The Four Seasons Hotel
October 9 and 10, 2002
KEY QUOTES

“Women’s health is not just breast physiology or breast cancer and reproductive concerns. There are essential important differences between men’s and women’s body systems. Unfortunately, when I speak about this at symposia, half of the male doctors leave the room. They don’t want to deal with the issue of women’s health, and neither do the drug companies or academic medical centers. Women’s health is important and can have tremendous value to men’s health. It is going to take the voices of women, powerful women like you, to drive this change in healthcare forward."
Marianne J. Legato, MD, FACP, Founder & Director, Partnership for Women’s Health, Columbia University
"We look at the trends and hope that our future is going to turn out a certain way. But hope is not a strategy. Hoping doesn’t change anything. If you hear trends or ideas or policies that you like or don’t like. Act on that response; just do it. Because there is only one way to access power in this world and that is to take and do with it what you believe is right. Please use what you hear today to change the way you run your business or to change the world; just do it."
Edie Weiner, President, Weiner, Edrich, Brown, Inc.
"Luxury is all about imagery. As luxury brands drive for volume, and they have to in order to grow, they have to go down to the mass market. There’s more money there, but there’s also the risk that they’ll violate what the brand stands for. Tiffany’s has done an excellent job of maintaining their luxury image while attracting a larger segment of the market. You can buy a charm bracelet for your daughter or a handmade sapphire and diamond ring, and both come in the little blue box.”
Cynthia Cohen, President Strategic Mindshare
"We are destroying the planet. Purity – pure water and air – is becomingly increasingly scarce. Few of us are getting enough sleep or have enough time to take care of ourselves. Safety, security, and privacy are priceless. People don’t want to be empowered anymore. They want more time; they want to feel safe; and they want things that are authentic and pure. This is the new luxury, and the smart manufacturers will provide access to these intangibles.” Linda Stone, former VP, Corporate & Industry Initiatives, Microsoft, and Managing Director, Linda Stone LLC
"There is a contradiction between people wanting customized services and wanting to preserve their privacy. If individuals have the right to choose the information contained in personal profiles and are assured that their information is safeguarded, there is no obstacle to developing personalized databases. Trust is the currency in the new economy, and the companies that develop close and respectful relationships with their consumers will gain the competitive advantage.” Ann Cavoukian, PhD, Commissioner, Information & Privacy Commission/Ontario
"Women are moving up the corporate or professional ladder, but they also are not staying in these positions for a long time. Under stress, women seek out other women for support. The further up the ladder you climb, the fewer women you find. There’s no network of support, and this can be very unhealthy. Plus, women in predominately male work environments develop a male flight or fight response and along with that lose all the benefits of estrogen. Women need networks of women. It’s important to our professional and personal success and physical well-being.” Laura Cousino Klein, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University
"The same proteins that help us have rhythmic digestive systems and sleep/wake cycles are also responsible for regulating the growth of cells. And regulating the growth of cells is important in preventing pre-cancerous cells from becoming cancer. When we mess with our biological clocks and don’t get enough sleep, we are messing with the growth of cells and that will have a major impact on human life.” Dr. Leslie Vosshall, Assistant Professor & Head of The Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, Rockefeller University
"We have to be busy all the time. If we come home from work after a very stressful day, and we have responsibilities at home, and we haven’t slept enough the previous night, we eat to stay awake. So we pop something in our mouths or have a very large meal in order to de-stress. Then, we continue doing what we have to do. This is particularly true for women because we think we have to do much more than men.” Cathy Nonas, RD, Director, VaItallie Center for Nutrition & Weight Management, St. Luke’s – Roosevelt Hospital Center
"Profitability over the last few decades was the result of supply chain innovations and efficiencies. That has changed. The next decade is going to be consumer-centric, and the companies that succeed will need to be very knowledgeable about their customers. Understanding demographics and market segmentation will be key to generating more sales from the ‘big-spending’ most profitable customers and mining opportunities that exist in other segments.” Vicky Eng, Partner, Deloitte & Touche
"Marketing is cutting-edge when it leads consumers into changing their behavior. It’s important to listen and understand and fill customer needs. The real opportunities arise when we look at trends, shifts, and patterns – seasonal, demographic, cyclical, for example – and lead with products and services that anticipate or create new needs.” Vance Williams LaVelle, Chief Marketing Officer, the PNC Financial Services Group
"I look at customers in terms of how they learn, how they buy, and how I serve them. Then, I look at all these factors from a revenue perspective – how can I leverage customer relationships to drive top revenue growth. Then I look at them from a cost perspective – how can I make each transaction more efficient. This drives all of the people in our organization to look at an income statement, to understand their part of it, and to find ways to collaborate across functions to reduce costs and find opportunities. In a large organization, this can save and generate millions.” Maura C. Breen, Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Verizon Retail Markets
"The journal Biotechnology recently posed the question: is biotechnology going to be the next dot-com? I think the answer is yes. It’s going to take a long time to do gene therapy. Yes, there are trials underway. Yes, the textile industry is manufacturing fabrics with medicinal purposes, and the cosmetics industry is introducing estrogen patches that look like jewelry. But we don’t yet know what many of the proteins recently discovered actually do. That will take time, and the biotech companies are very highly valued. If they can’t raise the money to update equipment and hire the best people, they’ll be in trouble, just like the dot-coms.” Adele L. Boskey, PhD, Starr Chair in Mineralized Tissue Research, the Hospital for Special Surgery and Professor of Biochemistry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University
"The privacy and security issues surrounding biotechnology are huge. In 1972, an article in Scientific American suggested that we begin a discussion about the ethics surrounding gene splicing and stem cell research. Well, 30 years later, that discussion hasn’t even begun. When governments are called to engage in these discussion, they run because of the possible political backlash. So, here we are at a critical juncture without a global, ethical compact or societal consensus to guide us.” Deborah Hurley, Senior Research Associate and Adjunct Lecturer, Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
"As leaders, it’s incumbent upon us to understand corporate policy around drug testing and to learn if our healthcare insurance covers biotechnology. It might mean that we have to take an online course on biology, but we’re going to have to understand what’s out there and what we want our people to be able to access.” Betsy H. Cohen, Vice President, Future, Nestle Purina Petcare Company