How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs • Hacker News Board

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#41

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 6:19 AM UTC

knowledgesale wrote: post #38

pchristensen wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember being in the theater when I saw the trailer for Cars 2. First was the Pixar splash. I gripped the armrests and sucked in my breath with anticipation. Then I watched the trailer and was a little disgusted. My reaction afterwards was "I didn't like the look of that trailer one bit. If it was anyone but Pixar, I would have covered my kids' eyes so they wouldn't know it existed. Since it's Pixar, I'll see it o…

Will you people please stop trusting companies and politicians. It's a company and the only goal of it is to make profits for its investors and its employees. If you believe that making artistic movies and maintaining a company's good reputation is a good way to run their business, let it happen with starting up your company and risking your own money or career. My point is that commenting on how some company's busin…

[deleted]

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#42

Post by corysama » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 6:25 AM UTC

topherjaynes wrote: post #14

vl wrote: post #7

I'm worried about future of Pixar, they always valued original and insightful stories. All of their early and recent productions were delightful to watch. Understandably, this approach left not so many space for sequels. They recently committed to making of Monsters 2 and Cars 2. Story outline for Cars 2 is just terrible. It seems that financial concerns under Disney leadership are prevailing and bits of integrity ar…

The Story outline for cars might seem "terrible," but think about every Pixar movie's outline before you actually saw it? A movie about Toys? A Movie entirely about Rats--whose going to watch that? A Robot who doesn't talk, for how long? And yet, each and everyone of those movies were astounding, at least in my opinion, but critics and box office receipts prove my point too. Yes, sequels have a tendency to be purely…

One of the writers for Pixar gave a talk where he confessed that /all/ of the stories for their movies started out terrible and took tons of rework to get right. Originally, Woody was a serious jerk. It took a long time for them to realize they didn't like their own main character and even longer to evolve him into the great guy everyone loves today.

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#43

Post by tomjen3 » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 6:56 AM UTC

knowledgesale wrote: post #38

pchristensen wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember being in the theater when I saw the trailer for Cars 2. First was the Pixar splash. I gripped the armrests and sucked in my breath with anticipation. Then I watched the trailer and was a little disgusted. My reaction afterwards was "I didn't like the look of that trailer one bit. If it was anyone but Pixar, I would have covered my kids' eyes so they wouldn't know it existed. Since it's Pixar, I'll see it o…

Will you people please stop trusting companies and politicians. It's a company and the only goal of it is to make profits for its investors and its employees. If you believe that making artistic movies and maintaining a company's good reputation is a good way to run their business, let it happen with starting up your company and risking your own money or career. My point is that commenting on how some company's busin…

How can the company get people to see their movies if they are not know for making good ones? Politicians can lie because you are not the target, cinemas have you as a target.

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#44

Post by sliverstorm » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 7:19 AM UTC

dustingetz wrote: post #19

scott_s wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Times have not changed. This level of commitment of managers to their employees is rare now, and always has been.

i try not to be a cynic, but if they had even an inkling of their potential, their commitment was economically rational.

How many people move to take a bullet because it is the economically rational thing to do? Even body guards don't generally elect to take a bullet unless they really like the person they are protecting.

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#45

Post by axod » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 7:37 AM UTC

Swizec wrote: post #35

axod wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point, there's a market for adult animated movies. But I think it's small. The scene in Up! which showed the old couples life story was well done, but I doubt any child would really remember it or rate it. It was for sentimental adults and critical acclaim from adults. Again, the scenes in Wall-E where the robot does boring things for ages without saying anything seemed to be there for adults, and to get oscar n…

I think the point is that Wall-E and Up! weren't movies targeted at kids. Any entertainment value kids can derive from such a movie is purely coincidental. Any entertainment value the target market of such a movie can derive from such a movie is brilliant success. Once again, they were not kids movies. Stop criticizing them for not being fun for kids.

> Once again, they were not kids movies.

Thats fine. I just wish they'd made that clear in the trailers.

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#46

Post by Stormbringer » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 7:40 AM UTC

It's funny how the mind plays tricks on us. I had thought that Steve Jobs had made much more off the sale than that - when I looked at their numbers 7.4 billion return on 5 million invested over 20 years? Pffft. Then I ran the numbers...

... it translates to a 44% compounding annual increase over 20 years ...

Oh that I should do so well for anyone that would invest in me!!

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#47

Post by MWarneford » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 8:09 AM UTC

Stormbringer wrote: post #46

It's funny how the mind plays tricks on us. I had thought that Steve Jobs had made much more off the sale than that - when I looked at their numbers 7.4 billion return on 5 million invested over 20 years? Pffft. Then I ran the numbers... ... it translates to a 44% compounding annual increase over 20 years ... Oh that I should do so well for anyone that would invest in me!!

There's a beautiful coffee table book "The Pixar Story" that talks about the cash Jobs put into Pixar.

The book claims Jobs purchased Pixar for $5M and immediately invested another $5M. When he purchased the company he was also running NeXT. Pixar, like NeXT, was a computer company selling computer hardware. Both companies we're struggling and taking up a lot of Job's cash.

The story goes that Pixar started to produce more 3D animated shorts, these impressed Katzenberg at Disney who agreed to part fund Toy Story. Only to even get to that point, 6 years after Jobs purchased the company, he'd had to invest a total of $60M into Pixar. He was investing close to $1M a month.

Between Pixar and NeXT jobs was nearly broke. Although I suspect his "nearly broke" is a much bigger bank account thank my "nearly broke".

Not sure how true the story is. But that's how "The Pixar Story" tells it.

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#48

Post by enneff » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 9:59 AM UTC

axod wrote: post #33

geuis wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a significant number of people without children, such as myself. The entire world doesn't revolve around kids and its nice to see movies and other entertainment options that cater to adults. Besides, we're the ones that have money to spend, not the little wee ones. Both Wall-e and Up! were excellent movies. In particular, Up! was one of the few movies in many years that actually emotionally moved me in seri…

Fair point, there's a market for adult animated movies. But I think it's small. The scene in Up! which showed the old couples life story was well done, but I doubt any child would really remember it or rate it. It was for sentimental adults and critical acclaim from adults. Again, the scenes in Wall-E where the robot does boring things for ages without saying anything seemed to be there for adults, and to get oscar n…

Well my kid loved both of them, and so did her friends. So they're doing something right for some people.

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#49

Post by yardie » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 10:33 AM UTC

MWarneford wrote: post #47

Stormbringer wrote: post #46

It's funny how the mind plays tricks on us. I had thought that Steve Jobs had made much more off the sale than that - when I looked at their numbers 7.4 billion return on 5 million invested over 20 years? Pffft. Then I ran the numbers... ... it translates to a 44% compounding annual increase over 20 years ... Oh that I should do so well for anyone that would invest in me!!

There's a beautiful coffee table book "The Pixar Story" that talks about the cash Jobs put into Pixar. The book claims Jobs purchased Pixar for $5M and immediately invested another $5M. When he purchased the company he was also running NeXT. Pixar, like NeXT, was a computer company selling computer hardware. Both companies we're struggling and taking up a lot of Job's cash. The story goes that Pixar started to produc…

I watched the Pixar Story DVD and when they mentioned that Jobs was writing a million dollar personal check every month to keep the company afloat my opinion on his running the company changed instantly. Most opinions of his role as CEO are really dismissive of him and give all the credit to Lasseter (who does deserve a lot of credit). But Lasseter, beyond working in the company, has no real skin in the game. He doesn't have to justify to himself that this investment may not work out, and continue giving it money...for 10 years. And if Pixar failed its not his bank account that would look like a crater.

So when someone opines that Steve didn't really influence Pixar, I casually mention that $100 million over 10 years gets you a lot of influence. And then ask them to read the pixar story.

Re: How Pixar Bosses Saved Their Employees from Layoffs

#50

Post by MarkMc » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 11:10 AM UTC

In 2008, Pixar's creative director John Lasseter explained the secret of their success: "The people who work here are doing what they've wanted to do their whole lives." [1]

This is great advice that can be applied to any type of work, particularly entrepreneurial start-up activity. If you're in it just for the money and don't enjoy what you do, chances are your little start-up venture will not succeed.

It also didn't hurt that Ed and Alvy could stand up to their bosses. In my experience, one feature that separates good manages from bad is the willingness to shield their team from the crap thrown by upper management.

[1] http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1813964,00....