To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History

Levy was Pixar's CFO during the years leading up to its IPO and during its relationship with Disney, and the book is his inside account of turning a struggling animation studio into the most commercially successful creative company of its era. The value is financial and structural — Levy walks through the specific deals, the specific tradeoffs, the specific moments where the wrong decision would have ended the company. For product direction it is useful as a business-case companion to the more familiar creative-process accounts of Pixar (Catmull, Capodagli). Levy writes clearly without being bland, and the portrait of Jobs is more nuanced than the usual hagiography. A short book, worth the time.