Chip Conley
highly-reviewedAbout Chip Conley
“Chip was a pleasure to work with! ”
Speech topics
The Future of Work: How to Scale Your Culture in a Hybrid Organization
When the young founders of Airbnb asked Chip to help turn their startup into a world-class organization, he brought a core set of principles that would transform the culture of the company.
As the world adapts to the changing dynamics of hybrid work, these same principles are the key to unlocking productivity, creativity, collaboration, and culture - all while maintaining flexibility. This framework will give you the tools to amplify a growth mindset at scale, and develop talent across all levels of your organization.
Chip deconstructs how to understand the motivations of employees, customers, bosses, and investors, and use that to foster better relationships and build a more connected culture than ever before.
Speaking videos
Books by Chip Conley
“Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder” (2018)
Experience is making a comeback. Learn how to repurpose your wisdom.At age 52, after selling the company he founded and ran as CEO for 24 years, rebel boutique hotelier Chip Conley was looking at an open horizon in midlife. Then he received a call from the young founders of Airbnb, asking him to help grow their disruptive start-up into a global hospitality giant. He had the industry experience, but Conley was lacking in the digital fluency of his 20-something colleagues. He didn't write code, or have an Uber or Lyft app on his phone, was twice the age of the average Airbnb employee, and would be reporting to a CEO young enough to be his son. Conley quickly discovered that while he'd been hired as a teacher and mentor, he was also in many ways a student and intern. What emerged is the secret to thriving as a mid-life worker: learning to marry wisdom and experience with curiosity, a beginner's mind, and a willingness to evolve, all hallmarks of the "Modern Elder."In a world that venerates the new, bright, and shiny, many of us are left feeling invisible, undervalued, and threatened by the "digital natives" nipping at our heels. But Conley argues that experience is on the brink of a comeback. Because at a time when power is shifting younger, companies are finally waking up to the value of the humility, emotional intelligence, and wisdom that come with age. And while digital skills might have only the shelf life of the latest fad or gadget, the human skills that mid-career workers possess--like good judgment, specialized knowledge, and the ability to collaborate and coach - never expire.Part manifesto and part playbook, Wisdom@Work ignites an urgent conversation about ageism in the workplace, calling on us to treat age as we would other type of diversity. In the process, Conley liberates the term "elder" from the stigma of "elderly," and inspires us to embrace wisdom as a path to growing whole, not old. Whether you've been forced to make a mid-career change, are choosing to work past retirement age, or are struggling to keep up with the millennials rising up the ranks, Wisdom@Work will help you write your next chapter.
“PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow Revised and Updated” (2017)
Proven principles for sustainable success, with new leadership insightPEAK is the popular, transformative guide to doing business better, written by a seasoned entrepreneur/CEO who has disrupted his favorite industry not once, but twice. Author Chip Conley, founder and former CEO of one of the world’s largest boutique hotel companies, turned to psychologist Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs at a time when his company was in dire need. And years later, when the young founders of Airbnb asked him to help turn their start-up home sharing company into a world-class hospitality giant, Conley once again used the principles he’d developed in PEAK. In the decade since this book's first edition, Conley's PEAK strategy has been developed on six continents in organizations in virtually every industry. The author’s foundational premise is that great leaders become amateur psychologists by understanding the unique needs of three key relationships—with employees, customers, and investors—and this message has resonated with every kind of leader and company including some of the world’s best-known, from Apple to Facebook. Avid users of PEAK have found that the principles create greater loyalty and differentiation with their key stakeholders. This new second edition includes in-depth examples of real-world PEAK companies, including the author’s own at Airbnb, and exclusive PEAK leadership practices that will take you—and your company's performance—to new heights.Whether you're at a startup or a Fortune 500 company, at a for-profit, nonprofit, or governmental organization, this book can help you and your people reach potential you never realized you had.Understand how Maslow's hierarchy makes for winning business practicesLearn how PEAK drove some of today's top businesses to successHelp employees reach their full potential—and beyondTransform the customer experience and keep investors happyThe PEAK framework succeeds because it elevates the business from the inside out. These same principles apply in the boardroom, the breakroom, and your living room at home, and have proven to be the foundation of healthy, fulfilled lives. Even if you think you're doing great, you could always be doing better—and PEAK gives you a roadmap to the next level.
“Emotional Equations: Simple Steps for Creating Happiness + Success in Business + Life” (2013)
“An invaluable operating manual,” says Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO and author of Delivering Happiness. Using brilliantly simple logic that illuminates the universal truths in common emotional challenges, popular motivational speaker and bestselling author Chip Conley has written “a fresh, original guide to an authentic and fulfilling life.”*With a foreword by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos and author of Delivering Happiness When Chip Conley, dynamic author of the bestselling Peak, suffered a series of devastating personal and professional setbacks, he began using what he came to call “Emotional Equations” (such as Joy = Love - Fear) to help him focus on the variables in life that he could handle, rather than dwelling on the parts he couldn’t, such as the bad economy, death, and taxes. Using brilliantly simple logic that illuminates the universal truths in common emotional challenges, Emotional Equations offers a way to identify the elements in our lives that we can change, those we can’t, and how to better understand our emotions so they can help us . . . rather than hurt us. Equations like “Despair = Suffering - Meaning” and “Happiness = Wanting What You Have ÷ Having What You Want” have been reviewed for mathematical and psychological accuracy by experts. Now Conley tells his own comeback story and those of other resilient people and inspiring role models who have worked through emotional equations in their own lives. Emotional Equations arms you with practical strategies for turbulent times.
“Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow” (2007)
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.
“The Rebel Rules: Daring to be Yourself in Business” (2001)
When he was 26, Chip Conley broke the two cardinal rules of starting a business: he invested in an industry about which he knew nothing and he ignored the mantra "location, location, location." He bought a notorious "pay-by-the-hour" motel in a seedy San Francisco neighborhood.
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