

The Pixar Story - davidw
http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displayStory.cfm?story_id=11402613&amp;subjectID=348909&amp;fsrc=nwl

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GHFigs
Charlie Rose with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter in 1996
<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4952557933657865919>

For some context: this is shortly after Toy Story, and before Jobs returned to
Apple.

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nutmeg
I recommend watching "The Pixar Story" when it comes on STARZ. A great
documentary.

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kajecounterhack
Two Words:

Steve Jobs.

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eugenejen
Not really. If you read those unauthorized biographies of Steve Jobs, you will
know besides Steve's financial backing, most of his management ideas were not
adopted by Pixar and Steve Jobs yielded because he knew he's not good in that
area. Steve's permanent obsession was making great computers when he bought
Pixar from George Lucas. Most operation inside Pixars has been always run by
Ed Catmull and John Lasseter and they basically do the way they want to get
things done.

But nobody can denied Steve Jobs unconditional financial support during Pixar
and Next's low point. And Steve Jobs reap his reward during the IPO of Pixar
and buyout of Next.

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far33d
Pixar success is all about the confluence of it's three major players.

1) Ed Catmull - He was the founder with the original vision and great
technical skills. He also brings a humility to Pixar, hired only the smartest
and best people, and knew that the art should drive the technology, not the
other way around. I believe his biggest contribution was knowing he couldn't
build Pixar by himself.

2) John Lasseter. Creative visionary. Pushed the tech people hard to think
outside their comfort zones and find solutions to complicated problems.
Without him, Pixar would be a dead software/hardware company.

3) Steve Jobs. Brought the cash. Let John and Ed do their thing. Managed the
business relationships almost perfectly, negotiating the original deals w/
Disney, keeping Pixar insulated through some awful Eisner years, and, in my
eyes, created the studio in the mold of a Silicon Valley company. He was also
indispensable. He always gave just the right amount of push-back. Hopefully,
Bob Iger can manage this as well as Steve did.

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eugenejen
Well said. I guess maybe Steve Jobs learned the lesson from Pixar and brought
it back to Apple. Has anyone thought that Jonathan Ive is playing the role to
Apple just like John Lasseter to Pixar recently?

