To Pixar and Beyond

It's hard to get an original look behind the scenes of Pixar, one of the most famous companies to emerge from Silicon Valley (or, at least, from near the Valley). The story of Toy Story is well known, as is the rise from hardware and software vendor to Luxor lamp animator to Disney acquisition. We've all seen their movie — many times over — and are well acquainted with Jobs' triumphant sale to Disney that turned him into their largest shareholder overnight.

Levy had his work cut out for him in bringing a fresh look to life. He does a reasonably good job of skipping the well-known parts and focusing, instead, on the less-known financial story that he oversaw as Jobs' chosen CFO. Where the book runs into trouble, aside from a tendency to repeat the same thing many times over, is in the depths he takes it to. Seeking to appeal to a more lay audience, Levy avoids any overly technical description of the financial and legal aspects, attempting to keep them more at the level of anecdote than valuable business lesson. I would have preferred the ‘management book' edition, aimed at a professional audience, which would have perhaps provided more value to the business audience.

All the same, I very much enjoyed the description of his relationship with Jobs and his deft handling of situations that might have otherwise destroyed Pixar before it even released its first feature. The work his team accomplished reshaped the company from a $50m hole to a real venture that ultimately enjoys a highly lucrative IPO following immediately on the heels of Toy Story's release. Much of the credit rightfully goes to Pixar's brilliant creative minds, and to Jobs for sticking with the investment far beyond where most would have abandoned, but Levy and team deserve their fair share for transforming much of their industry.

The “Beyond” portion — his life since Pixar — gets a short but very interesting mention at the end. Juniper is an unexpected second life for him, but their work on introducing meditation to a broader, more modern audience is compelling. I'm glad he chose to include it!