Thursday, August 16, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Bill Capodagli–Featured Keynoter for Manufacturing Innovation 2012
Bill Capodagli will be a featured keynote speaker at Manufacturing Innovation 2012 (MI2012) in Orlando on May 9th. This 4-day event is produced by Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and brings together over 700 manufacturers, industry experts, and MEP field staff to gain valuable information on the latest trends and technologies facing U.S. manufacturers. This event is designed to truly bring the “voice of manufacturing” and “voice of government” to an open, educational and sharing environment that makes a measurable impact on U.S. manufacturing.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
“Dreams and Dreamers” SHARE Keynote Review
On Monday, August 8, SHARE President, Janet Sun took the stage to welcome SHARE attendees and introduce keynote speaker Bill Capodagli of Capodagli Jackson Consulting.
SHARE was proud to host over 1,000 Enterprise IT professionals in Orlando, Florida, August 7 – 12, 2011, for a week filled with deep-dive discussions into the latest industry developments, engaging networking events and new professional connections. SHARE attendees selected from over 500 technical sessions offered during the week, engaged with over 40 industry exhibitors in the Technology Exchange Expo and mingled with fellow IT users to discuss mutual interests and solutions.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
BILL CAPODAGLI’S VIDEO FROM THE 13TH World Human Resources Congress in Montreal
Finally….we have a link to clips from Bill’s Sept, 2010 keynote in Montreal:
http://www.portailrh.org/StudioRH/fiche4.aspx?p=444886
Words of Welcome from Canada’s Prime Minister
The human resources management sector has certainly been affected by the deteriorating global economic environment in recent months. This slowdown is suited to a period of reflection, encouraging us to explore new avenues adapted to current realities. The holding of this event is of particular relevance, providing a unique opportunity for human resources specialists from throughout the world to address these issues.
This three-day congress will enable participants to share with their colleagues and discuss innovative measures to help recovering economies face today’s challenges. I have no doubt that this conference will touch on new approaches and markets that will help stimulate the economic recovery and strengthen the critical human resources management sector.
On behalf of the Government of Canada, I would like to congratulate the organizers on their outstanding work. I wish all the participants a very productive congress.
The Prime Minister of Canada, 
Steven Harper
Monday, May 9, 2011
CUNA REVIEW of BILL’S KEYNOTE - DREAMS AND DREAMERS: HOW TO INNOVATE LIKE WALT DISNEY AND THE PIXARIANS
Excerpt from:
My Top 5 Takeaways from the CUNA HR/TD Conference/www.creditunionmagazine.com
By Michelle Greear, vice president, learning and development, for Technology Credit Union, San Jose, Calif.
April 29, 2011
Number 4. Everyone has something to learn and something to teach.
Bill Capodagli’s presentation on innovation was inspiring and timely. He highlighted the importance of the story, setting, role, and backstage as we partner with our corporate enterprise to achieve goals and improve efficiencies.
HR/TD can help whittle away departmental silos by advocating for cross-functional mentors, coaches, and subject matter experts who can see outside the lines and play nice in the sand box.
Working with adults is similar to working with kids. Kids like toys, and so do adults. Kids like to move around, interact, and see how things work. So do adults. Kids like stories, color, and visual stimulation—so do adults.
Note to self: learn Prezi.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Innovate the Pixar Way Featured in Credit Union Magazine
Dare, Do, Dream - How to innovate like a Pixarian.
By Bill Merrick
March 25, 2011
Pixar Animation’s John Lasseter faced a Herculean task as he embarked on the production of the movie Toy Story 2: How could he possibly make it as good as the original?
Daunted by high expectations and intense media interest in the sequel, Lasseter vowed not to let his standards slip, consultant and author Bill Capodagli told the 18th Annual CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council Conference.
Lasseter took several steps to ensure the quality of Toy Story 2 remained high.
First, he selected employees who were as passionate about the film as he was, and who exhibited these traits:
- Proficiency. People who are very good at what they do and who exhibit remarkable tenacity.
- Depth. People who have a wide variety of interests outside the workplace.
- Communication and collaboration. People who will work with others to achieve a common goal.
“Pixar goes to great lengths to make sure employees are a group of creative people who are, first and foremost, collaborative teammates,” Capodgli says. “That means they try to accomplish a common goal based on a lot of different skills. Team is everything.”
Lasseter also:
• Focused on quality. All Pixar employees were allowed to take four hours of education per week in classes ranging from drawing to self-defense. When asked why accountants should learn to draw, Lasseter replied, “We’re teaching them to be more observant.”
"Quality is the best business plan," he once said.
• Embraced fun. One day, Lasseter brought his son’s scooter to work and rode it around the building. The following weekend, some Pixar staff scoured local garage sales for used scooters and brought several to work the next week.
“The scooter became Pixar’s symbol of fun,” Capodagli says, noting that such efforts boost an organization’s creativity and create a fun work atmosphere.
• Embraced risk-taking. As children, we learn by exploration and discovery: We try something, fail, and try again, Capodagli explains.
“Organizations need to do that,” he says. “They need to embrace risk and try new things, but be able to make adjustments so they ultimately can be successful.”
Lasseter ultimately achieved his goal: Toy Story 2 earned $120 million more than the original and became a classic among animated films.
“Pixar’s ‘dare, dream, do’ philosophy is alive and well,” Capodagli says. “You need to dream like a child, believe in your playmates, dare to jump in the water and make waves, and unleash your childlike potential.”
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
EBSCO Reviews Innovate the Pixar Way
Today, many American companies are highly risk averse and are taking a short-term view of business. Greater focus on innovation is needed to make companies more competitive. In Innovate the Pixar Way, Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson discuss how leaders at animation giant Pixar have cultivated an innovative culture. They identify numerous ways that organizations can create their own “innovation playgrounds.” While researching the sources of Pixar’s innovative genius, the authors examined the company’s culture, leadership, teaming, and training. Organizations that are both innovative and profitable require a delicate balance between two very different characteristics: 1) childlike dreaming and 2) task-driven execution. Pixar has been successful at achieving this balance.
EBSCO Publishing is an experienced information solution provider and the largest aggregator of journals and periodicals in the world. In addition to providing resources to support the complete information technology needs of the world’s largest corporations and government agencies, EBSCO is:
- One of the 200 largest private companies in the United States, as reported by Forbes
- A chief resource used in the top twelve ranked MBA programs, as reported by Financial Times
- A leader in providing outstanding information technology solutions for the world’s most-recognized companies and industry leaders for more than 60 years
With a combination of creative editorial, technical, and business skills and operations, EBSCO Publishing provides an outstanding collection of resources. This includes proprietary content, as well as book summaries and reports for learning professionals with selected articles from top magazine and journal publishers.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Justify Blog Review of Innovate the Pixar Way
It’s been a while since we’ve talked book reviews, but we finished reading “Innovate the Pixar Way” by Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson this weekend. To summarize in a few points as possible:
- The book was pretty light on the history of Pixar
- The artwork, pull-quote text and some chapters come across almost condescending, but mostly it sounds like they’re trying too hard.
The whole premise of the book when I picked it up was to get an inside look at Pixar Animation Studios, to really have in-depth interviews with their staff or past employees. It wasn’t so much that as it was a compilation of quotes and tidbits compiled from other video and text interviews conducted with key staff over the years. And while it wasn’t the job of this book to run you through the whole history of Pixar, the amount of text supplied to educate the reader on Pixar could be picked up from Wikipedia.
To be honest, I didn’t like this book. It read very vaguely with whispy high-flying ideas on how to innovate and be creative by having fun at work and letting employees be creative with their office space and not getting tied up in your failures. All good ideas, but not practical if your business has less than a few million in the bank.
One good takeaway was a look at Disney and Walt Disney himself, alongside Ed Catmull and Jon Lasseter of Pixar. The concept of scrapping work that was merely “good enough” to take advantage of “great work” is valid, important and arguably the most important lesson of the book. The authors give good examples, accounts and stories to further this concept well.
In all, a pretty light book on Pixar from a detail standpoint; there’s nothing new to be read here that can’t be surmised from articles, videos and interviews already on the Internet.
Bill and Lynn say, “He’s right about the book being ‘pretty light on the history of Pixar.’ (If you want to read a book about Pixar’s history, pick up droidMAKER or The Pixar Touch.) He’s wrong about needing ‘a few million in the bank’ to practice the principles. In the early days of Pixar, they were operating in the red and STILL found ways to jazz up their offices, keep team spirit soaring, and encourage fun in the workplace. Lastly, the purpose of this book was not to provide a Pixar cookie cutter approach to developing an innovative culture, but rather to spark one’s imagination for producing a dream, believe, dare, do culture that is right for each reader’s organization. As Bill says in his keynote presentations, ‘Innovate, don’t Imitate. It’s hard work. There’s no instant pudding.’”
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Innovate the Pixar Way Book Review from Italy
"…your book started a real waterfall of ideas to adapt the Pixar approach to our company and set our business goals. Before reading your book, we tried to innovate our products/services; after this ‘catalyst event’, I’m sure that the real innovation can come from people!”
Alessandro Rogora, IT Consultant, Busto Arsizio (VA), Italy
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