Creativity Inc’s review
Creativity Inc is Ed Calmutt’s story about his career, the rise of Pixar and people who played part in it, and most of all, a collection of management advice from the president of one the most creative and innovative companies in movie industry. I read the book as part of a resolution to finish reading more books instead of internet blogs or only starting reading. To make it more forceful I decided to read books from Facebook’s A Year of books club. That was a good decision, normally I wouldn’t touch a book about management, but after reading Creativity Inc I’m glad I didn’t listen to my apprehensive self.
The book consists of 4 parts. Firstly Calmutt tells us where he came from. His childhood fascination with Disney’s works and ambitions in computer graphics fields gave him necessary technical experience and the dream of creating fully-featured films with computer animation. He shows how, though he started as ambitious and successful grad student, his skills put him into managerial positions and how he made friends and contacts with people with whom he would later start Pixar.
In the second and third part we are shown main processes and tenets that Calmutt thinks foster creativity and make Pixar’s movies have such quality. First of all he considers the story to be the most important element of the film. Although Pixar pushes technical boundaries with each movie, it is the story that drives a movie forward not the other way around. While following that tenet serves as a linchpin for Pixar’s train, the main engine is its culture. To inhibit creativity one needs to promote and protect candor, risk-taking, sense of comradery. While explaining these principles we are shown examples of how dangerous situations and factors have been resolved at Pixar by following them. What I particularly liked in those chapters is that Calmutt avoids preaching. He instead shows great amounts of reflection and self-doubt when explaining them. A good manager should always be aware that large amount of his job is not under his control or even is invisible to him. He should not get conceited with his success, but instead try to recognize how much of it was luck and what can he do to reproduce it.
The last part tells us about the merge of Disney and Pixar and how it allowed Calmutt to implement his ideas in Disney’s environment. This experiment resulted in Disney’s rebirth. Such movies as Frozen, Wreck-it-Ralph are the evidence of his success and give credence to the superiority of his methods in managing a creative company.
The book also has a co-author, a professional writer, Amy Wallace, her work made the book read really well. It is very fluid and well placed. I was never bored while reading it.
All in all I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the inner workings of Pixar and the rationale behind their processes from the perspective from someone who creates them. The book is very enjoyable as well as educational.