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Building a successful ecosystem

I have started reading this book, Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull the head of Pixar. And I have barely reached a few pages into it and it has already made for some great reading.

The question Ed attempts to answer is 'how to sustain a creative high performing culture' - so it is actually a practitioners perspective.So, far the book has made for some fascinating reading. It speaks of the managers role in maintaining an open culture and mulls over it and this is what I hope to get some more insight into.

I will write a longer post when done, but what is fascinating in the story of all the people in that era. Whether it is Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and many others - the role that their university and industry ecosystem played was simply amazing. Person after person talks of how that ecosystem fosters collaboration, deep dive research, experimentation and the hunger to do more.How does one create an ecosystem in ones own team - is it possible? What about the overweening culture of the company - is it fostering creativity or hierarchy? How does one do it in a city?  In Bangalore? How to create a culture of research? Of pushing boundaries? Does it start in industry or in colleges? (Because our colleges are hardly known for doing so, right?) What constitutes an ecosystem? Does it start on its own or does it need a catalyst(s)?

Much food for thought!

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