Peacetime and Wartime CEO Archetypes
Originally a thread on X/Twitter:
It’s time for CEOs to revisit the age old question:
“Are you a good wartime CEO?”
Not all CEOs are. A very short thread:
A decade ago, Ben Horowitz wrote a now famous blog post on the differences between a wartime and a peacetime CEO: https://future.com/peacetime-ceo-wartime-ceo/
As an ex-Operator who had to navigate some really tough times building Capital One in the 1990s and 2000s, I find myself giving Founders advice that mirrors what Ben shared.
I also find myself sharing a few additional “gems” that are in the same vein.
“An overloaded barrel does not fire faster or farther, it merely explodes in one’s face.”
For years I’ve warned Founders of how destructive capital can be without discipline.
CEOs procure and allocate capital and people and they better be disciplined allocators in this market.
“Attack your opponent, not their sword.”
If you intensely focus on solving your customers’ problems you’ll win.
If you waste energy doing silly things like suing or badmouthing your competitors then you’ll lose.
This matters more when capital isn’t flowing freely!
“Once you’ve proven you can make money you’ve earned the right not to.”
Adding fuel to a money making machine isn’t the same as adding fuel to a money burning machine.
If there isn’t “proof” that a model gets better as it gets bigger then it might be in trouble.
I also remind my CEOs that they could quickly move from “food” mode into “water” or “oxygen” mode.
CEOs need to accept this and deal with it as quickly as they can.
1/32: Building a #StartUp business has similarities to a spacecraft crashing down on an unknown planet. I talk to Founders about this all the time. Unpacked: pic.twitter.com/r8gqATEQDH
— fintechjunkie (@fintechjunkie) November 10, 2020
TL;DR: When the environment changes, it’s necessary for how CEOs operate to change.
Being a wartime CEO isn’t the same as being a peacetime CEO and internalizing this is critical to survival…..