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.

Innovate the Pixar Way for Filmmakers

The PIXAR Method: Tricks of the Hit Machine

By John Ott

photo by: JD Hancock

At the time of writing, PIXAR has released its 12th number one box office film, Cars 2. In an industry that expects one out of ten releases to be hit films, their critical and box office track record is unprecedented. Not even the early Disney studio had such a run of success.

You could credit the talents of people who work there, from Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter on down. They are immensely talented people, to be sure. But there are plenty of people with talent in Hollywood. Why has no other studio had the same success?

I believe that PIXAR has certain unique methods that help them craft superior films. And the good news is, because PIXAR began as an outsider company, many of these methods are well within reach of the indie filmmaker. Here are a few new tricks from the old toys…

Perturbate the Model

While a single writer/director is usually the prime creative force behind each PIXAR film, all of the films are regularly subjected to “brutally honest” critiques while in development from a group known as the Brain Trust. The original members of the Brain Trust were Lasseter, Pete Docter (Up, Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E) and the late Joe Ranft. The group now reportedly includes other directors and creatives like Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Lee Unkrich (Toy Story 3) and Brenda Chapman (The Prince of Egypt). As you can see, the story must withstand scrutiny from a collective with a massive movie IQ.

Finance wizards have an expression: to perturbate the model. They test how models of markets would react in this or that extreme situation. The creative wizards at PIXAR do exactly the same thing. Before they ever start animating a story, it has been rigorously tested. Does this or that plot point make sense? What are the characters’ goals? Is this unique and original? While the ultimate creative decisions rest with the filmmaker, the ones that survive the perturbations from PIXAR’s Brain Trust ultimately result in a stronger story.

But what can an isolated filmmaker do without access to the PIXAR Brain Trust? Start your own. Regularly focus-testing projects with other filmmakers whose opinion you respect is invaluable and now, thanks to social networking, simple to do. Go to some local film festivals or filmmaker events meet other filmmakers and start your own Brain Trust.

Be Willing to Set Projects Aside

If you put years of your life into developing a project, but it just wasn’t ready, would you be willing to put it aside? Walt Disney did this — many times. As someone with the privilege of going through Disney’s archives, I’ve had a chance to see many projects that were delayed or never came to fruition. Disney often resisted commercial pressure to rush a film into production, and guess who else has this habit? John Lasseter, Disney worshipper.

“I’ve got Disney blood running through my veins,” he has been quoted as saying. “I do what I do because of Walt Disney.” [The Sunday Times October 2009] Even before PIXAR had a track record, he threw out the original story for Toy Story and started again from scratch, even though doing so jeopardized a deal with the Disney Studio to help release it. We know from our perch in the present that it all worked out, but at that time, the pressure must have been enormous.

Following Walt Disney’s lead, Lasseter and other executives at PIXAR have taken steps to make such a hard call a easier. They keep a lot of projects in development. This is expensive, but it means they get a choice of projects when the production pipeline is ready.

Most successful indie filmmakers do something similar, if on a smaller scale. They “keep irons in the fire” and are “willing to kill their babies” if it serves the ultimate creative goal: making a great movie.

Play in the Sandbox

When bestselling business authors Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson analyzed the corporate culture of PIXAR, they observed a childlike sense of fun in every aspect of the company. One of the keys is the way collaboration is used to constantly “plus” projects. PIXAR employees build on each others’ ideas like kids working to build a massive sandcastle.

Their takeaway: “Innovation does not come from a miraculous revelation … it comes from habitual, nonstop collaboration.” As PIXAR employees eat breakfast cereal (provided free), they can sit around like kids at the breakfast table and bounce ideas off one another. Then they can adjourn to a secret room with a hidden door that opens by pressing a button under a statue (I’m not making this up) as they continue to work on it.

As a filmmaker, you have to feel free to experiment, unleash the imagination that was so strong in childhood. I’m not saying a bowl of Frosted Flakes is the best way to do that. But whatever sort of environment is a creative sandbox for you, make it happen.

There are plenty more PIXAR methods that deserve to be cloned by filmmakers, but I’ll leave it here for now. See you in the sandbox!

John Ott is a writer, filmmaker and founder of the website Making the Movie

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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.

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.

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

SALESFORCEXP FEATURES INNOVATE THE PIXAR WAY

To Infinity and Beyond

Pixar-inspired innovation can make your meetings a hit

By Staff

As published in: SalesForceXP - November-December 2010

In their book Innovate the Pixar Way: Business Lessons From the World's Most Creative Corporate Playground (McGraw-Hill, 2010), authors Bill Capodagli and Lynn Jackson latch on to Pixar Studios' commitment to excellence through imagination.

"It makes no difference if you are making a movie that takes four years or serving a customer that takes four minutes, you have only one chance to deliver that magical, magnetic, enchanting experience for your customer," the authors state.

Because a company's creativity begins during planning sessions, here are three ideas from Capodagli and Jackson that will help your team improve its innovative process during team meetings:

1. Take field trips. Some may be related to particular projects you're working on, while others will feel completely disconnected. In preparation for the animated feature "Cars," Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter and 11 animators rented white Cadillacs and traveled Route 66. To obtain ideas for designing the "Cars" movie characters, Lasseter visited the actual design studios of several automotive companies.

2. Bring in an outside guest speaker. Have your team spend an afternoon learning how to cultivate bonsai trees, or how to prepare an Italian dinner, or how to make classical music relevant to today's youth. The key is to get the team to expand their thinking outside their normal comfort thinking zone.

3. Conduct quarterly "Gong Shows." Years ago, the Disney organization had something called the "Gong Show," which was patterned after the old TV game show and provided an opportunity for anyone in the company to pitch new film ideas.

The Pixar Book is Coming!

The Pixar book is coming soon!

You will learn how to animate your team and unleash their creative…The Pixar Way.

In Innovate the Pixar Way, we reveal how Pixar has reawakened the innovative spirit of Walt Disney. And, we explore how president Ed Catmull and chief creative officer John Lasseter and the rest of Pixar’s “brain trust” have built an organization on a simple philosophy, “Quality is the best business plan.” It makes no difference if you are making a movie that takes four years or serving a customer that takes four minutes, you have only chance to deliver that magical, magnetic, enchanting experience for your customer. We offer examples of how it’s done – and explain what it takes to get your people to achieve greatness by unleashing the power to dream like a child; believe in their playmates; dare to jump in the water and make waves; and do unleash their childlike potential.

We also share how Google, Griffin Hospital, Men’s Wearhouse, OMA (Opening Minds through the Arts) student achievement program, Nike, Target and the Internet shoe giant, Zappos unshackle their peoples’ imaginations and do outrageously great things. By getting your team to Innovate the Pixar Way you, too, can discover the magic that will help your business stay ahead of the competition, attract the best talent, and fatten the bottom line!

Why Did We Write a Book on Pixar's Innovation?

For the past thirty years, we have studied Disney’s culture, wrote a best-selling book called The Disney Way, and continue to speak to thousands of people every year about Walt Disney’s success principles…dream, believe, dare, do. We were fascinated to watch Disney progress from being the premiere blockbuster movie studio to relying on a handful of storytelling pioneers in computer animation now known as Pixar – which became part of Disney in 2006. It was interesting to learn that Pixar leaders Ed Catmull and John Lasseter modeled their organization upon Walt Disney’s original studio. Pixar honors the legacy of Walt Disney by refusing to take shortcuts, by bringing the story to life in each and every movie they make, and by living a simple formula: "Quality is the best business plan of all."