How does pixar use strategic management

How has Cirque du Soleil leadership been able to create a new market space in a traditional Would this diversification be enough to What has leadership done to implement strategy, and what challenges remain? In , Ford Motor Show an alternative diagram for the hierarchy in Exercise 9. Data From Exercise 9.

Find its length. Vector R has Determine the gross pay for the week. Compare the results of a through h to those of baseball franchises in Problems Using this number, compute the dividend payout ratio for Disney.

Can you determine from the notes Disney has effected any stock splits recently. How do Via Gelato is a popular neighborhood gelato shop. The company has provided the following cost Sign In. Operations Tremendous attention to every aspect of developing and making films; software to make animation more lifelike; slow, deliberate process of moviemaking.

Outbound logistics Information not available in the case. Marketing and Sales Reliance on the Disney brand to attract family audiences; Pixar name brand recognition fairly strong itself; reliance on Disney for downstream. Service Information not available in the case. Secondary: Procurement Information not available in the case. Technology development. Creation of new software helped in the production process. Luxo enabled creation of movies with fewer people. Human resource management Recruitment and training of individuals who made a strong contribution; Pixar University for training; masseuse and doctor in campus.

General Administration Strong visionary leadership — Jobs, Catmull, and Lasseter — kept the organization ahead of the curve; organizational culture Tiki huts, etc. The concept of leadership involves the process of transforming organizations from what they are to what the leader would have them become. See Chapter 11, Exhibit. Leaders need to set the direction for the organization by continually scanning the environment to develop knowledge of all stakeholders, and knowledge of salient.

Then leaders must integrate that knowledge into a vision of what the organization could become. Leaders require the capacity to solve. Although Jobs was not a movie-maker, he. Leaders are responsible for designing the organization: a strategic leadership activity of building structures, teams, systems, and organizational processes that.

Jobs provided an initial structure where both these creative individuals could. Catmull and Lasseter in turn continued to build and sustain an organization that supported teamwork, effective production processes, and systems that. The leader also has the responsibility to create successful learning organizations by creating a proactive, creative approach to the unknown, actively soliciting the.

See Chapter 11, Exhibit Jobs, Catmull, and Lasseter created a learning organization: shared their passion by involving employees in every step of the creative process, enabling employees to. Pixar is noted for its approach to human capital, and knowing how to combine talent to produce innovative and profit-making product.

Innovation involves using new knowledge to transform organizational processes or create commercially viable products and services using the latest technology,. Sustaining innovations extend sales in an existing market, usually by enabling new products or. Disruptive innovations overturn markets by providing an altogether new approach to meeting customer needs.

Some of challenges of innovation involve choosing when and how to continue to innovate, the scope of future innovation and the pace, as well as whether or not to.

The innovation of new ventures requires resources such as financial, human and social capital; requires the leadership team to. Before proceeding, firms must first define the scope of the innovation efforts, and must ensure that their innovation efforts are not wasted on projects that are.

They were also willing to approach any failures as opportunities for learning. By staying true to their vision, they did not waste. Organizations must have the entrepreneurial orientation necessary to succeed in a new venture. Students should assess the vision, dedication and drive, and commitment. Proactiveness — Both Jobs and Catmull were proactive in identifying how computer technology could be used to push the creative boundaries of animation filmmaking.

Competitive aggressiveness — Now that Pixar is part of Disney, CEO Iger hoped to use the combined assets of both organizations to attain competitive superiority.

What challenges remain? The following is. Ed believes that you learn by making mistakes and that success often disguises problems. Multicultural Law Enforcement Research Paper. How does Pixar use strategic management? See the table below to determine where to use this case: Chapter Use Key Concepts Additional Readings or Exercises 1: Strategy Concept Strategic management; vision, mission, strategic objectives 2: External Environment External environmental forces; five forces analysis NOTE additional web link reading, video news story 3: Internal Analysis Value chain; tangible vs.

Wall-E had won the Academy Award for best animated feature in February And with this win, Pixar had claimed its fourth feature length animation Oscar, which represented half of the eight trophies that had been handed out since the category was added in But might Pixar be negatively affected by the loss of Steve Jobs, who passed away in ?

Industry observers wondered if this sequel had been developed as a result of pressure from Disney — an opportunity for the parent company to gain revenue from sales of related merchandise.

Teaching Plan This short case allows for discussion of the full arc of strategic analysis, formulation, and implementation.

The movie industry has had some challenges as public tastes change, technological developments allow innovation, yet movie distribution channels affect profits. Investigating the strategic decisions of an innovative company like Pixar can help students grasp these elements. Movie Exhibition Industry sets the stage by providing an industry analysis, while Pixar continues the discussion by giving an example of how one firm formulated and implemented strategy in the movie industry environment.

How many of you have seen an animated movie? Which one was your favorite? If students have never seen one, ask them why not — it may be because they are not movie watchers in general, or they may be movie goers but think that animated films are only for children. Refer to Case Exhibit 1 to see if the films they mention as their favorites are on this list, and how many are Pixar films.

It might be interesting to put a list on the board to tally up favorite animated movies, and why they were favorites, and then identify which studio made them: Favorite Animated Movie, Why a Favorite, and Which Studio.

As students answer why they liked the movies, themes such as creative idea, excellent animation technique, touching story, may emerge. Ask if the Disney movies had the same kind of broad appeal as the Pixar films. Students may say the Disney movies were more simplistic in their storylines, appealing more to children, while the Pixar films had more sophistication, appealing not only to children, but to adults as well.

This insight will help make the point about how Pixar was able to craft a differentiated competitive strategy based on unique value. Summary of Discussion Questions Here is a list of the suggested discussion questions.

You can decide which questions to assign, and also which additional readings or exercises to include to augment each discussion. Discussion Questions: 1. Discussion Questions and Responses 1. Referencing Chapter 1: Strategy Concept: Introduction and Analyzing Goals and Objectives Strategy is all about the ideas, decisions, and actions that enable a firm to succeed.

The organizational mission also needs to be considered: a mission encompasses both the purpose of the company as well as the basis for competition and competitive advantages. In writing a mission statement, it is important to understand the definition of the business: 1 who are its customers, 2 what customer need is the organization trying to fulfill, and 3 how does the business create and deliver value to customers and satisfy their needs. Organizations must respond to multiple constituencies if they are to survive and prosper, and the mission provides a means of communicating to diverse organizational stakeholders.

During strategy formulation, the organization addresses the issue of how to compete in a given business to attain competitive advantage. Strategies are formulated at the business, corporate, and international levels. In strategy implementation, depending on the type of organization structure, the leader might include key individuals in a discussion around selecting which strategies might be best to implement at which level within the organization.

The leader must ensure proper strategic controls and organizational design, and establish effective means to coordinate and integrate activities within the firm as well as with suppliers, customers and possible alliance partners. The basic question strategic management tries to answer is: How can we create competitive advantages in the marketplace that are not only unique and valuable but also difficult for competitors to copy or substitute?

Referencing Chapter 2: Analyzing the External Environment Organizational leaders must become aware of factors in the overall environment that might affect their ability to create a competitive advantage.

So how do managers become environmentally aware? This prepares the firm to do more extensive analysis of the forces in the general environment and the industry or competitive environment. Alerts the firm to critical trends before changes have developed a discernible pattern and before competitors recognize them.

Leaders need to monitor the trends that have the potential to change the competitive landscape — what do you want to track? Firms need to CHOOSE the trends identified via the scanning activity, and regularly monitor or track these specific trends to evaluate the impact of these trends on their strategy process.

See which factors in the general environment students might pick that have a significant impact on the movie industry. Students might respond as follows: Demographic — The core movie theatre viewing audience targeted by movie studios has been year olds. Not in the theatres, but in DVD and Internet download for home viewing, and in sales of related merchandise, i.

This confirms that the original decision to make a deal with Disney was a good one, since Disney had the resources and skill to be very good at marketing and merchandising, while Pixar was very good at storytelling. Spiderman, Iron Man implies that audiences of all ages are willing to engage in make-believe. Pixar creative head John Lasseter has been a guest at the San Diego ComicCon comic book convention , which has had over , attendees in recent years.

For the collectors, Pixar productions have become a treasured brand, and creative talent, such as John Lasseter, can become as well known as the actors that voice the characters. Plus, make-believe movies with happy endings, like Pixar films, provide a welcome escape from economic worries.

There are several components to the movie business that may need to be broken out in order to assess the profitability potential of firms like Pixar.

However, John Lasseter routinely says in interviews that marketability is not a factor in decisions about what projects to pursue. Instead of ideas that feel contemporary, he aims for stories that are rooted in the ages. Conclusion and Prospect7 Question 2 2. Introduction9 2. Theory9 2. Another example Kodak? Role of leadership in these organizations10 2. Recommendations to avoid strategic drift10 2. Conclusion10 Question 1 1. In the more than year production phase of the company, which produces one box office hit after the other, no significant failure could be recorded.

Therefore it is no wonder that large movie manufacturing giants, such as the Walt Disney Company, wanted to be part of this great success and were seeking a lucrative contractual merger which culminated in the takeover BBC News, Before the takeover, Pixar was under a partnership agreement with Disney for the film distribution and marketing.

Pixar leads, close beside DreamWorks, the market of computer-generated animated films Hecht, Finally, there will be a Conclusion and Prospect, which summarises the key success factors and demonstrate briefly the potential capabilities for continuing their success.

External analysis of Pixar Animation Studios. Macro environment The Macro environment has been researched through a PESTEL analysis in order to get an overview of how the factors that influence the computer animated film industry, and therefore the Pixar Animation Studios. It includes the political, economic, social, technological, legal and ecological environments.

The animation industry by itself is a blooming one Marketresearch. The PESTEL analysis can assist Pixar in their ability to create a strategy that can further their understanding of the macro environment. Political factors The political factors in the USA for the animation industry are quite favorable. The reason for this is that the USA is a progressive nation and technology is favored. Hence, the animation industry regulations are not very stringent when compared to other industries.

Moreover, as animation is gaining rapid popularity, the political factors all around the world are extremely favorable. Economic factors In spite of the dreaded global financial crisis and recession, it has been seen that the trends of the animation industry have been positive MPAA, This gives a new ray of hope to the animation sector that the economic factors in the long run shall be extremely favorable for the firm.

Social factors. The demographics of the population that like animation encompasses baby boomers, adults and large numbers of children alike, leads to an improvement in the revenue and exposure for the animation industry See Exhibit 1 for Percentage of total births. Therefore the social factors are also favorable.

Exhibit 1: Percentage of total births 1. Technological factors The technological factors in the animation industry are not really favorable. Though there are several supportive technologies, there is constant rapid change, resulting in quickly obsolete technologies. Consequently, keeping up with the dynamism of animation technologies becomes difficult.

Environmental factors Environmental factors are rarely involved in the case of the animation industry. However, electronic waste and its disposal, though not directly influential, can still be brought up as a potential issue in the next decade. Legal factors There are several legal factors that are involved in the animation industry. This includes licensing, copyrights, or patents.

It is essential for an animation firm to ensure compliance with these factors to avoid facing any potential issues. But if it fails to do so then further problems are to be expected. Conclusion To conclude, Pixar has many opportunities that can be explored, in both the global and local markets.

There is a lot of potential for it to be able to establish itself, not only as an animation film maker, but also as a commercial advertising animation creative agency and as a special effects institution, thus consequently expanding its arena significantly based on the support of several supportive macro environmental factors. Internal analysis of Pixar Animation Studios The focus of the internal analysis will be primarily based upon the two actors that can be attributed to the success of the Pixar Animation Studios; the principle of innovation, and on their business culture.

A detailed financial analysis is not possible due to the fact that Pixar has been owned by Disney since , and the relevant information needed was not displayed in the annual reports of the Walt Disney Company. Attention should be paid to the fact that all profits and production costs were split with Disney, due to the Pixar-Disney partnership prior to Principle of Innovation. While other animated cartoon manufactures relied upon traditional forms of animations, Pixar focused on the implementation of visual effects.

The Pixar team recognized that entirely new forms of artistic expression can be developed with the help of computers and appropriate software Hecht, Despite the various technological innovations and the associated optical brilliance which constitute a major part of the success, Pixar also allude to the importance of the Story.

The technical innovations make all the difference to other production companies. Ringmaster was a production management system; Pixarvision was a laser recording system, with which it was possible to convert digital computer data into images; and Marionette was an animation system software for modeling and animating.

These three products provided a competitive advantage to Pixar, because comparable tools for producing three-dimensional graphics were not on the market. RenderMan is the most successful technical innovation of Pixar. It is a software system for photorealistic image synthesis, which enables users to apply textures and colors to the surfaces of three-dimensional images onscreen. RenderMan quickly became an industry standard and Pixar sold more than , licenses Afuah, Business Culture The business culture of Pixar is characterized by constant learning.

A unique and advantageous component that is central to the company is the Pixar University Hempel, At the Pixar University PU people receive the relevant training needed to adequately conduct their individual workplace duties and goals Catmull, , p.