Creativity, Inc.

Rich in wisdom and deeply humanistic, Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull is a life-long student of what makes organisations ‘work', and this book is an absolute treasure trove of insights and learnings. Aside from that it's a fascinating behind-the-scenes account that goes a very long way to explain how Pixar so consistently makes such brilliant films. Essential reading for anyone interested in management and innovation.

Very good retrospective on Pixar, with a lot of great advice on management and creativity. Sometimes gets a little too much into the “and then we solved it, aren't we great” side of things, but that's really just a minor quibble. The afterword, on working with Steve Jobs, is better than the entire Steve Jobs authorized biography.

I find rating a book like this difficult because a lot of the opinions expressed in it around how to foster an effective working environment are already practiced at my work place, so I find myself without a lot of new ideas coming out of it. I'm not sure if these things were as widely adopted six years ago when they were written, but they certainly are now.

The book is well written and charming though, and provides some neat insights to the process at Pixar over the years (though again there are a few stories I had already known, perhaps just from other sources referencing this book).