Conley describes how his company, Joie De Vivre Hospitality, has applied Maslow's theory of human needs to achieve impressive success in the hotel history. His straightforward model is explained clearly and backed by the success he achieved even during the worst possible business environment. There are many books about creating a profitable company and many about the importance of corporate culture and people. What I like about this book is that it shows why and how the human factors impact the end results.

I've noticed in this genre that everyone uses the same companies as examples, especially Southwest, Starbucks, Best Buy, and Enterprise. Is it merely that these are the hallmarks or is the market lacking examples of others that succeed through similar means? Joie De Vivre is certainly another success story and Chip Conley does cite a few others. If Maslow and the other thought leaders mentioned in this book (Goleman, Csikszentmihalyi, Buckingham, Covey, and Seligman) do provide a basis for success, we should see more and more success stories in the coming years. ( )

There is good, solid advice for how to improve your company by building deep satisfaction in the workers. I will likely return to this book to dig those nuggets out. But I didn't have patience for the author's style, which struck me as self-aggrandizing and tiresome. ( )