An Analysis of Pixar's Culture
Northumbria University
Newcastle Business School
An Analysis of Pixar’s Organisational Culture
Name: Anoynomous
HR0372 – Culture and Organisations
Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Business Management
January 2011
Word Count: 3668
TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No
1. INTRODUCTION 3
2. IDENTIFICATION OF CENTRAL ISSUE 4
3. OUTLINE OF THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 5
4. ANALYSIS 4.1 ARTIFACTS 6 4.2 ESPOUSED VALUES AND BELIEFS 7 4.3 BASIC UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS 10
5. CONCLUSION 12
6. RECOMMENDATIONS 13
7. REFERENCES 14
1. INTRODUCTION
Pixar Animation Studios as we know today, was started as in 1984 when John Lasseter, chief creative officer of both Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios and also concurrently, principal creative advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering at present date, left his animation job at Disney to join the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd. Two years later in 1986, this division was bought over by Steve Jobs, who established it as an independent company and renamed it “Pixar”.
Pixar’s first short film, Red’s Dream had its world premiere at Siggraph in 1987 while its first commercial, Wake Up was produced in 1989 for Tropicana. In 1991, Pixar and Disney teams up in an effort to produce and distribute up to three full length animated films, which saw the release of Toy Story in 1995. This was also the year Pixar went public.
Having enjoyed notable success, Pixar and Disney entered into a new agreement in 1997 to produce five movies jointly, and released several movies, namely A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, which all enjoyed tremendous success and also taking home several awards at the same time.
Pixar was purchased by Disney for US $7.4 billion in May, 2006. But instead of introducing Disney’s culture into Pixar, chief executive of Disney, Robert Iger continued to let Pixar produce movies their
Newcastle Business School
An Analysis of Pixar’s Organisational Culture
Name: Anoynomous
HR0372 – Culture and Organisations
Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Business Management
January 2011
Word Count: 3668
TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No
1. INTRODUCTION 3
2. IDENTIFICATION OF CENTRAL ISSUE 4
3. OUTLINE OF THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 5
4. ANALYSIS 4.1 ARTIFACTS 6 4.2 ESPOUSED VALUES AND BELIEFS 7 4.3 BASIC UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS 10
5. CONCLUSION 12
6. RECOMMENDATIONS 13
7. REFERENCES 14
1. INTRODUCTION
Pixar Animation Studios as we know today, was started as in 1984 when John Lasseter, chief creative officer of both Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios and also concurrently, principal creative advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering at present date, left his animation job at Disney to join the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd. Two years later in 1986, this division was bought over by Steve Jobs, who established it as an independent company and renamed it “Pixar”.
Pixar’s first short film, Red’s Dream had its world premiere at Siggraph in 1987 while its first commercial, Wake Up was produced in 1989 for Tropicana. In 1991, Pixar and Disney teams up in an effort to produce and distribute up to three full length animated films, which saw the release of Toy Story in 1995. This was also the year Pixar went public.
Having enjoyed notable success, Pixar and Disney entered into a new agreement in 1997 to produce five movies jointly, and released several movies, namely A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, which all enjoyed tremendous success and also taking home several awards at the same time.
Pixar was purchased by Disney for US $7.4 billion in May, 2006. But instead of introducing Disney’s culture into Pixar, chief executive of Disney, Robert Iger continued to let Pixar produce movies their
References: Burrows, P. (2003) ‘Pixar’s Unsung Hero’, Business Week, 3839, pp.68 – 69, Business Source Premier, [Online], Available at: http://web.ebscohost.com (Accessed: 28 December 2010) Capodagli, B Catmull, E. (2008) ‘How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity’, Harvard Business Review, 86 (9), pp. 64-72, Business Source Premier, [Online], Available at: http://web.ebscohost.com (Accessed: 27 December 2010) Hempel, S Schein, E.H. (2010) Organizational Culture and Leadership. 4th edn. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Schlender, B Schlender, B. (2004) ‘The Man Who Built Pixar’s Incredible Innovation Machine’, Fortune, 150 (10), pp.206 – 212, Business Source Premier, [Online], Available at: http://web.ebscohost.com (Accessed: 27 December 2010) Taylor, W.C The Telegraph (2009) John Lasseter: Interview on UP. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/6252545/John-Lasseter-interview-on-UP.html (Accessed: 2 January 2011)