Assess The Company Pixar Media Essay

Assess The Company Pixar Media EssayThis report is going to assess the confederacy Pixar from an aim perspective. This report leave alone focus on the good and naughtiness points of the caller to give an insight into its attitude towards innovation.A number of diverse methods were used to gather the information in this report, such as websites, interviews, articles and books.Steve Jobs (Apple CEO) purchased the figurer graphics section of Lucas fool a personal manner Ltd in 1986 and called this modern come with Pixar. Pixar started as a very small keep keep company with solitary(prenominal) 44 employees. Pixar started making briefly animations films which were at the forefront of CGI technology. Pixar also throwd a number of adverts for companies such as Listerine in their early years. The first feature length movie Pixar created was rook Story and it was the first fully computer generated animated film ever, shrink from Story grossed $362 million worldwide.Pixar did non full create animations, they also real a lot of the technology which allowed them to create their films. Work teams and somewhat individuals won numerous awards from organisations bid The Scientific and Engineering Academy Awards in handle such as Digital s massning and Direct input devices. i huge advantage Pixar has over other animation companies is their unique brain of innovation in company structure and employee relations, this report will mark to discuss this in further detail. segment 2 Employee relationsPixar is a very complete company which disagrees with the structure of mechanistic organisations. A mechanistic organisation has a very hierarchical structure and the companies future is placed by those in senior roles. piece 2.1 brad madamSteve Jobs chartered Brad darn into the company after its first three thriving films, Jobs was worried that they had ran come out of creativity and he did not want the company to go stale. Brad Bird dumb that there was r oom for receipts in the companies inventive process. Bird unders comparablelyd that every employees input is binding and has its use. He k hot that communication is vital in the innovation process so everyone can help separately other to create the best last possible. The main problem with this is that It is difficult to get employees to enunciate their minds as they argon often afraid of criticism from their peers, and they attain good intellectual to timidity this as they argon give-up the ghosting with some of the best animators in the world. Birds origin to this problem was to get the employees in groups to look at the rub down each member had done that day. Bird wanted to encourage batch to speak their minds, he talked near the strong and weak points of each persons work and praised commonwealth for challenging his criticisms. At first this did not work very healthful, in the beginning Bird was introduced to the company the animators were afraid to criticise an y work as previous managers did not take kindly to criticism, besides constructive it was. It took most two months for any of the employees to actively routineicipate in these group discussions, barely one employee finally did and the rest of the employees saw that Bird praised this employee for doing so as he k revolutionary it was the best carriage to get everyone comfortable with this process. slit 2.2 impolite PhilosophyPixar has a very coarse philosophy towards its descent. Pixar encourage employees across its company to interact with each other. They want employees of all levels to talk somewhat their sentiments and problems so the company can benefit through this interaction. Even the lowest level employees bring the option to speak to the highest level employees as Pixar has an open door policy in its offices. This mind originated from the quotation at a lower place.Interaction = innovationSteve JobsPixar also has a open approach when it comes to their techno logy and advancements. Pixar encourages employees to publish their work in academic journals as they dont believe in hiding success. At first this may seem like a bad idea from a backing perspective as they will be service rival companies to better their productions. When you look at it more closely it starts to shit a lot of sense. Pixar does this because it attracts talent to the company, talented individuals become aware of the new advances existence made at Pixar and are often very crafty to be hired by them so they can be at the forefront of this technology. Pixar is very interested in bringing new employees into the company as they challenge the status quo and often legislate to new and enkindle ideas. persona 2.3 Pixar UniversityPixar wants its employees to branch out and learn new things. Pixar University was created to allow its employees to do so. Every single employee is given up to four hours a workweek to take courses. Some of these courses are on related subje cts such as animation and some are completely unrelated such as yoga. These courses bring employees from antithetical corners of the company together and it helps them all learn new skills or it can simply help them relax. This scheme seems to permit stipendiary off as some employees involve realised they take a certain talent in a new field and they understudy to a different department where their skills are put to better use. Employees are allowed to reject work and meetings if they coincide with these courses, this installs how strongly Pixar feels about learning in their company. slit 2.4 Perfection holds back innovationBrad Bird brought a number of new things to Pixar and one of them has changed the company dramatically in the way it produces its films.Bird believes that perfection is something that holds back innovation. This is something that shocked employees when he joined the company, the below quotation shows exactly what he means.Look, I dont have to do the pidd le through a computer simulation program Im perfectly sate to film a splash in a swimming family and just composite the water in.Brad Bird (2008)This was a new innovative approach to how the animators worked. Before this, animators had always painstakingly created every part of an animation and never used shortcuts to create the same effect. Bird understood that some pieces of work needed to be perfect but for some pieces it was unnecessary as the same result could be achieved by different means. It was this kind of innovative thinking that helps the company produce at a faster and cheaper rate.Section 2.5 Concluding employee relationsThis section of the report has talked about how Pixar treats its employees and how it stimulates them to become better at their work. Its difficult to criticise Pixar from this perspective as they have an extremely good understanding of what employees want and how to develop their creative skills. It is evident that their approach to employee relati ons is working as they continue to create new and exciting films which could only be produced by employees who enjoy their work.Section 3 Environmental innovationsPixar has an unorthodox approach to the environment that their employees work in. The offices in which Pixar employees work are specifically knowing to maximise creativity and interaction.Section 3.1 CubiclesThe animators are allowed to completely customise their working cubicles. In a business as creative as Pixar you cant sit the employees in unoccupied cubicles.(http//www.home-designing.com)Most of the employees like to give their cubicles a homely feel by bringing personal items and making the atmosphere as friendly as possible. This sort of environment is best for a creative business like Pixar.Section 3.2 Pixar HQThe construct in which Pixar is based also has a slightly different design to conventional working spaces. Steve Jobs who as we mentioned preceding believes that interaction = innovation intentional the office with this in mind. The main building has a large atrium situated in the centre of the office which flock at first thought was unnecessary, but Jobs designed this atrium to contain the cafeteria, mailboxes and toilets. At first this seemed like a strange idea as everybody had to carry from their individual areas to go to the bathroom or to collect mail. The reason for this was that bulk are essentially forced to see each other on a daily stern which leads to interaction which in turn leads to innovation.Section 3.3 Social environmentThe environment Pixar creates isnt just physical. There is also an eventful role in the social environment of the company. During an interview Brad Bird was askedWeve been talking a lot about how you promote innovation. What undermines it?(The Quarterly 2008)His result was the followingPassive-aggressive people-people who dont show their colours in the group but therefore get behind the scenes and peck off-are poisonous. I can usually get laid those people fairly soon and I weed them out.(Brad Bird 2008)Brad Bird made it his goal to get rid off people who hindered the innovation process as to him they were a cancer eating away at the creativity of the company.Section 3.4 Concluding environmental innovationsThe way Pixar designed its working space does seem very suited to the type of business that they are, a creative industry should have a creative environment. The idea of situating all the things people need on a daily basis in the atrium is essentially a good one, however it may not be to every employees liking as it may grow verbose for people who have to take a long trip to just go to the bathroom. The social environment created by Pixar is very good as it is designed to embrace creative and happy people and it is also designed to eliminate people who bring innovative processes down.Section 4 FilmsSection 4.1 Films and reviewsTo date Pixar has produced 11 feature films which are listed below as hale as ratings acquire by the popular movie critic website rottentomatoes.com. playact story (1995) Rating 100%A Bugs Life (1998) Rating 91%Toy Story 2 (1999) Rating 100%Monsters, Inc (2001) Rating 95%Finding Nemo (2003) Rating 98%The Incredibles (2004) Rating 97% gondola cars (2006) Rating 74%Ratatouille (2007) Rating 96%WALL-E (2008) Rating 96%Up (2009) Rating 98%Toy Story 3 (2010) Rating 99%The to a higher place ratings show that Pixar have a tremendously good track get down when it comes to producing films. You can also see that the latest films were produced much quicker. Since 2006 Pixar have been producing a film every year, this could be down to some of the innovative ideas from Brad Bird which were discussed earlier.Section 4.2 CarsIn the rating system one film stands out from the crowd, and that films is Cars.(http//reponses.qctop.com)Every film Pixar has done has been rated over 90% except for Cars which received a much lower rating of 74%. There must (prenominal) be a reason for this dramatic drop in rating, and that reason is that Cars displayed a lack of innovation, the visual elements of the film were very good however the story lacked the Pixar magic a lot of critics refer too. The story was bromidic and it was clear that something was missing when they were working on this film.While this film was being produced Pixar could have used an innovation method such as hit the books analysis to assess their strong and weak points.Below is an example of what they could have done to assess Cars.StrengthsGood AnimatorsEffective MarketingStrong spotProductive work environmentWeaknessesBad basis for a film, Car racing is hard for a lot of people to relate tooUnimaginative storyline compared to previous filmsOpportunitiesFurther strengthen market come outHuge profit potentialMerchandiseThreatsRival companiesGrowing disfavour for cars as an environmental hazard.Above is a basic example of how prink analysis could have been used to e nsure that Cars was received as well as all the other films they have produced. It would have been difficicult for this to have been performed by Pixar themselves as it is often hard to criticise your own work oddly if it took 2 years to produce so an external person could have done the evaluation.Section 4.3 Attitudes towards specieSome methods of analysis would not have worked in a company like Pixar such as The capital of Massachusetts Matrix which focuses on market growth and revenue. One of the key value that Pixar holds is that making profit can not be your focus in producing a good film.I dont make movies to make money-I make money to make movies.(Walt Disney)Above is Walt Disneys philosophy on making movies, Pixar as a creative organisation tries to adhere to this as they believe it will lead to greater success in the long term.Pixar has clearly learnt what they did wrong in Cars as the four movies they have produced since have all received above 96% which is an extremely high score. It is unclear what Pixar did, but it has worked. They may have used a method like SWOT analysis or maybe they hired new employees with a fresh perspective.Section 5 ConclusionOverall Pixar are a very good company to assess from an innovation perspective. Rival companies such as Dreamworks create similar films but often these films are overshadowed by the work of Pixar and this is down to the way that Pixar as a company works. Few companies are as organic as Pixar in their organisational structure and a lot of larger companies tend to have a mechanistic approach towards film making. You only have to look at the success that Pixar has had to realise how difficult it is to be searing of Pixar as a company. They are the worlds leading animation company who only have one film which let them down, and even that film was in time extremely popular.Pixar are an extremely innovative company which is shown through their work and the dedication that the employees have towards th eir films. Pixar have had an incredibly good track record with their films and we can only wait to discover the new ways they will continue to spur creativity in their organisation.Section 6 ReferencesPixars company history http//www.pixar.com/companyinfo/history/1986.htmlInterview with Brad Bird http//gigaom.com/2008/04/17/pixars-brad-bird-on-fostering-innovation/ detail of Pixar films and ratings http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pixar_filmsImages referencesTitle page http//userlogos.org/files/logos/AlexT/PixarLogoLight.pngWork cubicles http//www.home-designing.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/pixar-494539.jpgCars http//reponses.qctop.com/upload/FlashMcqueen-21976.jpgSection 7 BibliographyBooksCapodagli, B. Jackson, L. (2009) Innovate The Pixar Way McGraw HillInterviewsInterview with Ed Catmullhttp//blogs.hbr.org/hbr/hbreditors/2009/02/creating_a_safe_haven_for_crea.htmlWebsiteshttp// corporeallearning.hbsp.org/corporate/assets/content/Pixararticle.pdfhttps//www.mckinseyqu arterly.com/Innovation_lessons_from_Pixar_An_interview_with_Oscar-winning_director_Brad_Bird_2127Pixars Brad Bird on Fostering Innovationhttp//benfry.com/ musical composition/archives/179http//consultaglobal.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/pixars-innovation-recipe/http//www.irishideas.org/GreatJournal7.pdfhttp//www.getdriven.com/2008/01/pixar-university/