Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership)
By:
Chip Conley
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Lowest New Price: $15.83
List Price: $27.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Description:
After fifteen years of rising to the pinnacle of the hospitality industry, Chip Conley's company was suddenly undercapitalized and overexposed in the post-dot.com, post-9/11 economy. For relief and inspiration, Conley, the CEO and founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, turned to psychologist Abraham Maslow's iconic Hierarchy of Needs. This book explores how Conley's company "the second largest boutique hotelier in the world" overcame the storm that hit the travel industry by applying Maslow's theory to what Conley identifies as the key Relationship Truths in business with Employees, Customers and Investors. Part memoir, part theory, and part application, the book tells of Joie de Vivre's remarkable transformation while providing real world examples from other companies and showing how readers can bring about similar changes in their work and personal lives. Conley explains how to understand the motivations of employees, customers, bosses, and investors, and use that understanding to foster better relationships and build an enduring and profitable corporate culture.
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Get Employees, Customers & Investors to Transformation - Great details how a company has twice successfully overcome economic downturns using by adapting to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Excellent insights on how to create transformation levels for Employees, Customers and Investors
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
PEAK is about Seeking the Peak - Wonderful book and application of Maslow to business. A guideline for making a business more sensitive to and responsive to the needs of customers by achieving this through its employees. The result is a more successful, and interestingly a more profitable business!
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Great Whole Business Approach - I was lucky enough to meet Chip a couple of weeks ago and he was nothing like I expected. Chip has a clear, simple vision for running his business that can be easily applied to yours. From marketing to employee relations, this is a fantastic approach.
Plus, Chip is one of the most genuine people I've ever met. As a guy that reads almost everything on business, I strongly recommend this read. You wont be disappointed.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
PEAK a Great Read for Nonprofit Professionals too - I saw Chip Conley speak at an arts engagement lecture. I was so interested in his pyramid approach as well as his commitment to psychographic (as opposed to demographic) profiling that I immediately ordered and feverishly consumed PEAK.
I read this book from the perspective of a brand manager (one of my many hats), but I found the theories useful for all the items in my nonprofit portfolio: communications, member engagement, even grassroots activism.
Chip identifies 3 critical stakeholder groups that are the key players in any company or organization: employees, customers (aka constituents, clients, or patrons for nonprofits), and investors (aka donors or granters). Chip argues that what all these stakeholders are looking for--after we meet their base and social needs--is identity refreshment. They want the experience of your company, organization, product, service, event, etc., to reflect who they are at their best, what they believe. They want you to help them "be all they can be."
This theory struck me, as a nonprofit professional, as so profoundly true that it's given me a whole framework for thinking about our organization and its identity, voice, and brand.
Chip's section on employee relations and helping employees reach their peaks is full of sound, creative, and useful ideas. Even though I don't manage any staff, I now have a different approach to how I interact with and recognize my colleagues. I would love for all managers to read this book :-)
Finally, I enjoyed Chip's style, making the book not only useful to read, but fun too--which cannot always be said of business books. Chip writes well, draws on personal experience (in sharing successes and failures), and uses examples of other peak companies.
Overall, I encourage all nonprofit professionals--but especially those involved in communications, member engagement, development, or management--to read this great book. Especially in tough times, we must differentiate ourselves and find innovative ways to reach our highest potential.
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Inspiring, but not impractical. - A business book that focuses on meeting the higher-level goals of employees, clients and investors. Well-written and interesting, with lots of suggestions for additional reading if you're interested in reading more about the Maslow-centric ideas outlined.
Conley has an engaging writing style, and includes lots of examples from his own business to illustrate his ideas. Nothing ground-breaking here, but it's an inspirational read for those managing a business during challenging times (like, right now) and he does a great job of providing bottom-line backup for ideas that at first might feel a little "touchy-feely" to some.
I'm lucky to work for a company that already espouses most of what Conley preaches, so for me it mostly validated what we're already doing. But, he also provides solid thinking for those that are looking to implement these ideas inside companies that aren't yet operating on the higher levels of the Maslow pyramid.
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