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In today’s episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten talk about how to be a good wartime CEO. In times of crisis, companies need strong leadership to make some tough decisions that will help them get through this crisis. However, there is a tendency for some CEOs to use the crisis as an excuse to behave badly towards employees and everyone around them. In today’s episode, Steli and Hiten talk about what the concept of a wartime CEO means, why there’s no such thing as a peacetime CEO, the right way to think about this concept and much more. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 About today’s topic. 00:40 Why this topic was chosen. 01:13 The concept of a wartime CEO. 02:55 Why there’s no such thing as a peacetime CEO. 03:57 How people think about wartime or peacetime in business. 05:07 How your business is always under attack. 05:23 The idea of wartime versus peacetime really means. 06:30 Why context really matters when deciding how to lead. 09:05 The right way to think about this concept. 10:09 How speed is the most important thing during wartime. 3 Key Points: There’s a very different mindset and leadership style as a CEO during wartime versus during peacetime.A lot of companies are under some level of threat at the moment.I don’t think there's such a thing as a peacetime CEO. [0:00:01] Steli Efti: Hey, everybody. This is Steli Efti. [0:00:03] Hiten Shah: And this is Hiten Shah. [0:00:04] Steli Efti: And today on the Startup Chat we're going to talk about being a good wartime CEO. What does it take? What does it look like? What is it? How could it be useful to know more about this? You use this framework potentially during these difficult times. So first maybe we'll break down for the listener the concept of peacetime CEO and wartime CEO. First time I heard about this was Ben Horowitz's book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things. I think he's the first one to use this metaphor. I'm not sure if he stole it from somebody else. I haven't read that book in many years, but something tells me maybe not a bad book to read right now. [0:00:44] Hiten Shah: Definitely not. [0:00:45] Steli Efti: For some people, it just describes very difficult times, very difficult decisions for a CEO. But the way I remember his breakdown on wartime and peacetime, and then I want to focus on the wartime metaphor is that he basically describes, hey, there's different phases a company can go through, and during the peacetime for a company, it means the company is not under any direct threat by a competitor, by industry, by markets, by whatever. And it is growing and it's prospering. And so, it's a time where you as a CEO, you have to manage that growth, that prosperity, you have to stimulate creativity. And it was describing how for a long time Google was in peacetime, right, not on the really aggressive attack of competition and all that. And there's a very different mindset and leadership style that's required during peacetime as a CEO versus wartime. And wartime is the exact opposite. Your company is under direct threat either by a competitor, by an innovation technology industry market economy, or like we are probably right now, the entire world is on fire, we're in a global pandemic and that might create a ton of economic attacks to the lifeblood of your business. So a lot of companies are under some level of a threat right now. Will we survive this time? How will we survive this time? And wartime CEOs have to be very different in the way they think and manage and they lead their troops during this time. So, I die to hear your thoughts on this, even on this peacetime, wartime framework. Do you like it, do you hate it? And then, let's maybe unpack a little bit about what it takes to be an effective CEO during these times that maybe is different from others. [0:02:33]