Since graduating from Brandeis University about 30 years ago, I have known that one of our most famous alumni was Christie Hefner, the former CEO of Playboy Enterprises.
Tracy Thirion of Bamboo, Christie Hefner and Me
At a small Brandeis Alumni gathering, Christie talked about how she transformed her life and her business. Ironically, she never thought that she would go into the family business. Christie grew up in Wilmette with her mother and wanted to pursue a liberal arts education at Brandeis. She wrote for the school newspaper and pursued journalism at the Boston Phoenix paper.
Before she went to graduate school, her famous father, Hugh Hefner asked her to work at Playboy magazine for a short period. At the time, she did not have a strong relationship with her father. Christie pictured this experience as “the junior year abroad that she never had.” She insists that there was no grand plan or succession scheme. For the next seven years, she did various jobs around the company.
Christie revealed that in 1982 when Playboy was forced to pull its gambling operations out of the UK, it became evident that many of the other businesses that Playboy had become involved in were not profitable. The current CEO was asked to resign by the board and Christie, at 29 was elected president.
Christie states several advantages she had as the new president.
1. She did not know what she did not know.
2. She knew not to delegate the numbers and that cash was king.
3. She immediately dumped the loser businesses.
4. She realized how valuable the Playboy brand really was.
5. She thought that the business would be more electronic and global.
6. She was a Hefner.
When Christie left Playboy as CEO in early 2009 after 33 years, she said that the election of Barack Obama inspired her to do more charitable work.
What has she learned in business?
1. It’s important to keep learning. Learn how to learn.
2. Know how to communicate to everyone around you.
3. The most important skill in hiring people is intellectual agility.
4. Take advantage if you find yourself in a business crisis. It is at this time people know that they need to change.
Hi Barry – my boyfriend (of 5 years) back then was Derick Daniels and he was the only president of Playboy that was not a Hefner. He had been the head of Knight Ridder Newspapers, etc.
One of his areas of responsibility was to groom Christie for that job. Christie tried a number of things at Playboy that weren’t successful, but ultimately went on to do a great job. Derick (who has passed away) went on to be a founding partner of Ocean Drive Magazine and its many spinoffs.
Margot
BM-I’m a real Christie Hefner fan. I saw her speak awhile ago & she really impressed me. While I’m disappointed for her that she never had that junior year abroad, I’m sure she made up for it with world-wide travels later on. Playboy is global & has the opportunity to become even more so.-m2
I am impressed as well with what she was able to achieve going into an unlikely “family” business
Everyone is talking about the Dow, mylsef included, but since the Dow isn’t the only measure of economic strength, I’m wondering how inflation and housing prices track with those graphs. For example, the Dow is above where it was 10 years ago by 10%, but gasoline prices are what, around 250% higher than they were ten years ago?
Thanks for the additional perspective. Christie did mention at the event that she had the utmost respect for Derrick (not mentioned by name) and that the transition was smooth.