Case study: Pixar

Thomas Steinville        Mrs Thorpe

Alexandre Lorgeron

Pierre-vincent Spada

Thomas Puyo

Nicolas Mizandjian

Case study

Collective work

PIXAR [pic 1]

1.        Open innovation model        3

a.        Description        3

b.        Exemple        3

2.        The strategy and management of open innovation        3

a.        Why does the company develop an open innovation model?        3

b.        How does the company succeed in capturing the value of the innovation through the open innovation model it implements ?        3

3.        Management of the open innovation model        3

a.        How does the company succeed in favoring open innovation internally        3

b.        How does the company succeed in favoring open innovation externally        3

4.        Evaluation of the innovation model        3

a.        Strengths and weaknesses of Pixar’s open innovation and collective creativity        3

b.        What recommendations to make so that the open innovation model continues to sustain the company’s ability to innovate?        3

1. Open innovation model

1. Description

In 1982, John Lasseter wanted to create movies with more visual effects and began by Tron. However, Disney didn’t accept his proposition and John Lasseter was fired later on receiving help from George Lucas. Division, where John Lasseter worked, was bought by Steve Jobs. Thanks to Disney, Pixar was able to make its own movie: Toy story, which was an international success. Through Toy Story’s success Pixar was launched on a roll and went on making more animated movies in collaboration with Disney who had given them $25 million to produce 3 more animated movies. At the end of 2006, Pixar reached the end of its contract with Disney. Today, Pixar studio now belongs to Disney.

1. Examples

At first, Pixar studio was a computer and informatics team at Lucasfilms, but chose to separate themselves from the company.

After Steve Jobs bought Pixar, he decided to organise a partnership with Walt Disney and Pixar specialized their employees to work on animated movies.

Succeeding would mean creating the software and hardware they would need as they went along, and inventing a new kind of movie altogether.

Toy Story was the first movie made by Pixar and Walt Disney, that ended up a great success and from that point on:

The first fully computer-animated movie had come out.

Stanton set about helping write the screenplay for a buddy movie, where the conversations would bring the characters to life as much as the unprecedented curves and planes.

The writing team, which included Joss Whedon and Joel Cohen, paired the character concepts with a more cynical attitude than was typical for animated films, and Pixar also made the decision to skip musical numbers in favour of a more mature feel.

This partnership was a good idea and we can take note that part of what made the films so magical was how Walt Disney incorporated all the latest technology of his time, letting that innovation stimulate the illustrations.

No one had ever tried to make a feature-length film with 3D animation, so the technological capabilities guided much of their creative process.

Catmull and computer scientists at Pixar built the software that animators could use to design the film, like RenderMan, which originated from Catmull's studies at the University of Utah, and Menv (“modelling environment”), which the programmers developed for Pixar's 1988 short Tin Toy. The goal was to allow the animators, without much engineering background, to control movement and “rig” their own characters.

In 2006, Pixar and Walt Disney became a single company, however the processes were not upset, that is, and management did not want the two firms to merge.

It was advised by the managers that each group inquiries about its counterpart.

This management aroused curiosity and stimulated each group without creating a competitive effect.

Pixar and Walt Disney have different development division with the aim that each group offers different ideas and surpasses each time.

Similarly, the manager confessed to trust everyone, which allowed the employees to be more creative and released.

1. The strategy and management of open innovation

1. Why does the company develop an open innovation model?

Pixar is a movie maker company in an artistic and creative business. Moreover, they are specialized in animated movies. This type of film has known an incredible growth for the past decade thanks to the alliance between new technologies and art. The evolution of technology is primal as much as the development of inspiration. Furthermore, these two points have a small link with innovation.

Pixar needs innovation in every way: to have new ideas, to be creative, to be at the top of the technologic ladder against the competition etc… In other words: they need innovation to succeed. Which innovation model could guarantee the best company development?

Pixar made the choice of open innovation with a slogan: ‘How do you do art as a team sport ?’ They are a team in which everybody’s voice matters, in which everybody is a movie maker. From the executive to the accountant, everybody can have ideas and have to present them to make the company thrive. Collaboration is key, is a popular belief there and allows Pixar to make quicker decisions. The straight talk guarantees less time loss, workers are more open and curious, truth as a communication key and product quality. People are more apt to receive feedbacks and Pixar works on three types of feedbacks : Top-Down with courses in film making in amphitheatres, Bottom Up with brainstorming and feedbacks oriented to the executives and a Parallel direction with the idea of teamwork, independent of the job, the status or what not.

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