Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow

This book is proof that there are thoughtful, caring, and people driven entrepreneurs. It is possible to be very successful without being driven by insatiable greed and boundless narcissism. The author, Chip Conley, is a Stanford MBA who has carved out a great reputation and financial success with a California based boutique hotel chain called "Joie de Vivre" (you can find their website at jdvhotels dot com). Conley has all the great personal stories showing his personal commitment to his businesses, being willing to sacrifice personally to give it time to succeed (the entrepreneur who has not lived for extended periods without a paycheck is the exception rather than the rule). What makes Conley quite special and someone it seems I would like to know (despite our likely polar political views) is his how thoughtful he is about what he is trying to do and his reaching into the meaning of his work shows on every page of this book. Just look at the end of each chapter for a list of additional reading on the subjects discussed! Abraham Maslow is a hero to many thinkers, however, the closer you get to the front lines of business survival the more his ideas seem like a luxury rather than foundational principals. However for Conley, Maslow's philosophy is the bedrock of what Conley is about. He uses Maslow's famous hierarchy of needs and its usual presentation in a pyramid as the model for his own trio of pyramids to express what his business tries to accomplish. Conley turns Maslow's five section pyramid into three section transformation pyramids that consist of a base of survival, a middle section of success, and the peak section (note the title of the book) of transformation. The author sees his work in three constituencies (and provides a group of chapters on each one): employees, customers, and investors. The sound principle being that without great employees who embody your business you won't have customers and without successfully building a profitable customer base you can't reward investors. However, Conley wants more than the base part of the pyramid for each of these stakeholders. For employees the transformational pyramid is: Money (survival), Recognition (success), and Meaning (transformation). That is people come to work for their paycheck and feel good about their jobs when the business demonstrates that it sees their contribution. However, when the employee sees their job as a way to express their own values because they align themselves with the company's mission, it can create a meaningful transformation to the employee's life. That is, the paycheck provides motivation, recognition creates loyalty, and meaning sparks inspiration. The transformational pyramid for customers is: Meets Expectations (survival) which creates satisfaction, Meets Desires (success) which creates commitment, and Meets Unrecognized Needs (transformation) which creates evangelism. For investors the pyramid is: transaction alignment (survival

You don't have to have an emotional bone in your body to find useful advice in this book. Chip Conley built a great company and weathered the dot.com meltdown by putting people first, both his employees and his customers. Sounds tough, especially for left-brainers, but the Maslow pyramid gives a framework that even the most rational mind can work with. Treat employees fairly, recognize their accomplishments and give them something to believe in. It's as simple as that. Conley has good advice for pleasing customers and investors, too, but I found his technique for bringing the best out of your employees most useful. Despite the fact that most of his employees don't have college degrees and half don't speak English as their first language, he's managed to both keep them and keep them happy. Those same techniques can work for any company. The point is that people are people everywhere and Maslow brilliantly realized what motivates all of us. Conley maps this to today's business environment with great examples and explanations. Simply put, this book will make you a better manager. Get it!

I was attracted to Chip Conley's new book "Peak" not because of my interest in business, entrepreneurship or hotel management, but because of the exploration of Maslow's hierarchy, as well as principles of motivation and self-actualization. And I must say that for these reasons alone, Conley's book is worth reading. With depth and insight, Conley explores what it is that our jobs can really be for us - more than a career, but a calling, as he puts it. He explains and illustrates with lively anecdotes how aiming for self-actualization, optimizing our human potential, through what we do is most beneficial to both our own human development as well as the business itself. After reading this book, who wouldn't want to found, lead, or work for a company that encourages every single employee to be the most fulfilled person they can be? It makes perfect sense, and yet businesses so easily get caught up in short-term gains, foresaking these higher goals. Conley's own experience proves that paying close attention to employee, leader, and shareholder satisfaction pays off in spades, in terms of both profits and human happiness. Three cheers for Chip Conley for writing a business book with SOUL: a book that shows everyone from the hotel clerk to the founder of a multi-million dollar business how to lead optimal, rewarding lives; a book that shows companies how to make money not just in spite of but because of their conscious fostering of human potential. This book is an enjoyable read for business people and entrepreneurs as well as for anyone interested in psychology, motivation techniques, and generally improving their relationship with their work.

PEAK is one of my all time favorite business books. I will never be able to do it justice in this short review. PEAK is definitely a "must read" for every executive, CEO and business owner for whom "being ordinary is not an option." Over the past 22 years, I have worked with many successful companies and leaders. Yet from the first pages of reading this book, I knew that Joie De Vivre (JDV) and Chip Conley (the CEO and author) are a rare breed in today's business world, integrating money with meaning, doing with becoming, success with significance. Here are my reasons why I love this book. In my experience, there are few companies that go beyond meeting the basic needs of their employees, customers and investors. Only a handful of companies committed to honoring the full hierarchy of employee, customer and investor needs as the foundation to their own profitability, success and legacy. JDV and Chip Conley clearly walk their talk in that regard and are amongst that small minority. PEAK is multi-fasceted. I felt like I was reading 3 books in one -- a personal narrative/story, a "teaching" manual and a "how to" roadmap -- packed with wisdom, inspiration, provocative ideas and action steps. The book grabbed my attention right away as the author shared his "hero's journey." A story about how JDV, a fast rising star in the '90's, plummeted into a downward spiral with the dotcom industry crash and then hit with an additional catastrophic jolt with 9/11. Tough times like these test a true leader's courage, tenacity, values and substance ... and his/her willingness to heed "the call" to embark on the hero's journey. As the saying goes, "when the student is ready, the teacher appears." It was in those trying moments and through synchronistic events that the author fell upon, via a book, his life and leadership mentor, Abraham Maslow. A mentor whose human motivation principles became the cornerstone of one the most successful hospitality companies in the world. A hero's journey is never complete without transformation and growth, and a "coming home." To me PEAK represents that "coming full circle" where the author shares his experience and wisdom gained during the past 10+ years ago. PEAK is also a "teaching" manual. It opened my eyes to the power of Maslow's hierarchy in leadership, organizational development, marketing and investor relations ... and ultimately the profitability and legacy of a company. Below are some of my favorite gems from the book: * The difference between "transactional" vs. "transformational" leadership * Corporate transformation can only follow personal transformation * The difference between a job vs. a career vs. a calling * How JDV creates both meaning "at" work and meaning "in" work with their employees * How JDV helps employees reach the top level of the hierarchy (meaning/fulfillment) by "becoming heroes participating in the profitability in a heroic enterprise" * JDV's use of "dreaming

Chip Conley has a bold vision - he wants to use his company as an instrument to make the world a better place. Rarely have I heard a businessman state his vision so boldly and this alone deserves a cheer. Joie de Vivre - a lot of persons will learn to pronounce this soon! - is a boutique hotel chain and each property is unique. I have stayed at two and I can testify that the servce is outstanding. If ever you find yourself in San Francisco stay at the Miyako in the heart of Japantown. The faux ricepaper screens and artwork will make you feel as if you are in Japan and the deep granite soak tub and private sauna in the suite will round out the feeling. Chip draws heavily from the work of Abraham Maslow in running his business. Maslow, as any MBA will tell you, is the guy who came up with the notion of the "hierarchy of needs" which postulates that all humans have basic needs for things like food and shelter and, as these are satisfied, higher order needs like belonging and esteem open up. At the top is "self-actualization" which is a need to realize one's full potential. What I did not know till I read this book is that Maslow had spent a lot of time pondering the implications of his theory for business and had actually recorded his thoughts in books many of which are now out of print. I will now scour the Internet for these. Chip's genius is that he came up with an organized and disciplined method of applying these principles to his operations. The book is basically divided into three parts - one dealing with employees, one with customers and the final one with investors. For each of these, he offers tips on how to meet their lower order needs and then lead the way to them fulfilling their higher order needs and seeing that they are doing so. He walks his talk. For example, during the double whammy of the dot.com meltdown and the 9/11 induced travel recession the hotel industry in California fell off a cliff. Conley took no salary for more than three years maxing out his credit cards to live and persuaded his senior executives to take 10% pay cuts. In his own words "...you make the right choice and acknowledge that yur lowest-paid employees deserve the greatest support during the most difficult times." What a contrast from the typical approach of firing dozens of the rank and file while preserving top-management perks! Half of Joie de Vivre's employees clean toilets and make beds, but Chip has them feeling valued and and instituted recognition programs that move them up Maslow's hierarchy. For example, even chambermaids get to stay free for a couple of nights at any of the chain hotel so they can experience the service as a customer. I want to make an important point here and this I got from personal conversations with him. He doesn't just make employess FEEL valued. He DOES value them and looks out for what he can do to make their lives more meaningful. In fact his life's meaning derives from success in doing so. So there are things like sa