Do You Have the Pixar Touch?

Pixar tried to be many different things before becoming a successful film company. I have not read the book, but Bob Sutton's description of it. In Sutton's words:

The lessons about leadership, strategy, culture, innovation, persistence -- and the degree to which random events rather than planning shape human and organizational history -- are all on display.

I did however dig a little deeper on the Amazon reviews and happened upon an exchange between Steven Boyett, a writer who was contracted to work on Toy Story 2 for three months, and David Price, the author. I agree with the others who comment there - the events, as described by Boyett, cast a shadow on an otherwise compelling story. Why? His story rings of honesty. Finding the truth beyond the official story matters increasingly more. Truth connect with our emotional core.

This is a good thread to follow up on our first full week of the year. A couple of days ago we were talking about product, purpose, passion and performance. I would like to swap one of the P's at this time. Let's take passion out and replace it with persistence. Then we should add something at the end - you will help me do that.

Product

To excel with product, the people at Pixar remained paranoid and continue to take pride in what they do. They believe in the power of telling a great story. Their fans do too. The Luxo blog by Ken Bautista and Chad Kerychuck wrapped to a close in June 2008. While Upcoming Pixar (now Pixar Planet) looks well done, it feels a bit more like a Web site and less like a blog. Too bad, says someone in the comments at Luxo, I preferred you to the others. Looking at what Chad and Ken did on top of their professional lives, I was impressed.

Building a community with that superb product and work, they created purpose. Once you determine what your product is, once you narrow it down to one concept, one outcome, then it becomes easy to associate it with the second P - purpose. Does product come first, or does purpose?

Some examples of well executed products (services also fit here) are Amazon's "customers who bought this also bought", which instantly engages our herd impulses; the book/product review section and this other service on top of the reviews that gives people a change to have a dialogue with each other.

Purpose

Tim Walker said it so well in a Twitter conversation with Kathy Sierra - simple, deep, challenging, worth it. The purpose-idea, as articulated by Mark Earls, explains to customers why they should buy your product or service and it tells employees why they come in early and stay late.

That's when we meet Wall-E, the robot with a personality. He is curious about life and has a desire to connect to it. He is not willing to give up, he is going to persevere through it. Persistence is the third characteristic of winning businesses.

Persistence

Just like Pixar's story indicates, persistence means that you are willing to try many different things with an eye to an end goal. One of the less known facts Sutton cites is that it was Pixar, and not Apple, that made Steve Jobs a billionaire. Jobs bought Pixar in 1986 from Lucasfilm for $5 million. In 1995, the week after the release of Toy Story, Pixar went public and Jobs’s stock was worth $1.1 billion.

Persistence spells the unwavering belief that you will prevail. Have you ever felt that you pulled out of a situation - work or otherwise - too early in the game and missed out on the final event? Success more often than not is years and years in the making.

I'm also inclined to believe that in today's marketplace, wisdom gained through experience is much more valuable than just applied intelligence. Which brings us to performance.

Performance

Having a great story and believing in it is only one part of the equation. How does the story perform in the marketplace? Are we effective? Not just as in having special effects, but how do events bounce off us, what is the experience of us? I am reminded of Ratatouille and the love for creating culinary experiences worth having.

You can take that all the way to the bank - the movie earned over $621 million at the box office (worldwide).

We now have the winning formula for the kind of marketing and business culture we should be building. But maybe we are missing a key ingredient, still. What is that? Do you have the Pixar touch?

Comments

[Adam Kayce]

I love it, Valeria. Not only am I a huge fan of Pixar movies—and not just because I've got kids; I've seen The Incredibles and Ratatouille more than they have—but I also really admire the culture at Pixar. It's clear that they love what they do, and have fun doing it.

I mean, how can you deny that these 4 P's are huge when it comes to success?

Thanks.

[Tiffany Monhollon]

I've been looking into two p's myself a lot in the last few weeks as I dig into thesis research on journalism - and writing my lit review on the state of journalism, two words kept coming up: product and process. Is process another important P to consider? Process - traditionally an internal function seems to be open for grabs particularly when we look at the news industry, since that is the example I led with, is an interesting debate. In a participatory environment (another p, perhaps?) the negotiation for who can create news brings up issues and ideas with all these other p’s you mention.

In fact, sometimes process seems to predicate all these other P's.

Culturally, how we do things (process) is often as important as and informs what we do or make (product) what we say or believe about what we do (purpose), how committed we are to it (persistence) and what kinds of outcomes we have (performance).

For example, in journalism, when it comes to the concept of how journalists create their product, all sorts of issues come into play when it comes to process. It becomes an ethical discussion, particularly where bloggers (who are questioning that idea of process in conjunction with the definition of journalism itself) are concerned.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Adam - good hearing from you again. You will be pleased to know that I did not have any issues with ramping up on Macs - and I am loving the experience! We don't use the word love enough in our daily pursuits. It would be sufficient to use it as intention in our minds. I, too, really enjoyed both movies.

@Tiffany - my problem with process is business is that often the business hardens around it against the people. It stops looking at the people and it serves just the almighty process... so we would need to figure out what needs to happen around process to help it stay fluid and adaptable to serve instead of being the master or tyrant as the case may be. Did you happen to catch up with my Sunday post to the press tribe? You might find the resources I linked to interesting for your project. Great thoughts, thank you!

[Blog Guide]

I love the article. I ran across this today and it really got me thinking. But I definitely do not have the touch. I will have to keep these things in mind for the next product I create.

[Mikhail Odotorvich]

Your argument appears to be that success is a process, repeatable by anyone, if they just distill out the key elements and implement them.

But unthinking repetition is, of course, incompatible with success. Nor is clever alliteration around the letter 'p' a substitute for clear, insightful writing. May I suggest a different approach? Starting with reading Neil Postman?

[Valeria Maltoni]

Dear Mikhail,

I like to welcome new readers to the site, but somehow your email is not a valid one. Interesting, since you also seem to tell me off. Your comment is quite reductive.

If you'd like to discuss philosophy I suggest that there are more appropriate places to do that. You do not seem to be familiar with the four P's of marketing - at least not with the concept of them.

Criticism does not a conversation make. May I suggest a more connective approach on your side?

[Peter]

But perhaps Mikail unwittingly provides by his words and actions a little more of that what is missing:

"But unthinking repetition is, of course, incompatible with success"

So untrue - We are but character, habit, behaviour, virtue and vice punctuated by the occasional thought. The "right" unthinking repetition - generosity, mindfulness, connectedness may well compliment all those P's. - in my experience too much thinking undoes all my unthinking good work.

I suspect we either imagine that our habits are thoughtful. More likely our minds are to pre-occupied to notice our habitual behaviour - to criticise or be
compassionate. But how to notice?

((apologies for the philosophy but it may be useful) - Postman argued that technology becomes mythic - the mind to is a technology that has become mythic. But the mind is also a false absolute and as much a modern construction as the internet - to quote Postman "technology becomes mythic, that is perceived as part of the natural order of things, and therefore tends to control more of our lives than is good for us".)

Thanks Mikhail I couldn't have done it with out you.