Ed Catmull is co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and
president of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation. He has been
honored with five Academy Awards, including the Gordon E. Sawyer
Award for lifetime achievement in the field of computer graphics,
and the ACM A.M. Turing Award for major contributions of lasting
importance to computing. He received his Ph.D. in computer science
from the University of Utah. He lives in San Francisco with his
wife and children.
Amy Wallace is a journalist whose work has appeared in GQ,
The New Yorker, Wired, Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times
Magazine. She currently serves as editor-at-large at Los Angeles
Times magazine. Previously, she worked as a reporter and editor at
the Los Angeles Times and wrote a monthly column for The New York
Times Sunday Business section. She lives in Los Angeles.
“Just might be the best business book ever written.”—Forbes
“Achieving enormous success while holding fast to the highest
artistic standards is a nice trick—and Pixar, with its creative
leadership and persistent commitment to innovation, has pulled it
off. This book should be required reading for any manager.”—Charles
Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit
“Steve Jobs—not a man inclined to hyperbole when asked about the
qualities of others—once described Ed Catmull as ‘very wise,’ ‘very
self-aware,’ ‘really thoughtful,’ ‘really, really smart,’ and
possessing ‘quiet strength,’ all in a single interview. Any reader
of Creativity, Inc., Catmull’s new book on the art of running
creative companies, will have to agree. Catmull, president of both
Pixar and Walt Disney Animation, has written what just might be the
most thoughtful management book ever.”—Fast Company
“It’s one thing to be creative; it’s entirely another—and much more
rare—to build a great and creative culture. Over more than thirty
years, Ed Catmull has developed methods to root out and destroy the
barriers to creativity, to marry creativity to the pursuit of
excellence, and, most impressive, to sustain a culture of
disciplined creativity during setbacks and success. Pixar’s
unrivaled record, and the joy its films have added to our lives,
gives his method the most important validation: It works.”—Jim
Collins, co-author of Built to Last and author
of Good to Great
“Too often, we seek to keep the status quo working. This is a book
about breaking it.”—Seth Godin
“What is the secret to making more of the good stuff? Every so
often Hollywood embraces a book that it senses might provide the
answer. . . . Catmull’s book is quickly becoming the latest bible
for the show business crowd.”—The New York Times
“The most practical and deep book ever written by a practitioner on
the topic of innovation.”—Prof. Gary P. Pisano, Harvard Business
School
“Business gurus love to tell stories about Pixar, but this is our
first chance to hear the real story from someone who lived it and
led it. Everyone interested in managing innovation—or just good
managing—needs to read this book.”—Chip Heath, co-author
of Switch and Decisive
“A fascinating story about how some very smart people built
something that profoundly changed the animation business and, along
the way, popular culture . . . [Creativity, Inc.] is a well-told
tale, full of detail about an interesting, intricate business. For
fans of Pixar films, it’s a must-read. For fans of management
books, it belongs on the ‘value added’ shelf.”—The Wall Street
Journal
“Pixar uses technology only as a means to an end; its films are
rooted in human concerns, not computer wizardry. The same can be
said of Creativity Inc., Ed Catmull’s endearingly thoughtful
explanation of how the studio he co-founded generated hits such as
the Toy Story trilogy, Up and Wall-E. . . . [Catmull] uses Pixar’s
triumphs and near-disasters to outline a system for managing people
in creative businesses—one in which candid criticism is delivered
sensitively, while individuality and autonomy are not strangled by
a robotic corporate culture.”—Financial Times
“A wonderful new book . . . Unlike most books written by founders,
this isn’t some myth-heavy legacy project—it’s far closer to a
blueprint. Catmull takes us inside the Pixar ecosystem and shows
how they build and refine excellence, in revelatory detail. . . .
If you do creative work, you should read it, now.”—Daniel Coyle,
author of The Talent Code
“A superb debut intended for managers in all fields of endeavor . .
. He takes readers inside candid discussions and retreats at which
participants, assuming the early versions of movies are bad,
explore ways to improve them. Unusually rich in ideas, insights and
experiences, the book celebrates the benefits of an open, nurturing
work environment. An immensely readable and rewarding book that
will challenge and inspire readers to make their workplaces hotbeds
of creativity.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Punctuated with surprising tales of how the company’s films were
developed and the company’s financial struggles, Catmull shares
insights about harnessing talent, creating teams, protecting the
creative process, candid communications, organizational structures,
alignment, and the importance of storytelling. . . . [Creativity,
Inc.] will delight and inspire creative individuals and their
managers, as well as anyone who wants to work ‘in an environment
that fosters creativity and problem solving.’”—Publishers Weekly
(starred review)
“For anyone managing anything, and particularly those trying to
manage creative teams, Catmull is like a kind, smart godfather
guiding us toward managing wisely, without losing our souls, and in
a way that works toward greatness. Perhaps it’s all Up from
there.”—The Christian Science Monitor
“Many have attempted to formulate and categorize inspiration and
creativity. What Ed Catmull shares instead is his astute experience
that creativity isn’t strictly a well of ideas, but an alchemy of
people. In Creativity, Inc. Ed reveals, with commonsense
specificity and honesty, examples of how not to get in your own way
and how to realize a creative coalescence of art, business, and
innovation.”—George Lucas
“This is the best book ever written on what it takes to build a
creative organization. It is the best because Catmull’s wisdom,
modesty, and self-awareness fill every page. He shows how Pixar’s
greatness results from connecting the specific little things they
do (mostly things that anyone can do in any organization) to the
big goal that drives everyone in the company: making films that
make them feel proud of one another.”—Robert I. Sutton, Stanford
professor and author of The No A**hole Rule and co-author of
Scaling Up Excellence
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