If you work in hospitality in the Bay Area then you most likely know (or should know) who Chip Conley is.  I won’t go into his back story but he’s the founder of Joie De Vivre Hotels, one of the top boutique hotel chains around(and  based here in San Francisco).

A while back my business partner Jack read Conley’s book Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow, and was really moved by it so I also read it, and we’ve implemented a lot of what he did at JDV here at Orange. I’ve always believed that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs made common sense to a degree but didn’t really connect it all together as Conley did, especially as a philosophy in the workplace.  The book is a good read and his new one sounds interesting too: Emotional Equations – keep an eye out for it!

Here’s an old shot from 2003 when Conley and then San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown were on hand for the groundbreaking for the Hotel Vitale which has become one of the most successful hotels in San Francisco.