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Pixar replaced Disney as the fam- ily animation movie specialist and then was purchased by Disney for USD7.4 billion in. 2006. Innovate The Pixar Way holds a  ...
AFTERHOURS

The Pixar Way

Innovate The Pixar Way – Business Lessons from the World’s Most Creative Corporate Playground by: Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson Publisher: McGraw-Hill Pages: 208 Price: Rs. 1060

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ince 1995, starting with the Toy Story, Pixar has managed to create successive blockbuster animation films – Bug’s Life, Monster’s Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles - are some that are loved by family audiences worldwide. Pixar’s list of successes is endless. To be creative and innovative once, twice, even three times is a major feat, but 10 times in a row? How do they keep doing it? What does Pixar do right, that other companies don’t? Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson’s second collaboration, Innovate the Pixar Way – Business Lessons from the World’s Most Creative Corporate Playground should offer sufficient inspiration to any organisation trying to foster a culture that is more creative and innovative. Their

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first book The Disney Way, Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company was Fortune’s Best Business Book of 1999. In fact, at times, this book reads like a sequel to The Disney Way with the authors liberally quoting and drawing leadership points from their previous book. But then, in many ways, Pixar too is a sequel to Disney. Pixar replaced Disney as the family animation movie specialist and then was purchased by Disney for USD7.4 billion in 2006. Innovate The Pixar Way holds a tight focus on its subject. The result is that we are presented with a fairly detailed picture of a ‘model innovative company’. We also get to see just how the elements that make up an innovation culture interact together to deliver great creative products, engaged employees, and excellent financial returns. The authors’ key thesis focuses on the opportunity to turn a place of work into a ‘playground’. By doing this, as Pixar has done, they suggest that a company can unleash the creative potential of all employees. To the cynical corporate leader a ‘playground’ might sound like a place where no one does anything useful, and no one makes any money. However, Pixar’s creative reputation and its financial results over the last 15 years, should quickly still such criticism. Indeed, while many academics and corporate leaders harp on the need for companies to increase workforce productivity and, in particular, to ‘harness discretionary effort,’ Pixar has already found ways to do these things and is reaping the benefits. This is a future orientated book that shows us how to get more out of people; more creativity and higher morale; we have to allow those people to bring more of themselves to work. Not just the thinking, compliant, focused and analytical side, but also their playful, imaginative and passionate sides.

Companies need this ‘well rounded’ workforce because, as the authors warn, we are now in an age of ‘rapid innovation’. Companies need teams that can journey fearlessly into the unknown to create products and services that will fulfil their customers’ dreams. The second key insight in the book is to use the metaphor ‘putting on a show’ as a way to run a business. “Every business is show business,” say the authors. And “you only have one chance to deliver that magical, magnetic, enchanting experience to your customer." There are some other very important lessons to be learnt from the ‘world’s most creative corporate playground’. Some guiding principles are: pursue leadership excellence at all levels, embrace speed, foster an inclusive culture, simplify and go, evolve immediately, do the right thing, celebrate remarkable achievements, technology innovation is lifeblood, don’t take success for granted, earn customer and user loyalty and respect every day, sustainable long-term profitability are key to success and aspire to change the world. There is enough detail in the book to guide those who are looking to bring about significant cultural change within an organisation. It might also serve as a useful reference for those already in the process and looking for additional guidance. Innovate The Pixar Way does indeed stimulate and inspire and its metaphors of the workplace as ‘playground’, and business as ‘show business’, are memorable and relevant. While skeptics may feel that workplace culture is different in the ‘creative industries’, the authors have clearly pointed out they are not portraying Pixar as such, and that each company has to develop its unique creativity. It is difficult however, to imagine any company at all that cannot, at the very least, learn a thing or two from Pixar. 