Pixar never stopped improving and always tried to learn from

is mistakes. Ultimately, Pixar believed in taking pride in what it did.33
At the start of every project, a team was built that was empowered to find solutions to the problems
encountered. Pixar encouraged its staff to undertake risks without fear of failure and emphasis was
placed on creating candour in the organisation.34 “Candor could not be more crucial to our creative
process. Why? Because early on, all of our movies suck. That’s a blunt assessment, I know, but I
choose that phrasing because saying it in a softer way fails to convey how bad the first versions
really are. I’m not trying to be modest or self-effacing. Pixar films are not good at first, and our job is
to make them so–to go, as I say, ‘from suck to not-suck’”35 reflected Catmull on promoting candour
in Pixar.
Catmull suggested as a matter of factly, “The cost of that becomes clear when you think of how a
movie starts out. It’s a baby. It’s like the fetus of a movie star; we all start out ugly. Every one of
Pixar’s stories starts out that way. A new thing is hard to define; it’s not attractive, and it requires
protection.”36
Pixar staff was open and honest to one another, so that a constructive feedback was given and
solutions were found to the problems faced. He recalled how an accidental wiping of the hard drive
of all the work done for Toy Story 2 was saved, when a producer had made personal copies of the
work so that she could work from home. This episode showed Catmull’s tenet of employee showing
initiative and also the fact that accidents and serendipity also added to the success of an
organisation like planning done meticulously to execute actions.37
The challenges faced by Pixar had helped the company to shape up its organisational culture with its
focus on creativity and utilising the talents of non-creative people as well in the organisation.
32
“Case Studies Pixar”, op.cit.
33
ibid.
34
“Creativity, Inc: The Story Of Pixar”, op.cit.
35
“Pixar Perfect: 3 Lessons From the Next Great Business Book”,
th
http://stryvegroup.com/creativity-inc-review/, August 8 2014
36
ibid.
37
Page – 6
414-128-1
Industry veterans believed that Pixar’s organisational culture was so strong that it would outlive its
founders and endure the organisation towards growth path.38
Catmull realised early that he had to view the problems as a scientist than as a manager, “I came to
believe that most companies were trying to do the right thing, but in focusing on doing this right
thing, they were missing out on a deeper problem – how human emotions form barriers and fears
that get in the way."39
Introspecting on the problems that affected organisations other than prevailing competition,
Catmull observed, “If we can figure out what it is about managing and adapting to change that is so
hard then we can find problems before they hit us. You have to work through the problem and not
go around it. It's an abstract but philosophical approach."40 He added further, “Facing inwards is a
different experience from when you face the outside world, but until you experience it, you won't
know it. Similarly, it's important for companies to occasionally be introspective and integrate it with
how they act towards the outside world."41
Further, management itself was a creative task and the issues faced by creative organisations like

Pixar could be applied in other organisations as well. In finding a solution to a problem, one needed
to know about various human emotions that acted as blocks in finding a solution. Fear of failure was
the foremost block, but failures did provide valuable lessons asserted Catmull, “There is a very real
aura of danger around failing and this is not going to go away. We operate in an environment where
both these meanings are here to stay. Leaders need to accept that people have real fears about their
responsibilities and the consequences of executing their job. It's an active thing for leaders to make
it safe so that if people fail, they aren't punished and this is something that happens by example over
a period of time."42
Pixar’s Braintrust, a unique think-tank and one of the key management tools employed by Pixar was
solely meant for brainstorming and discussions and it did not yield power or authority on the
outcome of these meetings. It also managed the dynamics of the group, and the duty of the
manager was to make every member to voice their opinions. Catmull rationalised, “We made it clear
that nobody in that room, not even John or me, could override the director.”43 That made the
directors to come with an open mind and removed the barriers of not to defer people with authority
and experience.44 Catmull said, "The result is we got this group which on the whole has done
completely remarkable things. Every once in a while it doesn't work. It collapses. And every once in a
while magic happens."45
"The idea at Braintrust is about the dynamics in the room and discussing things with candour"46,
stressed Catmull. Generally the power struggle that existed in an organisation was averted based on
the realisation that different departments had different functions to perform. More so, the
organisational goal was far more important than departmental goals. Pixar was in the process of
constantly figuring out its problems and Catmull said, “The figuring-it-out process is what we
38
Sangani Priyanka, “How uncoupling fear and failure unleashes creativity at Pixar”,
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-06-20/news/50738866_1_disney-animation-ed-catmull-principles ,
th
June 20 2014
39
ibid.
40
ibid.
41
ibid.
42
ibid.
43
ibid.
44
ibid.
45
Montini Laura, “'Brain Trust': The Stellar Creative Process Designed By Pixar”,
th
http://www.inc.com/laura-montini/how-pixar-s-creative-process-has-evolved.html, June 4 2014
46
“How uncoupling fear and failure unleashes creativity at Pixar”, op.cit.
Page – 7
414-128-1
continually do. This is just the approach you take so that you are continually facing in towards the
problem"47 (Exhibit IV).
Exhibit IV
Pixar’s Perfect Lessons
1 "You cannot measure the vast majority of what you do."

2 "...For all the care you put into artistry, visual polish frequently doesn't matter if you are
getting the story right."
Pixar's No. 1 principle as a company is: Story is King. It doesn't let anything – technology,
merchandising, etc. – get in the way of the story. That golden rule has resulted in the
company delivering 14 No. 1 movies in a row.
3 "Whatever these forces are that make people do dumb things, they are powerful, they are
often invisible, and they lurk even in the best of environments."
The idea that even great companies will eventually make mistakes is one of the reasons
Catmull decided to write this book. He mentions Toyota as an example. Despite its strong
culture, Toyota failed a few years ago to acknowledge serious problems with its braking

systems. The subsequent embarrassment of the firm should serve as a cautionary tale to all
companies.
4 "Getting the right people and the right chemistry is more important than getting the right
idea."
Catmull has thought a lot about this issue over the years, and feels most people get it wrong.
A particular movie, he argues, is not just one idea but a multitude of them. And behind all of
those ideas are people. He believes it is focusing on "people – their work habits, their
talents, their values – that is absolutely central to any creative venture."

5 "To ensure quality, then, excellence must be an earned word, attributed by others to us, not
proclaimed by us about ourselves. It is the responsibility of good leaders to make sure that
words remain attached to the meanings and ideals they represent."
The emphasis on quality at Pixar is legendary and inspiring. Catmull tells the story of
collaboration with Disney on Toy Story 2. When executives from both companies screened a
deeply flawed version of the film, the execs from Disney felt the film was "good enough" to
release. The Pixar team thought differently, however, and decided to redo it.
It took nine months of gruelling work to get the film right in the end. Catmull feels the
company's true identity was forged during that difficult time.
6 "...early on, all of our movies suck."
For me, this was one of the most valuable insights from the book. All creativity, according to
Catmull, must start somewhere. Only by beginning the process and receiving periodic
feedback can excellence be created. Catmull succinctly describes the process as shepherding
a film from "suck to not-suck."
7 "A good note says what is wrong, what is missing, what isn't clear, what makes no sense... a
good note is specific. 'I'm writhing with boredom' is not a good note."
Delivering candid and constructive feedback is an essential part of the culture at Pixar. One
way they provide it is via "good notes." Just tearing something down is not a good note,
according to Catmull. The true aim is to build as you are breaking down. The art of delivering
constructive criticism has played a huge role in Pixar's success, and it's a practice the
company is committed to perfecting.
8 "Mistakes aren't a necessary evil. They aren't evil at all. They are an inevitable consequence of
doing something new (and, as such, should be seen as valuable; without them, we'd have no
originality)."
47
“How uncoupling fear and failure unleashes creativity at Pixar”, op.cit.
Page – 8
414-128-1
The notion that we learn from our mistakes is a staple of any "cutting-edge" business book,
of course. In fact, it feels like there's an entire cottage industry devoted to this somewhat
obvious principle.
I like the way Catmull approaches this concept, however. He thinks mistakes are an essential
part of any new endeavor. The goal is to learn from them as soon as possible. Setting
yourself up to avoid mistakes can often be the enemy of creative pursuits. Catmull wants
people at Pixar to try things that might not work, and sees his own role as trying to make it
less expensive to fail.
9 "The Hidden – and our acknowledgement of it -- is an absolutely essential part of rooting out
what impedes our progress: clinging to what works, fearing change, and deluding ourselves
about our roles in our own success. Candor, safety, research, self-assessment, and protecting
the new are all mechanisms we can use to confront the unknown and to keep the chaos and
fear to a minimum."
This quote is critical to understanding Catmull's overall philosophy. Throughout the book, he
shows how randomness affects all of our lives. In an entire chapter devoted to "The Hidden,"
he discusses some of the random events that might have resulted in an entirely different
future for Pixar. Leading a creative company, for Catmull, is really about planning for

unknowable future events with imperfect information about your processes and operations.
10 "In many ways, the work of a critic is easy,
“Ego says [Ego is the film critic in Ratatouille].”We risk very little yet enjoy a position over
those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative
criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that in
the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our
criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is
in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new
creations. The new needs friends."
Source : Reeves John, “10 wise lessons from Pixar”,
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/05/19/10-wise-lessons-from-pixar/9186851/, May
th
19 2014
Opining on what contributed to sustained success of Pixar, Ralph Guggenheim48 said, “John Lasseter
understood that this was a new medium, but the fundamental medium was storytelling, not
technology. The technology helped, but it was just a better pencil--it was marrying the artists and
storytellers with the technology in a way that they both really understood and appreciated. That was
the key to Pixar's creative success, and it still is."49
Catmull’s wisdom was applied in Disney when Pixar merged with it in 2006 and Pixar’s management
principles were put into action. That successfully reenergised Disney’s creative teams and created
box-office hits like Bolt, Tangled and Frozen. Candid Catmull believed in continuous regeneration
and asked his employees to create solutions. He acknowledged that Pixar was a company with work
in progress and he believed, “as challenges emerge, mistakes will always be made, and our work is
never done.”50
Analysts perceived that applying Pixar’s management principles like ‘delight and storytelling as
driving forces, the elimination of ego as management strategy, the idea that creativity can come
from anyone, and the balance between patience and action’51 to other organisations would create
48
A founding member of Pixar.
49
Nagy Evie, “Beyond Incredible: Building The Next Pixar”,
th
http://www.fastcompany.com/3027624/most-creative-people/building-the-next-pixar#!, March 26 2014
50
51
“Beyond Incredible: Building The Next Pixar”, op.cit.
Page – 9
414-128-1
great products and services. Translating the success of Pixar into other organisations would be a
challenge as maintaining quality and delivering a wonderful experience had to be taken into
consideration. Pam Kerwin, Pixar's Vice President and General Manager from 1989 to 1998
commented on adapting Pixar’s principles in running an organization as, "One of the characteristics
that made Pixar, and is very rare and important, is that the corporate culture recognized that
contributions can come from everybody, anybody. You have to consider that everyone can make
contributions – that's important both in the growth of a company, and also in the motivation of
everybody involved."52
In an organisation where there would be departments competing to further their interests, balance
was needed more than stability. Companies should replicate and be guided by the principles and
values practiced by Pixar, so as to bring benefits to their end customer. Twitter COO and former
Pixar CFO, Ali Rowghani asserted, "If any one function wins, we all lose. It’s the balance of these
competing forces and the ability to keep them in this juxtaposed tension that really leads to great,
great things being created and being done. I try to preserve the right tension between the various
functions and groups within this company. I think really great ideas come out of this sense of you
could fall at any time. Innovation comes from some level of awareness that things aren’t bolted
down and we don’t know exactly what’s going to come next."53

52
“Beyond Incredible: Building The Next Pixar”, op.cit.
53
ibid.
Page – 10
Page – 11
Annexure I
Pixar’s String of Box-office Hits
Source: Kessler Craig, “Financial Success of Pixar Throughout the Years”,

st
http://www.themoviebanter.com/2010/07/financial-success-of-pixar-throughout-the-years/ , July 21 2010
414-128-1


Pixar - Creating A Culture of Candour

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Pixar - Creating A Culture of Candour

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

414-128-1

Purchased for use by maiken bakøy on 12-Sep-2016. Order ref F277144.

© 2014, Amity Research Centers Headquarter, Bangalore.

Distributed by The Case Centre North America Rest of the world

Author: Punithavathi Srikant