The Profile Dossier: Ed Catmull, Pixar's Creative Genius

IN THE VERY early days of Pixar, John, Andrew, Pete, Lee, and Joe made a promise to one another. No matter what happened, they would always tell each other the truth. They did this because they recognized how important and rare candid feedback is and how, without it, our films would suffer. Then and now, the term we use to describe this kind of con

Managers of creative companies must never forget to ask themselves: “How do we tap the brainpower of our people?”

Figuring out how to build a sustainable creative culture—one that didn’t just pay lip service to the importance of things like honesty, excellence, communication, originality, and self-assessment but really committed to them, no matter how uncomfortable that became—wasn’t a singular assignment. It was a day-in-day-out, full-time job.

To be a truly creative company, you must start things that might fail.

To reiterate, it is the focus on people—their work habits, their talents, their values—that is absolutely central to any creative venture.