Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Innovate the Pixar Way Book Review

Sustainable Innovation at Pixar: Childlike but not Childish, February 7, 2010
Since 1995 with the release of Toy Story, Pixar has created blockbuster animated films that the whole family loves. How do they KEEP doing it? To be creative and innovative once, twice, even three times is a major feat, but 10 in a row! Pixar replaced Disney as the family animation movie specialist and then was purchased by Disney for $7.4 billion in 2006. The authors of The Disney Way researched and interviewed to find answers to Pixar's sustainable culture of innovation.

The results are not surprising:
* Dream like a child
* Believe in your playmates
* Dare to jump in the water and make waves
* Do unleash your childlike potential

The book is loaded with lists of ideas based on Pixar's culture. For example, 10 ideas to encourage risk taking, 7 ways to create an inspirational environment, 41 ways to improve innovation, and 16 ways to get started. At times, the book reads like a sequel to The Disney Way with the authors liberally quoting and drawing leadership points from their previous book. In many ways, Pixar is a sequel to Disney. The founders of Pixar has Walt Disney and Disney animation as their models. And Pixar recaptured what many saw was lacking in Disney's productions through the 1980s and 1990s. As a short and inspiring book, Innovate the Pixar Way, left me with a number of ideas and a child-like zeal to innovate through fun.

AUTHOR: Dr. Keith E. Webb is the Principal of Creative Results Management. He helps non-profit organizations, teams, and individuals multiply their cross-cultural impact. He is an experienced trainer and cross-cultural leadership coach. Keith's doctorate is in transformational leadership focused on coaching. The past 20 years he has lived and worked in Japan, Indonesia, USA and currently lives in Singapore.

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