The challenge for Shacknai and Medicis in the coming years will be to keep the same ear-to-the-ground edge that’s clued them in to what patients and doctors want, especially as Medicis begins to expand globally (LipoSonix will be the first product it will market and sell internationally) and develop more technologies locally. In the future, Medicis will shift its focus below the neck: “We have very good solutions in the facial aesthetic category,” says Shacknai, who is not only the Medicis chairman but also a client—his creaseless face comes courtesy of regular Restylane injections (he has tried Reloxin outside of the U.S.). “But there’s the rest of the body to deal with.” To that end, his team is looking into more fat-reduction devices as well as “drugs or substances” that could help “contour the body.” Other areas of interest he hints at are implants and injectables for the breasts and the butt. One that might soon be in the pipeline is Macrolane, a hyaluronic acid injectable made expressly for the body by Q-Med.
After mastering the face and the body, will the spirit be next? Shacknai, who exercises daily and doesn’t eat meat, owns up to a fascination with feng shui. He enlisted feng shui practitioner Brayden Zeviar to help with Medicis’s new, 150,000-square-foot headquarters, which sits on the western edge of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community reservation. Zeviar did everything from surveying the land for the new office space (and placing replicas of ancient Chinese coins in the foundation to promote wealth) to installing streams, an aquarium and statues of Asian wise men around the property. “This was greeted with great skepticism when I first introduced it,” says Shacknai. “But now almost every employee has feng shui elements in their particular workstations.”
As we walk out of the conference room, we run into Zeviar, who has come by to place a vase imbued with prayers and blessings in the boss’s office. Although Shacknai believes in shifting the energy of his environment, he knows that aesthetic alterations can take you only so far. As he says, “You can’t change character with a scalpel or needle.” What you can change, however, he’s willing to explore.
