Pixar's 5 principles for success

Article over at Jump Associates website gives an insight to some of the concepts that took Pixar to the lead in innovative and blockbusting animated films. The interview with Oren Jacob revealed 5 principles that they live by to maintain success.

1. When it sucks say so.
This is often the hardest decision to make, whether something is excellent in the light of a looming deadline. Very often it feels easier to be satisfied with an adequate product or service rather than push on for excellence due to budget and time constraints. The question is at what cost to the end goal of brand building and ultimate success.

2. Defend your opinion and press play quickly
This is part of the review process, I like the idea of allowing the individual to accept or defend the feedback. I agree with autonomy that it allows. Of course if you have an opinion it is best defended with some examples and proof that your idea is better. This concept works well in a fair and unbiased work environment that allows open discussion without punishment for maybe being wrong.

3. Look upstream for the source of the problem
This is good point to make that not all problems exist at the point you observe, but maybe the result of something somewhere else in the system or process. It is always worth a deeper investigation if the problem solution is not immediately clear. Methods like the "5 Whys" that I have discussed before can help in this. Also open communications among team members can help keep these problem tansparent.

4. Match the medium to the message
This is always critical to the right step in the process of innovation. As Bill Buxton and others have explained the power of sketching early on and prototyping loosely can open up the right conversations, versus seeing "polished" artwork that instead of encouraging debate pushes people to aim their thoughts to criticism and negative feedback only. Seeing the work as the end result. These sketches and prototypes themselves also need thew right medium to encourage the right questions.

5. Hire for excellence.
Hiring the right people and putting them in the right roles is exactly what Jim Collins talks about in his book "Good to Great". Get the right people on the bus and all other things will begin to fall into place. Equally important is to get the wrong people off the bus. The right people are self motivated and need less guidance and motivation to perform excellently.

Can Ford be Great?

Seems like the CEO of Ford has been reading "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. After reading this article at Fast Companies website I am reminded of some of the steps that Jim puts forward in his book to grow a company from good to great.

FORCING EVERYONE TO “JOIN THE TEAM”

Getting the right people on the bus and taking the wrong people off the bus is important before driving anywhere. The right people are self motivated and dedicated to the cause of the company.

INSISTING ON A RIGOROUS RELIANCE ON THE FACTS

Confronting the brutal facts is critical in making progress and improving the wrong aspects of what you do.

CREATING ONE FORD

Aligning everyone to the companies goals is crucial and making that message clear and easy to understand is equally important.

BUILDING CARS AND TRUCKS THAT PEOPLE ACTUALLY WANTED

Knowing what people actually want is the hardest and most important part of any strategy, and makes things easier to sell if there is already a demand.

COMING UP WITH ONE PLAN AND STICKING TO IT

Having discipline and a clear objective but sticking to your core competences is critical in order to accelerate your growth.

Get a Hedgehog to Make Your Business Great

There are many good companies in the World today, they produce adequate goods and consumables and they will continue to make products people buy and make money selling ordinary stuff. They are not very adventurous and don't take any unnecessary risks they also tend to not see the future so well and prefer to let things drift along producing average stuff like they always have. The problem with good companies are they are easy to tip over into struggling companies that suddenly look lost and scrabbling for something new or profitable that can make them once again good. The battle becomes harder and in too many cases these good companies either slow down and lose profits or disappear altogether. So what does it take to make a adequate company into a great company that rises from the average heap, well Jim Collins in his latest book "Good to Great" seems to believe he has an insight that will help companies grow into great companies that stand the test of time and become dominant leaders in their domain space.

After lots of research and evaluation of some of the best companies in the World that were selected on some strict criteria about sustained profits with his team he boils the great companies down to the all having the following traits.



1. Level 5 Leadership
This is a first requirement, having a leader that isn't thinking only about himself. Values his teams, and recognizes performance. Has a clear vision and willing to admit mistakes and inadequate knowledge. This is rare individual and is contrasted against a Level 4 leader who mostly wants the spot light and won't admit their short comings.

2. First who, then what.
Get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off. Only then can you drive the bus on the right road to success and direction that will succeed. The right people are self motivated and believe in the direction, they don't need so much pushing and hand holding. They also are experts in their domains and open to ideas.

3.Confront the brutal facts.
Part of being a level 5 leader is the ability to hand a paradox that Jim refers to as the "Stockdale Paradox", where you at the same time, have absolute faith in what you are doing, regardless of difficulties, but are also able to confront those hard facts about your current reality.

4. Hedgehog concept
The only way to get where you are going is to stick to what you can be best at. There is a reference to 3 circles overlapped, that reminds me of the power of branding. Do what you are passionate about, Do what drives your economic engine, and Do what you can be the best in the World at. This is focus, of the hedgehog concept that has to be understood at all levels of the company, and guide all decisions.



5. Culture of discipline
This is the focus of the company on the hedgehog concept, learning to say "No" to the wrong ideas. Not being swayed by tangential ideas and possibilities. This comes back to having the right people on the bus in the first place. Stop doing lists are as important as to do lists.

6. Technology Accelerators
New Technology is very attractive and shiny, but the goal should be to adopt technology not as a passionate interest but as something that supports the Hedgehog concept and drive the innovations and performance towards that goal. Don't adopt technology for technologies sake, make it work for you and the company goal. Start with the hedgehog concept then add technology not the other way round.