It's pretty well-established at this point: Pixar rocks. It's got both the creative realm and the business realm covered. Everyone wants to figure out how Pixar does it, and how other companies can learn from the model--especially Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business Review really wants to figure out how Pixar does it.

In fact, for about two years now, the publication has dutifully issued regular installments of the Gospel of Pixar. "Pixar's Blockbuster Secrets," blares a blog post from July 2008. "Pixar's Collective Genius," gushes one a month later. Then there was the discussion with Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull: "How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity." It later got repackaged in an article collection entitled "Secrets of Successful Innovation." Then in early 2009 there was "Building a 'Safe Haven' for Creativity at Pixar." This July saw "Five Ways Pixar Makes Better Decisions." The latest contains a headline of such traffic-optimizing beauty it got reposted at Reuters: "What Google Could Learn from Pixar." For starters: be humble, cultivate a "fear of complacency," and work to identify and address problems "openly and honestly."

Lest any aspiring entrepreneurs have failed to get the message, the Wire would like to paraphrase: Just be like Pixar, guys. How hard can it be?

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Heather Horn