War Time / Peace Time in Corporations

Inflation, recession, COVID, war. Entrepreneurs are increasingly facing up to the challenges of the new world and organizing their companies accordingly.

Whether it's redundancies or restructuring. Products are being scrapped and efficiency is the new mantra of the tech world. Calls for the "war-time CEO" described by Ben Horowiz are getting louder and louder. So what is "war time"? How does it differ from what we might call "peace time"? How do these different modes affect employees and how can you be successful in them?

In this latest series of articles, I want to answer these questions. In this article, I use the term "war time" exclusively in the business sense. Hard times in a business are in no way comparable to real wars and the suffering they inflict on innocent victims and affected communities.From war to peacetimeWhen I joined the IT subsidiary of ERGO Versicherung in 2015, the company was doing well - or so it seemed from the outside. But when I really got into it, I realized that things were fast and hectic and that many KPIs were a matter of "life and death".

ITERGO wanted to overhaul its field sales system, which insurance agents use to submit contracts to their customers in the field. Looking back, the project was the craziest step I've ever been involved in. More than a dozen teams, different locations, millions and millions of management layers from all directions. I, for one, traveled to Hamburg and was able to work crazy hours without family commitments. It was crunch time at its best - and worst! - with more hours per week than I dare write down here, often until after midnight.Around the same time, Dr. Markus Rieß joined the management of ERGO Versicherung, who had just published his 5-year strategic plan on sales. This message was obviously at odds with the reality of working on the new system, which was to include almost the same features as the old one.At first I thought that the overhaul of Ergo's sales force system was a one-off event in the time of crisis. But it wasn't. Other projects were also under high pressure and we were aware that we had to hurry. Otherwise... Or else what?

In hindsight, most of the deadlines were artificial, they were set by the CEO for no external reason. Nevertheless, we never questioned them and we all danced to the tune of the managers.A state of war prevailed in large parts of Ergo for long periods of time. It wasn't a vague feeling, we had terms for it: teams often called a "war room" to advance important projects or declared a "code red" or "code yellow" for critical initiatives. Conflicts between teams were not uncommon as everyone was eager to move forward quickly and get their features onto the platform.At the head office in Düsseldorf, a large meeting room was even referred to as the "War Room". Unsurprisingly, this is where the most important people met to solve urgent problems.The transition to peacetime was clearly visible. At the end of 2016, ITERGO became Foundations and Digital and the hectic pace rapidly slowed down. As a first step, the CEO announced company-wide priorities at the beginning of 2017 and we carried out a more detailed planning cycle.

There was a new sense of stability in the air that I had not experienced before.Over the course of the following year, ITERGO moved into peacetime.Leadership made changes, such as adding "engagement" as the sixth competency in the technical career ladder, to recognize and encourage employees who go above and beyond to improve the Company as a workplace. The company invested heavily in diversity and inclusion: training, HR support for managers, hiring the first Chiefs and Diversity Officer and much more. In a highly symbolic move, one department head renamed the "War Room" to the "Peace Room", signaling that times had changed.And that was very clear. Behaviors that were rewarded at ITERGO in wartime were not necessarily helpful in advancing one's career at ITERGO in peacetime.