19. The Wartime COO

In this episode we discuss: "The Wartime COO”. Our special guest is Huw Slater, COO of Oliva Health, formerly COO of TravelPerk and Bella Riemer, Head of Operations at Joblift. We discuss the following with Huw and Bella:

• What is a Wartime COO? How does this impact how you operate the business?
• How do you surface existential threats to the organisation and inject a sense of focus, without scaring folks?
• What have been some of the worst storms you’ve weathered? Lessons learned?
• More broadly, what are risks the COO should always be vigilant about?
• What would you recommend tactically in a wartime setting?
• How do values pragmatically inform your decision-making process in wartime?
• Who was in your war room? Why?

References: The Hard Thing About Hard Things

Biography:

Huw Slater, COO and Co-founder @Oliva. With >10 years of experience in scaling tech companies in Europe, Huw Slater is the COO and co-Founder at Oliva. Prior to this, Huw was the Chief Operating Officer of TravelPerk, helped Box through their IPO by globalising their growth, scaled Typeform’s expansion from Europe to the US and drove the series B funding, and has 10 additional years’ experience as the Finance Director of a $5bn turnover division in a FTSE 10 company. A passionate leader, Huw is excited by making an impact and instilling a growth mindset in his people where transparency and clarity are key.

Bella Reimer, Operational Leader | Strategy Growth | Speaker & Mentor. With over 14 years of experience in various roles and industries. I am a passionate operational leader with a proven track record of driving efficiency, strategic growth, and cross-functional collaboration. I specialise in overseeing end-to-end processes, optimising operations, and aligning teams to achieve impactful results.

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