In Ed Catmull’s book, Creativity, Inc., he reveals secrets behind Pixar and Disney Animation, as well as explains what ‘creativity’ can be defined as, and how to manage it.
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Finally, an eighth and final new fact about Pixar and Disney: When Disney Animation merged with Pixar in 2006 the latter’s executives created the “Five Year Social Compact: The document’s fifty-nine bullet points addressed many topics you might expect: compensation, HR policies, vacation and benefits.”
- Number 1: “Pixar’s executive team could still reward employees with bonuses, as Pixar has always done, once a film’s box-office receipts reached a certain benchmark.”
- Number 11: “Pixar employees must remain free to exercise their creative freedom with their titles and names on their business cards.”
- Number 12: “Event parties (holiday, wrap, various events) are prevalent at Pixar.”
- Number 29: “No assigned parking for any employee, including executives. All spaces are first-come, first served.”
- Number 33: “Pixar’s people could continue to exert ‘personal cube/office/space decorating to reflect person’s individuality.’”
About Pixar and the book:
First and foremost, this is a book about Pixar. But it is also a book about how to manage teams of people, no matter the industry you’re in, to allow them to produce their best work possible.
There is quite a bit of history in the book, but it’s all necessary to learn how passionate about Disney the author has been since childhood, and how life-long dreams can be realized if you surround yourself with the right people.
Another interesting aspect of the book is the discussion about that Disney and Pixar merging. The two struck a two-movie deal that put Pixar’s wheels into motion. Toy Story and A Bug’s Life are the fruit of those labors, and as Pixar’s star started to shine, Disney knew they had to keep the company’s partnership renewed (hence, Point Eight above).
We highly recommend reading this book to get a true sense at how Pixar operates as a company, how Disney Animation evolved between the pre- and post-Pixar merging, and the ‘true’ character that was Steve Jobs – whom Ed knew quite well for decades.
Thoroughly entertaining, Creativity Inc. is for anyone who has enjoyed watching Pixar’s films (child or adult) over the years and is interested in reading more about what it takes to manage a company. Especially one that has gone through many incarnations over the years and is so focused on now to innovation, but creativity.
Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace is available now through Random House. You can purchase via Amazon