What Can Google Learn From Pixar?

Pixar is a continuous learning organization. The company's ability to innovate has been proven and has a truly humble culture.

Pixar founder and President Ed Catmull (Ed Catmull) strives to make a rainy day and is committed to finding problems in real time and constantly solving problems.

He knows that he can not solve all the problems. He has been steadfast in this way to confront the natural reaction of mankind to success. This is worth learning by the founder of Google Corporation.

Although 11 blockbusters have been launched in succession,

As David Price (David Price) wrote in her excellent book, The Pixar Touch, at first, Picks was a computer Hard Suits Inc.

When Steve Jobs (Steve Jobs) bought this company from George Lucas (George Lucas) in 1986, Jobs never thought Pixar would become a movie company.

At that time, Picks was a computer graphics team composed of 45 people, Lucasfilms, and headed by Catmull. When he was a graduate student, his dream was to make a large digital animation film. Lucas,

The team developed the Pixar Image Computer, a computer imaging device that produces high-end visual images such as MRI.

While buying Pixar, Jobs believes that the technology has breakthrough potential, but Pixar has never found a market.

In addition, Jobs also set up a small animation department wisely. The Department was responsible for the production of animated short films by Disney John animator John Lasseter (John Lasseter).

These short films have become a tool for Pixar to build technical skills and narrative expertise, and have gained an essential reputation. In 1995, the company finally worked with Disney to produce the first digital animation feature film Toy Story.

It was difficult for Pixar in 1980s, and Steve Jobs was very successful in raising funds and pushing the company forward.

However, Pixar has made a small contribution in the short film, but it is still far away from success.

During this period, the failure of many successful companies puzzled Catmull. "I thought at the time," if we succeed, how can we avoid repeating the mistakes of those failing companies? "He recalls in his recent speech at Harvard Business School.

Catmull studied the case of Evans & Sutherland, a computer graphics pioneer company, and the Silicon Graphics Inc (Silicon Graphics) * lost its leading position in the market.

Just like today's Google, these companies also have excellent talents, and also solve major problems, but they have lost their advantages and market leadership.

Catmull, however, has studied the most of the Toyota Corporation (Toyota).

Today, Catmull set an unusual tone for Pixar's corporate culture, similar to Toyota Corporation's concept of "continuous improvement". TOYOTA's challenge is another matter. Amason Bezos's Amazon Jeff is another "good student" who really studies Toyota Corporation and its process.

Catmull kept asking the employees of Pixar for feedback. He said that the idea of continuous improvement has become a common practice throughout the company.

In the strategy of Toyota Corporation, what Catmull was most interested in and inspired him to do was to constantly discover and solve new problems.

One of the most noteworthy points in Catmull's speech or lectures is that he often talks about Pixar's problems and the mistakes he made.

For example, Pixar has repeatedly exhausted employees.

Like any organization, a handful of Pixar companies are struggling to resist change.

Catmull often confesses in his speech that he knows what he knows and knows not what he knows.

In April, when Catmull delivered a speech at Stanford University's Stanford s Computer Science department, she would try to build a company that continued to succeed, as a process of continuous innovation.

"I find that there are many things that puzzle me," he said. "In some cases, I think we have done the right thing, but in some cases, we have done wrong."

Outsiders are often amazed at Pixar's honesty culture and willingness to accept challenges.

When Stanford University professor Robert Sutton (Robert Sutton) and Haya Gerry Vala O (Hayagreeva "Huggy" Rao) talked to Pixar directors Bradburd (Brad Bird) and Alan Weber (Allen Webb), Byrd talked about Pixar recruiting herself:

"In fact, Steve Jobs, Ed Catmull and John Lasseter say the main idea is:" the only thing we are afraid of is complacency, as if we were omnipotent.

We hope you will wake us up.

If we think you do not make sense, we will put forward sufficient arguments for you, but if you can convince us, we will adopt another way.

For a successful company without failure, invite a person who has just come out of a failure and say to him, "just do it, disrupt our thinking and shake the company." when did you ever see such a thing?

Ed Catmull and Pixar have the potential to become Toyota Corporation in the US business one day. They will become a model for building a continuous learning organization and a model for Google Corporation to be deeply shocked.

What do you think? At the moment, do you think Pixar is a good example for Google and its founders? What advice will you give to Google Corporation executives at this critical turning point?

* Note: the United States was founded in 1968, and is headquartered in the research park of University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The company's founder David Evans (David Evans) and Ivan Sutherland (Ivan Sutherland) are recognized as the founder of computer graphics, and have been leading the research and development of computer graphics technology in the 38 years since the establishment of the company.

Translator's note

* the US Silicon Graphics Inc was founded in 1982. It is a multinational company that produces high-performance computer systems. Its headquarters is located in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, California. It is an important provider of high performance computing systems, complex data management and visualization products.

Translator's note

Peter Sims: (Peter Sims): writer, former venture capitalist, CO authored with Bill George (Bill George), "the right direction: finding credible leadership" (True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership).

His next book, Little Bets, will be published in the spring.

You can find him at @petersims in Twitter.