Peacetime in business means those times when a company has a large advantage vs. the competition in its core market, and its market is growing. In wartime, a company is fending off an imminent existential threat — from competition, macro change, market change, or supply chain disruption.

Horowitz's core definitions.

In peacetime, leaders must maximize and broaden the current opportunity, encouraging broad-based creativity across many objectives. In wartime, the company typically has a single bullet in the chamber and must, at all costs, hit the target — survival depends on strict adherence and alignment to the mission.

Most management books are written by consultants who study successful companies during peacetime, so they teach peacetime techniques. Other than Andy Grove's books, almost nothing teaches you how to manage in wartime like Steve Jobs or Andy Grove — which is why founders in crisis often can't find the playbook they need.

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

Peacetime CEO thinks of the competition as other ships in a big ocean that may never engage. Wartime CEO thinks the competition is sneaking into her house and trying to kidnap her children.

Peacetime CEO works to minimize conflict. Wartime CEO heightens the contradictions — refusing to indulge consensus-building or tolerate disagreements when the mission is at stake.

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple weeks from bankruptcy, he needed everyone to move with precision and follow his exact plan — no room for individual creativity outside the core mission. Google, dominant in search, did the opposite: requiring every employee to spend 20% of their time on their own projects. Both worked because they matched the situation.

Andy Grove once said to an employee who arrived late to a meeting full of people: 'All I have in this world is time, and you are wasting my time.' A textbook violation of peacetime management — and exactly right for wartime.