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Sounds like Ben Horowitz's peacetime CEO/wartime CEO, which even uses google as an example - https://a16z.com/2011/04/14/peacetime-ceo-wartime-ceo

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> Peacetime CEO spends time defining the culture. Wartime CEO lets the war define the culture.

Beautifully put.

I knew there was some reason why I'm so irresistibly drawn to books about warfare.

Patton in WW II was the quintessential wartime general. Even though it WAS a war, his style was too much for Eisenhower. Until the Battle of the Bulge.

You touched on something else I wanted to mention - that there is nothing wrong with a peacetime general as long as you're not at war. Your point about Patton is spot on, he needs a war or his style is too much.

I see this in startups. The people/leadership you need to go from 0->1 are often not the same people to go from 1->N.

To bring this back around to Google. People are talking about the CEO, but does Google have the rank and file ready to go to war?

having been out for 5 1/2 years, I can't say for sure. But even in 2017, there were a large number of "born on third base and think they hit a triple" people.

I consider Grant the ultimate when the rubber hits the road guy. In his interbellum years he was kind of an aimless loser but when the stakes could not be higher, he stepped up and lead the union to victory.

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