Incredible Culture

Vs

Toy Story

IMDB Rating: 8.3

Year: 1995

Budget: $30 million

Revenue: $361,958,736

A Bug’s Life

IMDB Rating: 7.2

Year: 1998

Budget: $120 million

Box office: $363,398,565

Toy Story 2

IMDB Rating: 7.9

Year: 1999

Budget: $90 million

Box office : $485,015,17

Monster’s Inc

IMDB Rating: 8

Year: 2001

Budget: $115 million

Box office: $562,816,256

Finding Nemo

IMDB Rating: 8.1

Year: 2003

Budget: $94 million

Box office : $921,743,26

The Incredibles

IMDB Rating: 8

Year: 2004

Budget: $92 million

Box office: $631,442,092

PIXAR History

Early Years

A tightly knit group of 40 people.

Non conventional employees

Anti-corporate work culture

This culture created highly productive and a laid backfun work-place.

Hire people who are better than already hired.

No Hero culture

And then begun a new chapter....

The New Chapter

He is going to kill us. Who is he?

Some crazy idiot!

No, He is Steve Jobs

Edwin Catmull Alvy Ray Smith

The New Chapter - 2

But Pixar continued to run completely by Ed and Alvy Ray.

Employees wandered barefoot

Hardly bathed

Out of the box thinkers

Loyal and committed work force

Strong bonding between employees

Weird hour work

Pixar’s Workplace Culture

No Employment contracts

The employees at Pixar had a long-term affiliationwith the company and had stock options as well.

They contributed across the studio rather than tojust their own projects.

They learned from one another and strove toimprove with every production.

Pixar created an incredible workspace, opportunitiesto learn and grow and great co-workers.

People-centred Business Model

Pixar’s business model was people-centred unlikeHollywood which was idea-centred.

At Pixar, people were the pivots around whicheverything revolved.

This approach kept the employees interested as wellas motivated.

The “we are all in this together” workplace and thehands-off management style provided emotionalsupport and helped overcome creative setbacks.

Culture of Innovation

Employees were encouraged to think in terms of steps.

Each new movie was likened to a stepping stone where one couldlearn and try out new things to find out what worked and what didnot.

Intense self-scrutiny ensured that Pixar benefited from all theexperiences.

The employees were totally committed to the quality of theproducts they were producing.

Pixar believed in perfecting every detail in every production.

Before every movie, the crew spent enough time trying to graspfully the nature of the environment and the characters of

Hire Better People

Earlier, Pixar hired people who had reached acertain skill level, people who could assuredly dothe job.

Started hiring people who were on the growth-curve in their careers.

Also started hiring based on potential ratherthan their position with their existing employer.

Not afraid to hire people whose work culture wasquite different from the one at Pixar.

Preventing Burnout

Realised that work done by its employees took a lot out of them and lack of replenishment would lead to burnout and hamper the quality of work.

Helped their employees enjoy a long and productive career.

They were given periodic breaks to recharge themselves.

Classes in Yoga, Tai Chi were conducted for the general well being of the employees.

Also boasted a full-time dedicated ergonomics expert to ensure that people had comfortable workplaces

Doctors and masseuses visited once or twice in a week.

“No Hero” Culture

The whole team was given preference in spite of manystar performers.

Recognised moviemaking as a collaborative process.

When a film does well, everybody got bonus.

The hallmark of Pixar’s culture was that they recognisedboth artistic and technical side as being equally important.

The decision makers at Pixar felt that when either theartistic or the technical side dominated, it was unhealthyand could be counter-productive for the organisation.

The Organisation Structure

3 parallel groups- technology development, creativedevelopment and production.

Open communication between these groups and the systemworked very well.

E.g. a producer of a scene could deal with the animatorwithout having to go through higher-ups first. Or atechnologist could talk directly to the director if he had anidea for a new visual effect.

The system worked so well that U.S. Navy sent some toporganisational experts to Pixar to look for ideas to improvecommunication within its own organisation.

SHORT FILMS AS A TRAINING GROUND

Though Pixar had many movies to its credit, it stillmade short films.

According to the company, such films were producedfor training purposes and to try out new technologywithout the risk of a major failure.

If the experiment was a success, it could be used inthe movies, if it failed, the people could be wiserfrom that experience.

The new technologies developed in such short filmswere used in movies such as The Bug’s Life andFinding Nemo.

Schematic diagram of the Open Communication between different groups at Pixar

Technology

Development Delivers computer-graphics

tools

Creative

Development Concocts stories and

characters and animates

Production Coordinates the whole

filmmaking process

The three parallel interactive groups

Open flow of communication

Art as a Team Sport

Succeeded in making art a team sport by collaborative actionwhere everybody helped and even rescued the other.

Directors looked over each others work and helped each otherto sharpen the knife without imposing their tone or style.

All employees encouraged to be a part of the filmmakingprocess.

This unique atmosphere helped retain talent.

Lowest turnover rate in Hollywood history.

“An environment that’s really open, a culture that’s wacky.It’s a creative brain trust.”

The HabitatTHE COMPANY RECOGNIZED THAT THE RIGHT OFFICEENVIRONMENT COULD HELP NOURISH AND SUSTAIN ACREATIVE CULTURE.

The Habitat

The main building resembled an airport hangar.

Large expanse of green space.

Visitors were greeted by characters from Pixar movies.

The building was decorated with toys.

“Anybody needs to be able to talk to anybody else.

Creativity doesn’t follow titles, it just comes from where

it comes from. You’ll make chance encounters. You

don’t have to arrange to see somebody. You’ll cross

them in the hall, stop and have a discussion, talk about

something you haven’t had the time to talk about, and

that can change the course of things.”

- Catmull

The center of the main building has thecommon area.

To get to anyplace in the building, you have tocross this place.

It serves as the main reception, eating areaand market square.

It has a main café ,a number of coffee shopsand pool and foosball tables.

There was a single wash area for all theemployees.

The animation department was highly customizedto reflect the tastes and interests of peopleworking there.

They had decorated open fronted mini-cottages.

For E.g.: one such cottage is in the shape of acastle because it housed a native of Scotland.

Employees would move around office onskateboards and foot-propelled scooters.

The Pixar university

THE MOSTDISTINCTIVE FEATUREIN THE PIXARCULTURE

This was a continuing program of lectures,workshops, courses and events.

The idea was to help employees express theircreative ideas, collaborate amongst each otherand meet deadlines.

PU offers a number of courses, includingfilmmaking, painting, drawing, sculpting etc.

Classes were also offered in diverse skills, suchas improvisation, storytelling, karate, jugglingetc.

Everyone, including those who never had anythingrelated to do with the workshops were made to takepart, including Catmull.

“So this is Pixar: people taking their lunch hour torisk looking talentless in front of each another andthe boss.” – Austin Bunn.

“You get over the embarrassment because you’redoing it everyday, everybody is doing it. When youget over the embarrassment, you become morecreative.” – Catmull

All employees were entitled to spend 4 hours, eachwork week, of paid work time taking part in the PU.

Participation was open to the whole staff, at entrylevel and in all functions.

The classes are considered to be an important partof the job.

The idea was to make art a team sport by havingpeople do it together and fail publicly at it.

“You have to honour failure, because failure is justthe negative space around success” – Nelson

Purpose and Benefits of the PU

It provided a constant flow of new ideas andexperiences.

It enriched the individual lives and minds of thestaff, making Pixar a more attractive place towork.

The PU also fed creative culture of theorganization.

Purpose and Benefits of the PU

The PU prompted direct personal contact andinformal communication across theorganization.

“The skills we develop, are skills we needeverywhere in the organization.”

E.g.: Teaching drawing to accountants madethem more observant.

Objectives of Pixar University

To build morale, spirit and communication among employees.

It sent out a signal that creativity matters.

It showed that creativity involved moving beyond one’s skill set.

Pixar University also contributes to the HR policy by promoting Employee Retention.

In the Words of Nelson, “If you could create good filmmakers who would work here for 25 years, their first five years of the film would be really good; their next five years would be amazing. By the time these

SOME CRITICISMS

IN THE CULTURE OF PIXAR

Pixar had a strong internal culture.

Critics felt that any strong internal culture could turninto a disadvantage- even if it was meant to promotecollaboration and creativity.

Pixar had retained the same team over the years

Critics felt that this would lead to stagnation of ideasblocking innovation.

In Pixar, the employees worked in closed groups, sothey were not open to criticisms useful in informationtechnology and creative practices.

Other Hollywood companies had a constantcirculation of new talent

OUTLOOK

The main challenge was integration of the culture of Pixar and Disney.

Iger believed that Disney will only benefit by adopting the egalitarian culture of Pixar.

A steering committee consisting of Iger, Catmull, Lasseter, Jobs, Cook and Tom staggs, Disney’s CFO was set up.

Main function of committee was to maintain and spread the culture of Pixar within Disney.

Committee was to meet once in every week

HR policies of Pixar was kept intact, including the lack of employment contracts.

ACKNOWLEDGE

COPING PERIOD

CAREFUL ADAPTATION

HONEST

EVALUATIONS

Analysts suggests that Pixar should adapt to the new culture

The challenge is to adapt and sustain its box-office revenue.

Though the start up cost of the new Pixar will be low but it would require great effort to make the Pixar people happy and any attempt to impose the culture of Disney on them would lead to attrition of ex Pixar employees.

Many analysts trust Jobs to keep the culture of Pixar intact otherwise they will be affected by the bureaucracy of Disney.

Acquiring Pixar was also seen as a major strategic shift at Disney

Pixar’s culture was similar to the initial organizational culture at Disney.

As quoted by Catmull himself –

“Pixar's culture of collaboration and innovation has its roots in Disney animation. our story and production processes are derivatives of the Walt Disney school of animated film making. Just like the Disney classics Pixar films are made for family audiences the world over and most importantly for the child in everyone.”

“….. Pixar animators acknowledged that Disney had helped them to develop their talents through the 7 year old co-production partnership that ended in 2004.”

Jerry Beck(animation industry historian) -

“Pixar led field in a way that no one has since Walt Disney's time. I think there is going to be a sense of mission here, a renewed purpose. We already conquered cg films now let’s return and restore Disney to what it was when I was a kid.”

Balance creativity and discipline and you get a feast of great ideas you can transform into reality.

A STORY IDEA IS PITCHED

THE TEXT TREATMENT IS WRITEN

STORYBOARDS ARE DRAWN

VOICE TALENTS BEGINS RECORDING

EDITORIAL BEGINS MAKNG REELS

THE ART DEPARTMENT MAKES THE LOOK AND FEEL

MODELS ARE SCULTURED AND ARTICULATED

THE SETS ARE DRESSED

THE SHOTS ARE LAIDOUT

THE SHOT IS ANIMATED

SETS AND CHARACTERS ARE SHADED

LIGHTING COMPLETES THE LOOK

THE COMPUTER DATA IS RENDERED

FINAL TOUCHES ARE ADDED

Thank you…