To Pixar and Beyond by Lawrence Levy

I am a big fan of animation movies, particularly Pixar ones. Pixar was the first company to make a computer animated film (computer being the key word). Their library includes Toy Story, A Bugs Life, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Up, Inside Out, and a few others. All very good movies in my opinion. This book plays to three audiences: people who love Pixar movies, people who love Steve Jobs, and people who are interested in business.

Steve Jobs started as an investor in Pixar. By the late 1980s, he owned the entire company. Unfortunately, the company was struggling and losing money. Steve Jobs wrote monthly checks to pay the bills, which eventually added up to $50 million over the years. Lawrence Levy came into the picture after Steve Jobs read about him in a magazine. He wanted to bring Levy in to fix the strategy and finances of Pixar. A ton of hit movies later, they eventually sold to Disney in 2006 for $7.4 billion.

A lot happened in order to make Pixar a success. The book looks at the strategic decisions that were made along the way. Most of the focus is on the year or so leading up to the release of Toy Story and the initial public offering (IPO). The book is well organized and an easy read - I finished it on a flight from Hartford to Miami. Levy explains the business concepts that come up in simple terms (he explains what an IPO is and how it works).

Pixar fans will like the behind-the-scenes look at the making of Toy Story. Pixar invented the only machine to get a movie from a computer to a movie reel to show in theaters. Steve Jobs fans will like the discussions and reflections Levy offers. This is also where most of Steve Jobs' wealth came from (not Apple). And this is almost a must read for anyone in finance, corporate strategy, or working in a small-business or start-up. Really good stuff.

My rating for To Pixar and Beyond: 5 stars out of 5. Get it here!

P.S. At the end of the book, Levy goes off on a tangent on the middle way and philosophy. I actually found this to be very interesting. In a way, it almost links to what the author of When Breathe Becomes Air was getting at.