Chip Conley (born 1960, Orange, California) is an American hotelier, author, and speaker. Conley is the founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, which he began in 1987 at age 26.

Conley received his BA in 1982 and an MBA in 1984 from Stanford University.

Books

1 The Rebel Rules: Daring to be Yourself in Business (Simon & Schuster, 2001)

2 "Marketing that Matters: 10 Practices to Profit Your Business and Change the World (co-authored with Eric Friedenwald-Fishman, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006)

3 Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo From Maslow (Jossey-Bass, 2007)

www.chipconley.com

Despite using the word mojo in the subtitle and citing inspiration he received from 1960s counterculture icon Timothy Leary, this guide to better management isn't for hippies. Yes, Conley started the California boutique hotel chain Joie de Vivre Hospitality with the Phoenix Hotel, once a haven for faded rock stars. And yes, he quotes liberally from rebel CEOs who surf. But Conley's book is packed with thoughtful, instructional stories and advice for entrepreneurs as well as Fortune 500 managers, gleaned from his own experience as well as other business books. At the center of this confessional how-to is psychologist Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a pyramid that ranks human needs from base to self-actualizing. Used as the basis for employee, customer and stakeholder satisfaction, Conley contends, it can transform a business and its people. Though Stephen Covey and Peter Drucker have looked to Maslow before, Conley describes how using the pyramid saved his company from bankruptcy when the dot-com bubble burst. Conley is most successful when he expresses his ideas in numbered lists rather than the wordy passages that slow down the beginning. On the whole, though, his advice is inspiring and accessible. (Sept.)

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