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Pixar

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Pixar’s Culture
Origin of Pixar Culture
As a child, Ed Catmull grew up making “flip-books” filled with drawings and animations. Although he was not a good artist, Catmull used his physics and computer science skills to start creating 3-D computer animations, unintentionally starting his career as an animator. Catmull got the opportunity to use his animation skills under George Lucas, reinventing the technology for creating movies. Steve Jobs later purchased this division from Lucas, which led to the creation of Pixar. Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs envisioned that Pixar’s culture would equally incorporate both the creative culture of Hollywood and the technological aspect of Silicon Valley. Since then, Pixar has created twelve successful feature films, increased their workforce to over 1,100 people, and been acquired by Disney. Yet the culture that started Catmull’s dream still exists today and continues to drive Pixar’s success. (SFGate)
Corporate Structure’s Influence on Culture
Pixar’s organizational structure reinforces many of Catmull’s beliefs, including his emphasis on cross-departmental communication. Catmull realizes the importance of human capital through Pixar’s flat hierarchy and team-oriented environment. The low power distance derives from Catmull’s faith that every individual at the company is highly qualified in their field and should be able to express themselves freely without any pressures from above. Every worker has access to talk to any other person at Pixar, regardless of title or department. Because Pixar brings computer technology and art together, workers are encouraged to work together. In fact, according to Catmull, geeks and artists have many more similarities than most people expect, leading to similar management for both types of employees. This benefit of the ‘all for one, one for all’ team spirit sets Pixar apart from many other organizations. In fact, the system works so well that even the US Navy studied Pixar’s organizational structure. (Fortune)
Recruiting
To make computer geeks and artists function together smoothly as one entity, the founders of Pixar always agreed that recruiting extremely smart people and constantly training them is essential. Pixar’s attempt to preserve its unique culture depends heavily upon recruiting smart people and socializing with their employees. The recruiters at Pixar search for “the nerds with communication skills” and the innovators who have overcome difficulties. Although they want the smartest candidates, they prefer team-workers who can bring changes and challenge the impossible. This shows management’s high propensity to risk and tolerance of failure (Fortune).
Socializing
After recruiting, Pixar puts a large effort into developing employees by sending them to Pixar University, one of Pixar’s oldest cultural artifacts. The University provides every employee with enough training in art and cinema to think like a filmmaker, regardless of their position. There are over 100 various courses, including sculpture and beat-making, those keep even the founders of the company busy. The receptionist who became a graphic designer through Pixar University shows Pixar’s commitment to their employees (Fortune). Luxo Jr., the lamp at the beginning of every movie, is another artifact that comes from Pixar’s first independent film. This film wowed critics with its combination of computer graphics and traditional cartoons.
Cultural Artifacts- Rituals
Pixar has also continued other rituals despite changes in the company, including the recent acquisition by Disney. Working together as peers is core to Pixar’s culture. Pixar holds daily reviews, where each employee shows their work in an incomplete state to the whole animation crew, while everyone is encouraged to comment. This spreads communication and creativity between employees. Many areas like the cafeteria and mailroom are in the center of the building, which brings employees in different departments together in a central location. Employee well-being is also important to Pixar. The employers understand that the most of the work at Pixar involves sitting down in front of the computers. So employees receive daily yoga classes and massage therapy. From these sessions, employees are able to stretch and relax. (Waterloo) Even the “cheese sandwich” in the cafeteria includes seven gourmet ingredients. (SFGate)

Downside
Even though Pixar’s culture has been successful in creating a multi-billion dollar company, there are still downsides to their approach that could harm the company in the future. High levels of individual initiative can lead to less focus in creating a single product, as employees suffer from too many ideas. This hurts Pixar’s unofficial timeline of working on one movie a year.

Sources used:
1 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/13/MNSK1DSMNR.DTL
2 Incredible: The Man Who Built Pixar's
Innovation Machine
Reprinted from FORTUNE
November 15, 2004 Vol. 150 No. 10
3 http://cogsci.uwaterloo.ca/courses/Phil447.2009/pixar.pdf

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