The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company by David A. Price

Good

I re-read this book after reading the more recently published book co-authored by Bill Capodaglio and Lynn Jackson, Innovate the Pixar Way: Business Lessons from the World’s Most Creative Corporate Playground. (They also co-authored The Disney Way, Revised Edition: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company.) Karen Paik is the author of another book, To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios, that also provides a wealth of information about a unique organization and the brilliant people who have been centrally involved in it for more than 20 years.

Others have their reasons for thinking so highly of The Pixar Touch. First, David A. Price’s does a brilliant job of delineating the complicated chronological sequence that began with the hiring of Edwin Catmull (then at the New York Institute of Technology) to head the graphics group within the computer division at Lucasfilm (1979). Subsequently, Pixar Animation Studios (later shortened to Pixar) was purchased by Steve Jobs in 1986. After a highly successful IPO (11/29/1995), Years later, Jobs sold it to the Walt Disney Company for $7.4 billion (in an all-stock deal) in 2006. Price covers each of the company’s transitions thoroughly without bogging down in details. With the predictable exception of Jobs, those who provided leadership at Pixar demonstrate remarkable composure, indeed style and grace, during difficult times and sincere appreciation when lavished with praise, awards, and wealth. (Jobs’s primary – if not only – motive was and remains, the creation of “insanely great work.”) Price’s mini-biographies of the major figures probably provide the information that most people require.

Second, I was especially intrigued by the fact that the key people provide what Price characterizes as “unlikely ingredients” for success when they joined Pixar. John Lasseter was hired by Disney immediately after college and had just been fired. Catmull had been turned down for a teaching position and “ended up in what he felt was a dead-end software development job” at Computer Graphics Lab. Alvy Ray Smith was employed by Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) “and then abruptly found himself out on the street.” As for Jobs, he had been forced from the company he co-founded, was widely ridiculed, and considered a has-been. Price suggests that, despite and perhaps because of these and other serious setbacks, those who established and developed Pixar illustrate Joseph Schumpeter’s observation that successful innovation “is a feat not of intellect, but of will.”

Finally, I admire Price’s skills when explaining the artistic significance of each of the feature films that Pixar has produced from Toy Story (1996) until WALL-E (2009). He establishes a multi-dimensional context for each, identifying the challenges the production process faced and eventually overcame. With regard to the creative process, for example, the original attributes of the two central characters in Toy Story (Woody and Buzz Lightyear) underwent significant changes as did the initial thoughts about the relationship between them. Those involved in collaboration at Pixar have always followed John Lasseter’s admonition that “quality is the best business plan” and embraced Ed Catmull’s assertion that perfection is a minimum standard. Production of each of the other feature films also demonstrates the same commitment to artistic standards that few other films achieve.

Leaders in any organization can read and re-read this book, then attempt to apply the business principles and core values that define what Pixar does and how it does it. Although the principles and values are sound, however, they are insufficient. What is also needed is the Pixar “touch” and there is no way that David Price or anyone else can explain how to develop it but you’ll know it when you see it…in any of the Pixar films.

Il racconto di come Pixar è nata, cresciuta ed è diventata quello che oggi tutti conosciamo, nelle parole di tutti i protagonisti che in un momento o in un altro sono stati parte di questa realtà magica.
Un saggio giornalistico avvincente come un romanzo: si legge tutto d’un fiato

For the vast majority of us, Pixar became an overnight success with the theatrical release of Toy Story. Like so many other overnight successes, Pixar’s history is actually much longer and much more fraught with difficulties than many of us will ever know… unless we read Price’s book.

David Price does a wonderful job telling the story of the group of people who came together over a period of 15 years to become Pixar. While this is a business book, Price adopts something of the story-telling and fun that is inherent to Pixar itself and makes it part of his book, too. That makes this a great story not just for business people, but also for those who are simply fans of Pixar’s movies and would like to know more about how they came to be.

The stories are fascinating. I never knew that Pixar was once owned by George Lucas as part of Industrial Light and Magic, but that Lucas – of all people – couldn’t see computers being used to make feature films. It’s great to hear how the stories of the different Pixar films developed, how the technology developed and how the business finally paid off in spades after years and years of losing money.

I highly recommend this book for fans of business, fans of technology and even for anyone who’s just a fan of the Pixar films. You won’t be disappointed.