Ed Catmull, Founder of Pixar, when giving talks, always asks audiences whether they agree that a business’s “central problem was not finding good people – it was finding good ideas”. As a business school student, what is your view?
Catmull’s stance is not in favor of this assumption. Instead, he believes that it is good people that are most important and the good ideas will follow if everyone is fostered in the right environment. It’s hard to disagree, his company PIXAR is a highly successful company in a competitive market that doesn’t always generate hit films – however – 100% of his animation films have proven successful. He attributes that to his team. (It’s important to note that he has never bought scripts or movie ideas from the outside and instead it’s been all created by his team). Here are his principles for managing a creative organization (which I personally believe are guidelines that all organizations could use): 1. Empower your creatives. Give people control over every stage of idea development. 2. Create a peer culture. Encourage people to help each other produce their best work. 3. Free up communication. Give people freedom to communicate with anyone in any department at any level 4. Craft a learning environment. We’re all learning – and let’s learn together. 5. Get more out of post-mortems. Structure post-mortems to stimulate discussion – top five things we’d do again and top five things we wouldn’t do again. To read more on Catmull’s style read his piece from the Harvard Business Review “How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity. Created by Tara Atwood, Executive Committee Member
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Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other opinions drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs, Co-Founder and CEO, Apple Remember to celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead. – Nelson Mandela, South African Leader As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big. – Donald Trump Always deliver more than expected. –Larry Page, Co-Founder, Google Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve. –Mary Kay Ash, Mary Kay Cosmetics Founder The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into smaller manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one. –Mark Twain, American Humorist and Author I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. - Michael Jordan Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down. - Charles F. Kettering, Engineer and Inventor In between goals is a thing called life, that has to be lived and enjoyed. - Sid Caesar, American comic actor and writer To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe. - Anatole France, French poet, journalist, and novelist The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones. - Chinese Proverb Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph: a beginning, a struggle and a victory. –Mahatma Gandhi, Political and Spiritual Leader I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” –Steve Jobs, Co-Founder and CEO, Apple Never, never, never give up. – Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister Created by Tara Atwood, Executive Committee Member
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CategoriesAuthorBy executive committee members of Zicklin Women in Business Archives
March 2015
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