#181 - Ronni Zehavi, CEO of Hibob - On the decisions that turn a crisis into an advantage

This podcast interview focuses on the big resilience lessons learned during the recent Pandemic. My guest is Ronni Zehavi, CEO and Co-founder of Hibob

Ronni has over 25 years of experience in multinational, hi-tech companies. Prior to setting up hibob, he was an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Silicon Valley-based Bessemer Venture Partners. He’s the strategic advisor and co-founder of Team8 Cyber Security, a powerhouse developing disruptive tech in the cybersecurity space. Ronni was also the co-founder and CEO of Cotendo, a content delivery network which in 2012, just four years after it was founded, was acquired by Akamai in a $300m.

Ronni has a BA in History and Educational Management from Tel Aviv University and a MA in Organisational Sociology from Bar-Ilan University.

This is the second time Ronni has featured on my podcast; the first episode was launched in December 2019. The reason why I invited him again is to hear about his story of what happened after that - and in particular - how they navigated the effects of the pandemic.

We explore what happened with HiBob the moment COVID kicked in in March 2020. How did Ronni and his Management Team shift their focus? What became the critical priorities (and why). And what decisions did they take to not only survive but to actually come out stronger as a business?

Here are some of his quotes:

The restart around COVID had a very good impact from an 18-month retro perspective. We were more focused. Really made a crystal clear vision, so we all understand what we do and why we do it, i.e. "all hands on deck, let's make sure that we cross this uncertainty together."

We slowed down expansion to the US because we were new there. And we doubled on the markets where we felt more comfortable: Europe, UK, Israel. We tried not to cut our budget in engineering. Because we knew, at some point it will be over, so we really want to take advantage and speed up some other projects that we thought are relevant.

During this interview, you will learn four things:

1. The critical things to refocus the business on when a crisis kicks in, especially if you don't know if its behavior will be U, V, or for example W-shaped
2. What to do differently to ensure you will come out stronger from a crisis
3. Why you should be on your marks not to BS yourself - and how to avoid that in a smart way.
4. Why a crisis is a great opportunity to grow the bond inside the business, the alignment, and everyone’s commitment

For more information about the guest from this week:

• Ronni Zehavi
• Website Hibob
• Link to our initial podcast interview