Creativity, Inc.: an inspiring look at how creativity can - and should - be harnessed for business success by the founder of Pix

Description

Part autobiography, part history of Pixar, part business book, Creativity Inc is an inspiring look at the role creativity plays in one of the most successful media businesses the world has ever seen Part autobiography, part history of Pixar, part business book, Creativity Inc is a stimulating, feel-good, insightful and highly inspirational collection of lessons in creativity and business from the president of Pixar and Disney Animation, Ed Catmull. 'Just might be the best business book ever written.' -- Forbes Magazine 'Great book. Wish I could give it more than 5 Stars' -- ***** Reader review 'Incredibly inspirational' -- ***** Reader review 'Honestly, one of the best books I've read in a long time' -- ***** Reader review 'Read it and read it again, then read it again and then again' -- ***** Reader review 'Great book!! Fantastic read' -- ***** Reader review ******************************************************************* This is the story behind the company that changed animation forever. Here, the founder of Pixar reveals the ideas and techniques that have made Pixar one of the most widely admired creative businesses, and one of the most profitable. As a young man, Ed Catmull had a dream- to make the world's first computer-animated movie. When an early partnership with George Lucas led, indirectly, to his founding Pixar with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter in 1986, he couldn't have known what would come. Nine years later and against all odds, Toy Story was released. It was the start of a new generation of animation. Through its focus on the joy of storytelling, inventive plots and emotional authenticity, Pixar revolutionised how animated films were created. Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights - a manual for anyone who strives for originality, with behind-the-scenes examples from Pixar itself. It is a book about how to build and sustain a creative culture with a unique identity. And through this story, we learn what creativity really is.

Ed Catmull is co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and president of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He has been honored with five Academy Awards, including the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for lifetime achievement in the field of computer graphics. He earned a B.S. degrees in computer science and physics and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Utah. He lives in San Francisco. www.CreativityIncBook.com @DisneyPixar

Many have attempted to formulate and categorize inspiration and creativity. What Ed Catmull shares instead is his astute experience that creativity isn't strictly a well of ideas, but an alchemy of people. In Creativity, Inc. Ed reveals, with commonsense specificity and honesty, examples of how not to get in your own way and realize a creative coalescence of art, business and innovation. * George Lucas * This is best book ever written on what it takes to build a creative organization. It is the best because Catmull's wisdom, modesty, and self-awareness fill every page. He shows how Pixar's greatness results from connecting the specific little things they do (mostly things that anyone can do in any organization) to the big goal that drives everyone in the company: Making films that make them feel proud of one another. * Robert I. Sutton, Professor of Management Science at Stanford University, author of The No A**hole Rule and co-author of Scaling Up Excellence * Just might be the best business book ever written * Forbes Magazine * Pixar uses technology only as a means to an end; its films are rooted in human concerns, not computer wizardry. The same can be said of Creativity Inc., Ed Catmull's endearingly thoughtful explanation of how the studio he co-founded generated hits such as the Toy Story trilogy, Up and Wall-E. . . . [Catmull] uses Pixar's triumphs and near-disasters to outline a system for managing people in creative businesses-one in which candid criticism is delivered sensitively, while individuality and autonomy are not strangled by a robotic corporate culture * Financial Times * Achieving enormous success while holding fast to the highest artistic standards is a nice trick-and Pixar, with its creative leadership and persistent commitment to innovation, has pulled it off. This book should be required reading for any manager * Charles Duhigg - Author of THE POWER OF HABIT *