In this week’s WIE Unbound presentation, executive editor Carter Phipps talks to California hotel mogul Chip Conley about how he transformed his fledgling hospitality company, Joie de Vivre, into America’s second largest independent boutique hotel business. What makes Conley’s success unique is that he did it not simply by focusing on the external operations of his company, but by creating a dynamic and fulfilling corporate culture based on the self-actualization of his employees—from the executives to the cleaning staff.

Conley is not your average CEO, and in this interview he shows it, sharing his insights into the subtler dynamics of creativity and relationships, and explaining why understanding these interior aspects of the human experience is vital to the successful leadership of any organization. He discusses the influence that the work of psychologist Abraham Maslow has had on his management ideas and describes how he’s used Maslow’s models of psychological and spiritual growth as important tools in driving the ongoing evolution of his company. Conley’s story is both instructive and inspiring, and his ideas about the role of culture in creating a successful company may well be a model for the future of business.

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