INTRODUCTON

At the onset of finding a leader to interview, we knew we really wanted to find someone who was not only an effective leader,

but a true entrepreneur as well. Bells background and entrepreneurial initiative told us that he was exactly the type of person we

wanted to interview, and we were incredibly pleased to find that he was willing to participate.

Art was born in Northampton, Mass. in 1966. Twelve years later, his father took a gamble to advance his own career and moved

the family to Canada to run a sporting goods manufacturing facility. He attended high school and university in Canada.

Art’s background and career development is very interesting. At the beginning of his career, Art collaborated with some of his

college classmates and together they started Alias Research, a 3D animation software company. He stayed with the company for

eight years overseeing product development and marketing and was in charge of directly managing as many as 110 people at a

time.

It was at this point that he decided to leave Alias and move to Vermont.

He and a friend, Scott Fenton, then created an idea for a piece of software that might make organizing our digital lives easier, an

early version of an app that acted like a combination wallet and your Contacts. After developing it and showing it to some of his

friends in New York, he was introduced to Gerry Laybourne, President of ABC Cable Television. This would prove to be a very

important network of people, as it ultimately led to an opportunity to co-found Oxygen TV with Oprah Winfrey and 6 others –

one which Art accepted.

 

As Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and commuted to New York from Vermont weekly, helping to build the infrastructure of the

digital side of the television network. After three years, Art decided to leave Oxygen to pursue developing an idea he had with

two others for a wireless software company, which ended up being unsuccessful. Bell called this failure maybe his best lesson in

business; “I married for money. as they say in Silicon Valley. Don’t work for money, work to make great stuff. Work to make an

impact”.

In Vermont he started dabbling in editing videos and after submitting one of them to numerous film festivals he was approached

to make a promotion video for a company. It was from this point that Art launched his current business, Dreamlike Pictures.

 

ANALYSIS Making of a Leader

From the beginning, as many effective entrepreneurs, Art did not have a long term goal that he was dead set on, but he was

flexible to emerging opportunities. In fact, his time at Alias almost did not happen because he was fresh out of college and

preoccupied with skiing out west. Ultimately, he decided to come home and work ‘temporarily’ but ended up staying because he

sensed the company might be on to something. Art explained the situation as: “I didn’t have a plan, I didn’t know much about

3D animation but I had a glimpse of something and as soon as I sat down I realized this might be a rocket ship. We took off, I

hung on, with brilliant partners. It was a great thing.” Because of his decision to come back, he got to play a key role in

developing MAYA, the 3D software that has become the standard for so many iconic blockbusters such as Titanic, The Lion

King, Toy Story. 26 films in all that have been in the top 50 grossing films of all time.

 

Technically, Art described his time there (and to this day) as a translator. His task was to lead a very technical R & D team to

build very easy tools for artists to create 3D worlds – on two dimensional screens. At the same time overseeing the marketing to

present very dense 3D mathematical concepts to empower the sales team to sell very expensive solutions to Fortune 1000

companies, as well as automotive and design firms around the world. His ability to be adaptable and accept previously

unforeseen opportunities along with working hard, toward a shared vision ended up contributing greatly to his success at Alias.

After working for the company for eight years Art decided to leave because he felt “ I had done it all’ and wanted to pursue other

endeavors, including becoming healthier. His want for a change led him to develop another very small software company that

would eventually serve as a springboard for his entry into the television business. From the onset, his pursuits were to develop

this new software in the best way possible by asking a friend to help him, one whom he knew was highly skilled in writing code.

He showed this newly developed software to some friends in New York who helped extend his network to other people.

Ultimately, it was through this group of people that Art was asked to join the Oxygen Television network as a co-founder.

When first asked to be Oxygens CTO, he declined because he knew the unrewarding and limited lifespan of CTO’s, and he also

knew it would mean moving, at least part-time, to New York. He said, ‘all I had to do was to give up everything I loved to go

after everything I ever wanted’.

In light of this, to try and make it work for him in a very large arena, he said: “…the thing I did which I had never done before

was to get a good business employment contract.” It cost him some ‘love’ from his fellow co-founders but was aware of the type

of ‘take no prisoners’ environment he was walking into, and he made sure that his interests were protected by creating a contract

that would not leave him feeling resentful if he was ever shown the door., which he felt he probably would be some day.

Art spent three years at Oxygen, as CTO. In large part once again as a translator. Endless drawing on whiteboards explaining

everything from how the internet worked, to hiring hundreds of employees fast. He oversaw the acquisition of 12 companies to

provide talent and technology fuel to expand the business at the rate Oxygen needed to grow.

 

Travelling to Japan for both Alias and Oxygen Bell said he saw the future. It was mobile technology. He co founded a wireless

software company for North America based on what he already saw happening in Asia. He choose two partners who came with

mainly financial resources, and some good energy. However, after having problems with investors wanting to back out, and the

unfortunate timing of the introduction of the technology to the market, they were unsuccessful in their efforts. In our interview,

Art mentioned:“…we started this software company but our backers were too focused on short term gains, and we were just too

far ahead of the curve so it was my first good, big, professional failure.” In this way, he has experienced the same obstacles as

many incredibly successful entrepreneurs have – a big failure. As we have learned, and will discuss later, an early career failure

can serve as a pivotal learning experience.

After the software company failed, Art found himself without much of a plan again, and he was not sure exactly what he wanted

to do. He ended up on a whim enrolling himself in a film editing class at Burlington College and later applied the skills he had

learned to a make a small video he took while skating across Lake Champlain. After experiencing positive feedback from several

people, he decided to enter his video into the Burlington Film Festival. The success of his work led him to submit it to many

more film festivals until he was ultimately approached to make his first promotional video for a company. He agreed and has

since steadily developed his business to what it is today. 

Throughout his career Art knew that he had a real passion for design and marketing. In dreamlike Art has been able marry his

two passions into a career that he admits is the most satisfying he has ever had. As we left he said “ I make less money – for the

moment – but I love my life more now’.

 

ENTREPENEUR IN THIS LEADER

From our short time with Art it quickly became apparent that he has an extremely entrepreneurial mindset when it comes to his

business and his life. According to an article written by Saras Sarasvathy titled What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial,

entrepreneurial thinking differs from managerial and strategic thinking in a few key areas. Those employing managerial or

strategic thinking both have pre-determined goals that they wish to reach. The difference between these two approaches are that a

managerial thinker will select between given means, while a strategic thinker will generate new means to achieve those goals.

While entrepreneurial-minded people such as Art use causal reasoning, they also engage in effectual reasoning, which is the

inverse of causal reasoning. Bell as an entrepreneur does not look for the means to an end. Instead, committed entrepreneurs

looks at what they have, and then decides what can be done with it.

Art has demonstrated this method of thinking in various ways. His first foray into filmmaking involved taking an inexpensive

camera that he only had a rudimentary working knowledge of and shooting a grainy video of a skating trip across the lake with it.

According to him, the resulting footage was “cold, gray, and dark.” He then added music from a band from Iceland that he felt

was appropriate. He called his first short ICE and the resulting work brought his girlfriend at the time to tears. He had no clear

path, but he knew at that moment he made someone feel something. He entered the film in the Burlington Film Festival, then

following along with many other festivals, and thus began his foray into filmmaking.

Sarasvathy describes such people as “quilt-makers,” and another way in which Art demonstrated this tendency came with his first

hire for Dreamlike. He described her extensive background in 3D animation, (his previous life) and how he originally had no

need or desire for that skillset. However, what he did see in her was a “really smart, driven, technical nerd.” He went on to

describe his plan as, “I re-jiggered what little of a business plan I had in my head to say, yeah, I’m going to take her… my goal is

I don’t want her to leave.” This demonstrates Art’s ability to identify opportunities as he sees them, even if he might not see

where they might eventually take him. Rather than hiring someone who served a direct need, he decided to steer his company

down a newly emerged corridor of opportunity.

Art clearly uses his creativity well in generating and exploring ideas, and his tenacity in his pursuits has served him well. At one

point he discovered a software product that piqued his curiosity. Intrigued, he dug for more information about the company, and

tracked down the developer. Upon meeting with this person, Art thought “I knew he wasn’t the guy.” Not slowing, he questioned

further until discovering who had actually written the code for the program. His persistence paid off, as upon locating Scott

Fenton, he quickly joined forces and together they have been involved in several successful projects over the years since.

 

LEADERSHIP STYLE AND EFFECTIVENESS

In an article titled What Leaders Really Do, John Kotter describes some of the key differences between management and

leadership. Management is fundamentally about handling complexity. Conversely, leadership is about motivating and directing

others, often through example.

Art has adeptly demonstrated this skill through the tutelage of his first employee. He clearly is intent on helping her develop

skills that will not just benefit his company but will benefit her as she progresses professionally. He understands that she will

likely not stay with his company forever and is diligently working on giving her valuable and marketable skills for her next

position. “I don’t want her to go some animation sweat shop, make thirty-five grand and work ninety hours a week. I want her to

show up and make ninety grand or a hundred grand a year and be a manager, and not be slave labor in some animation factory.”

 

According to the textbook Organizational Behavior: Improving Performance and Commitment in the Workplace, leadership is

the use of power and influence to direct the activities of followers toward goal achievement. Effective leaders influence others by

ensuring they have the motivation, ability, and role clarity to achieve specific goals. These leadership traits could have been

written to specifically describe Art. He has created an environment for himself, his employee, and his clients that is extremely

conducive to productivity. His studio is beautiful, overlooking the bustling Burlington city streets, with full-length windows

allowing a generous amount of natural light to enter. The wide open floor plan and comfortable atmosphere exudes a positive

creative energy. He has provided state-of-the-art equipment and software, and has taken it upon himself to provide training in

virtually every aspect of his business. His employee surely can see and feel the value and concern for well-being that Art has for

her. As for the effectiveness of his leadership style, clearly the results speak for themselves, as he describes the current position

of the business as “…we are currently small, but we are starting to become world class. We recently did a job to help IBM spin

off a small but lucrative start up inside the company. The head of the division said “Who are you guys – you seem like a 10 year

overnight sensation”.

This same textbook describes leader effectiveness as the degree to which a leader’s actions result in achievement of goals,

continued commitment of employees, and the development of mutual trust, respect, and obligation in leader-member dyads.

Effective leaders are also high in emotional intelligence, which is the ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate

emotions in self and others. We found these traits to be clearly present in Art’s personality through both his description of his

interactions with his employee, and also in the manner in which he engages all who he contacts. Art is an exceptional listener,

and clearly realizes that simply remaining silent while others speak is not enough. He is an active listener, who has an obviously

genuine interest in understanding whomever he is speaking with. Early on, before we even got into the meat of our interview, Art

had some great advice. “When I interview people I mostly listen. If you just listen eventually their story will come out.” It is in

this way that Art is mastering the technique of capturing someone’s story and sharing it with others.

We did not see any major limitations to Art’s leadership approach. The main thing that we found important for people like Art,

who led by example, is to be certain of the motivations and abilities of the person he chooses to work with. In the selection of his

employee, he found someone much like himself, with technically savvy and driven talent. He has little time for the poor work

ethic and sense of entitlement shown by some who knock on his door, whom do not respond well to his unwavering pursuit of

excellence.

 

LESSONS LEARNED

Art seems to live to craft stories. We asked him how does one find their life’s path. It seems that some are blessed from an early

age with an unwavering vision of their future. For others the future is not so clear. We were encouraged by Art’s description of

how, for most people, a glimpse of a passion and a possible next career path is about all that we get.

In his case, he kept pursuing what made him happy and trying to steer away from what didn’t feel right in his gut. This

has led him to where he is today, which he expressed quite candidly when he said, “I think I am slowly becoming an artist. I think

I spent years being a jack-of-all-trades, able to fix others’ problems, but being a master of nothing.” 

Another lesson that we took from our time with Art came from his description of the failure of the software company he started.

He described the experience as, “My first good, big, professional failure.” We were struck by his use of the word good, as it

demonstrated to us how obstacles that are encountered can serve a positive purpose and oftentimes a person can learn invaluable

lessons by having experienced true failure.

Our time with Art helped illustrate many of the lessons we have learned thus far throughout our leadership course. We have

found to be true the idea that money has less of an impact on job satisfaction and fulfillment than does striving to pursue interests

that you are passionate about. In all, It has become apparent to us that pursuing your true passions and maintaining focus

throughout your pursuits is paramount to an entrepreneur’s success. Art summed up this sentiment well by saying: “…the secret

to business is: there is no secret. It’s perseverance, it’s luck and it’s fighting against everything that wants to take your focus

away.”

 

 

Bibliography

Bell, Art. Personal interview. 11 Feb. 2013. https://dreamlikepictures.com

Colquitt, Jason, Jeffery A. LePine, and Michael J. Wesson. Organizational Behavior: Improving Performance and Commitment

in the Workplace. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2011. Print.

Gallos, J. Business Leadership. Jossey Bass. 2nd edition.(2008).

Jones, David. “Motivation I: Psychological Needs and Recognition.” BSAD 120. University of Vermont School of Business

Administration. May 2012. Lecture.

Kotter, John. “What Leaders Really Do.” IEEE Engineering Management Review 37.3 (2009): 18-28. Print.

Sarasvathy, Saras D. “What Makes Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurial?” Harvard Business Review (2005): n. pag. Handout.

Appendix A: Handout

UVM BSAD 137

Professor Sharma

Jennifer South

Todd Kinneston

3/15/2013

ANALYSIS:

Entrepreneur in this leader

• Effectual Reasoning

• Creative Idea Generation – Keep Digging

Leadership Style and Effectiveness

• Leadership vs. Management

• Leadership – The use of power and influence to direct the activities of followers toward goal achievement.

• Motivation, ability, role clarity.

• Work environment – Effective allocation of resources.

-Situational constraints.

-Job design.

Lessons Learned:

• Passion – A glimpse may be all you get.

• Failure – Character-builder or Spirit-crusher?

• Focus – ‘ Motivation is for amateurs’ Chuck Close