Christie Hefner on How to Manage Creatives | Big Think

Christie Hefner on How to Manage Creatives

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Christie Hefner on the importance of culturing creativity.

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Christie Hefner:

Christie Hefner, daughter of Hugh Hefner, is the former chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises.

During her tenure, Hefner restructured operations and initiated the Company's highly successful electronic and international expansion. The Company launched its branded channel in 1982, making Playboy the first magazine brand to be successfully leveraged into television. In 1994 led the Company onto the Internet when Playboy became the first national magazine on the World Wide Web.

Hefner is active in a number of local and national organizations. She was the first woman elected to the Chicago chapter of the Young Presidents' Organization. Hefner helped found the Committee of 200, an international organization of preeminent women business owners and executives. She serves on the boards of Rush University Medical Center, Canyon Ranch Health Resort, and on the board of governors of the Paley Center for Media. Hefner is also on the Advisory Boards of the American Civil Liberties Union and The Creative Coalition, and a member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She also spent four years as project board chairman for the CORE Center, raising $30 million to build this innovative clinic and research facility, which opened in Chicago in the summer of 1998. The CORE Center conducts clinical research and provides prevention education and outpatient care for people with HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Hefner: Well, if you can create a culture where creativity is valued, I think that that goes a long way. I used to be in a board of something called Business Committee for the Arts, and one of the programs that they initiated that we embraced that I think is, you know, small way of doing that is something called art at work where you showcase literally the art that your employees pursue in their spare time. And when we did it, I remember thinking in advance, well, we’ll have a lot of submissions from the people that work in the creative departments of our company, the people that work on the Photo Department and the Art Department, etc., etc. And, of course, that was true, but what was more surprisingly true were the large numbers of people who had very creative hobbies that worked in accounts payable or security or legal. And I think that engendering that sense of encouraging people to be creative in that way and in all ways is as good advice for every company.