Employee, Customer, and Investor Pyramids from Peak

Continuing with yesterday’s post Self-Actualization as a Startup Outcome, I wanted to highlight a few more items from the book Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo From Maslow by Chip Conley. The author does a great job adapting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs into a simplified form for employees, customers, and investors. I believe that employees come first, as he states as well, especially since everything starts there. Yes, you need cash from customers to pay the bills but long-term success is driven by putting employees first.

Here are the three pyramids outlined by Chip Conley:

Employee Pyramid

•   – Meaning –
•  — Recognition —
• — Money —

Customer Pyramid

•   – Meets Unrecognized Needs –
•  — Meets Desires —
• — Meets Expectations —

Investor Pyramid

•   – Legacy –
•  — Relationship Alignment —
• — Transaction Alignment —

As you can see, what people normally think of for each category is really just the basic foundation to be in the game, and everything else builds on top of that.

What else? What are your thoughts on the employee, customer, and investor pyramids from Peak?