Christie Hefner
Try not to be either intimidated by or a captive of jargon. Even though it's language, and language is about communication, it often exists actually to obfuscate and to control power and not to communicate.Collection: Communication
Being a CEO still means sitting across the table from big institutional investors and showing your leadership and having them believe in you.Collection: Leadership
I'm surrounded by very powerful women and very progressive men.Collection: Women
It's mutual respect and love that are important, not a wedding.Collection: Wedding
I don't think about financial success as the measurement of my success.Collection: Success
No, I never thought about my father's money as my money.Collection: Dad
From the time that I can remember, I worked to make money - either baby-sitting, or one year wrapping gifts at a department store at Christmas, so I could have my own money.Collection: Christmas
My mother thinks I could have even run a larger company.Collection: Mom
I think of Chicago as a great entrepreneur city, a city that supports its own, that isn't as jaded as New York and L.A.
My father has always enjoyed games... always with a combination of the fun and social side of it, but also always highly competitive.
I freelanced for the 'Boston Phoenix.'
I'm certainly proud of the transformation of Playboy from a magazine to a multimedia corporation.
When I first came to Playboy, I thought I would go on and do something else in a few years. But when the company got into trouble with political and regulatory challenges, I felt that I could really lead the turn around.
I'm motivated and driven, and I have been from a young age.
It's embarrassing to be in the only westernized economy that doesn't have paid family leave and flex scheduling, and that disproportionately helps women.
My mantra is, I want to work with people that I like to hang out with, who are smart, where I can add value, that I think is an interesting space.
You can learn more about leadership by reading about Lincoln than you can from most business books.
I didn't have the luxury of devoting myself entirely to not-for-profit activities.
It's not unusual for someone running for Senate in Illinois to come see me.
I've always believed that you need to find interactive applications on the Internet.
Nightclubs are a small-revenue business that go through pretty fast popularity cycles.
I would like to see both parties aggressively compete for the women's vote and talk about what they will do to unleash the economic power of women, to protect women's health, to provide the right policies that provide for real family stability and real family values.
I've always believed about brands and media that the mistake sometimes that's made is to think you're just going to take what you've been doing and kind of re-purpose it into the new platform. I don't think that ever works because consumers look for different experiences in different media formats.
I believed deeply that digital was an empowering opportunity for Playboy, not a threat.
It's difficult sometimes to, in effect, let go of how you're used to doing things and give the brand room to be reinvented.
I consider Playboy very wholesome, frankly.
I'm private because I want to be private.
I live the life I want to lead.
While I have always had a good relationship with my father, much of the time it has been a very limited relationship until I was older. So you can't really give him credit or blame for how I turned out.
I think when you're on a visiting relationship rather than a living relationship, it's kind of hard to have impact as a parent.
Part of brand management is what you don't do, not what you do.
Playboy's all about why it's worth working so hard.
I'd actually call myself pretty much a liberal. A progressive liberal. Because I do think that government is there to be a provider of services for people who cannot provide for themselves.
The people who relate to Playboy, both readers and people who produce it, are not the way the critics think they are.
I'm among the many Chicagoans who love to take advantage of the opportunity to dine outdoors in the summer months.
I've always believed that a goal in life is not to own a boat but have a friend with a boat.
Access to legitimate information and thoughtful analysis is the lifeblood of a democracy, the basis of which people make decisions about who they vote for and what they believe in. And if you're only getting half the story, that certainly doesn't lead to an informed citizenry.
I prefer tailored clothes. I always have. But I find that whatever I wear, people see it as charged with symbolic meaning.
If I wear a suit, as I generally do in the business world, it's supposed to mean I'm retreating from competition with the bunnies. If I wear a very glamorous romantic dress, as I'm very likely to do if I'm going out in the evening, then I'm supposed to be competing with the bunnies.
The power of Playboy is its appeal around the world.
I don't think the Playboy brand has changed much at all - it's always been sophisticated and aspirational.
You can't delegate turning a company around.
Hef is a man of the big picture. He is a creative force.
I experienced no conflict between my mother and father, which was entirely due to my mother's compassion, intelligence, and maturity.
To me, saying you're not a feminist should be like saying you're a racist. It should be that politically unacceptable.
I never intended to go into the family business. I've always been drawn to wanting to do something else at some time in my life.
Any brand that attempts to live off a retro appeal is only going through a short second life cycle.
What you don't do is as important as what you do.
With someone who is genuinely abusive or a bad person, you should just get out of town. But if they're being the best person they know how to be, then you have to decide if there isn't much there you can love and not become consumed with what they're not able to give you.
Not only did I enjoy the creative side of Playboy and enjoy being surrounded by people who are curious about life, but I also love the analytical and hard business side of it.