Studio Chiefs on Bad Bosses, Lost Studios and 'What You Tolerate'

At Turin's View Conference on Monday, Sony Pictures Imageworks president Michelle Grady offered a working definition of studio culture: "Culture is what you tolerate."

Grady joined six other visual effects, animation and games leaders on the "Leadership & Mentoring: Training the Next Generation of Leaders" panel. Her peers included Janet Lewin, senior VP, general manager and head of ILM; Skydance Animation president Holly Edwards; Pixar's head of RenderMan creative engagement Dylan Sisson; Guerrilla Games studio director Jan-Bart van Beek; and Eloi Champagne of the National Film Board of Canada. Saint John Walker of the University of Hertfordshire moderated.

How did the panel frame bad bosses?

An audience member asked about "anti-mentors." Grady acknowledged that difficult managers leave a mark. "We've all probably had pretty tough bosses at a certain point in our lives," she said. "You understand what you want in a boss and what you really don't appreciate in a boss."

Lewin agreed that culture is a deliberate choice. "It's our job as leaders of a company to create the culture and exhibit the values that we want to see in other leaders within the organization," she said. At ILM, that means coaching, mentoring and intervening when managers struggle, rather than waiting for problems to fade.

What do younger staff expect?

The conversation turned to a generational shift. "This business used to be so top down," Grady said. "It didn't work then particularly well, but that democratic participatory leadership is the way. It's a better way."

Lewin pointed to ILM's employee forums, town halls and open-door policies. They're designed to surface ideas that might otherwise get filtered through layers of management. "A good idea can come from anywhere," she said, citing ILM veteran John Knoll.

But participation has limits. "It's wonderful to encourage participation and hear different perspectives, but someone's got to make a decision," Lewin added.

What was the hardest call?

Lewin named ILM's August 2023 closure of its Singapore studio, which employed more than 300 people. The move was about staying in budget, she said. "It had nothing to do with the talent that was there at the studio. They were doing incredible work," she said.

Lewin flew to Singapore to meet staff in person. She called it "heartbreaking." ILM retained around 60% of the talent through moves to its other locations.

How are studios training new leaders?

For decades, Grady said, studios promoted strong artists into management without preparing them. "We'd take them off the box and make them leaders and just shove them into the chair and let them figure it out on their own."

Formal programs are starting to fill that gap:

• ILM runs a six-month mentorship pairing aspiring leaders with senior executives.
• Imageworks' program began as a diversity initiative with about 30 people and is now oversubscribed every year.
• Pixar has folded mentorship into its RenderMan Challenge, which Sisson said has "helped change people's trajectories and their careers."

"What's been really interesting is it's a two-way street," Lewin said. "Getting the younger generation to participate has been super beneficial to me and to ILM because it's a different point of view and a different vantage point."

Why does talent development feel harder in games?

Van Beek of Guerrilla Games warned that the industry's timelines are unforgiving. "Maybe you can't gamble on talent anymore," he said. Major projects can take six to eight years to complete. He pointed to Pixar's animated shorts as a model: smaller productions that let new directors gain experience without commercial risk.

What changes for the next generation?

ILM concept artist Emily Bland and concept artist Isobel Hine joined the executives onstage. Bland runs Women in Concept Art, which connects junior artists with professionals. Hine runs the Women's Concept Art Association, which runs studio-style training through its Studio Jam program.

Both pushed studios to put younger staff, especially women, into leadership roles earlier. "We have a habit of self-selecting out if we do not fit every single point within criteria to a T," Hine said.

"I think it's our role as leaders to kind of help lower the ladder for the next generation," she added.

Champagne, now at the NFB, recalled the moment he wrote a manifesto about what needed to change and handed it to his boss — "risking potentially my job," he said. The gamble paid off: "From that point on, the answer was, 'O.K., now you're going to be part of the decision, and you're going to help us fix those things.' So sometimes complaining can pay."

For Grady, Lewin and the rest of the panel, the takeaway landed on the phrase Grady said she probably overuses. The culture of a studio is whatever its leaders decide to accept — and what they decide to fix.