Pegasus Reporters Issues on the Wing
Israel is one of the smallest races in the world. Scattered around the world, their population cannot be more than 20million. They called themselves Jews while the over 5 billion people across the world are known as gentiles. They have witnessed efforts at annihilation but they survived, not once, not twice, definitely lots of times. Israel remains a country the world cannot joke about. They are a successful nation!
But why is Israel so successful? Is it because they have the Bible on their side? Is it because of the reparation they have received from countries across the world? Is it because of the huge and successful religions that have come out of the place and is generating billions of untold wealth to them? The answer to this entire question is a resounding big NO! Israel is only successful because of hard work, bonding, family cooperation, innovation and relentlessness on being a success.
Entrepreneurship is seen as the engine of economic growth for any nation. That is why developed countries actually go out to create programmes that will support the growth of small businesses. America prides itself as the home of small business startups that becomes giants. It is the philosophy of the American dream. Therefore, encouraging entrepreneurial behavior by means of entrepreneurial education is discussed in academic as well as in popular literature is something you will see in all American schools. But one country that has become noted as the home of startups and the most successful startup country in the world is, Israel.
Israel is a country that, since the 1990s, has been characterized by a high degree of entrepreneurship, especially in the high tech sector. Results show that in Israel, both at the macro and at the micro level, academic entrepreneurial studies follow entrepreneurial behavior. The trillion dollar answer is that: Israel – a country of 8 million people, with only 60 years old independence history, surrounded by enemy nations, in a constant state of war since its founding, has no natural resources— has produced the largest number of start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK. Today, Israel has, per person, attracted over twice as much venture capital investment as the US and thirty times more than Europe.
Currently there are 116 billionaires living in Israel, and their fortunes combined stand together at a whopping 168 billion USD. You have 10 Jews amongst the top 50 richest persons in the world. It is not because of what is said about them in the Bible. It is a painstaking everyday development and improvement that has come to characterize their success. Israel is now considered to be the home to one of the world’s largest startup hubs, right behind Silicon Valley in San Francisco. Many innovations and advancements are pouring out of Israel and benefiting the rest of the world. Israel also benefits from a large well-educated workforce that makes these innovations and breakthroughs possible. Top talents are screened, trained and pushed into startups to help them meet their growth targets. In fact, this workforce and Israel’s startup success has attracted some of the biggest and well-known companies of the world to acquire Israeli startups. The list of companies would include IBM, Oracle, AT&T, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and Amazon among many others. For example, Waze, the GPS app, was founded in Israel and purchased by Google for $1.3 billion in 2013, while Intel purchased Mobileye for $15.3 billion.
If you own a smartphone, involved in Internet marketing, in the hospital and healthcare industry, the pharmaceutical industry, among others, the chances are that the goods and services you are enjoying from these industries have Israeli technology back of them. It is a common question that many people may ask, what is the cause behind Israel’s success? It is also a question that is very complex with many parts to the answer.
KEY TO ISRAELI STARTUP SUCCESS:
A startup or start up is a company initiated by individual founders or entrepreneurs to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Founders design startups to effectively develop and validate a scalable business model. Hence, the concepts of startups and entrepreneurship are similar.
ISRAEL IS COMMITTED TO HEAVY RESEARCH
Israel is successful because of their commitment to research and development (R&D). In fact, Israel is spending more on R&D than the money they actually invest in the business. Many successful CEOs and business experts agree that investing more of the companies’ profits into R&D is essential for the business’ long-term future. In fact, this business model has been behind both Amazon and Alibaba’s massive successes in recent years. This researching is allowing Israeli startups to bring out new ideas and technologies that are innovating and improving the world.
Israel has become a global leader in research and development. Israel is also leading the way in the field of scientific publication. In the past decade, Israel is currently ranked third in the world. Israel is clearly a thriving hub of science, research and development, and business, and this is contributing to their startup’s success. Tech incubators and accelerators are also readily available in Israel which contributes to Israel having the perfect culture for the startup lifecycle.
ENSURING WEALTH CIRCULATION AMONGST EACH OTHER
It is amazing and very impressive that Israelis approach to life has been transferred to huge successes in business. In different countries where the Israeli community have found root, it is said that Israeli money circulates in that same community more than 100 times before it goes out to others. This invariably generates wealth among the same people with close affinity before others are able to generate from them. This is a unique concept. For that to happen, the Israelis will force themselves to develop the businesses that they need to serve them before they can go out to others. This is just one of the concepts I find very interesting about their way of life and worth emulating.
THE ART OF SUCCESSFUL FAMILY BUSINESS
Family owned businesses control Israeli economy. Family-owned companies, on average, outperform non-family companies, and those at the founder stage are the best performing among them. There are many competitive advantages and good qualities of first generation family companies that should be continued. At the same time, most founder-stage family companies unfortunately don’t succeed into the second generation. But a family can beat these odds, regenerate their success over generations, and flourish. Companies and families need to evolve to stay relevance and guard against vulnerabilities that can be crippling.
To propel a successful first generation company into the next generation, founders and their families need to develop and successfully blend the next generation into the governance, ownership, management, wealth-building, succession planning, and other important activities of the family. They must foster talent in the management and ownership groups, build good governance of the company, owners and family, and grow assets for future activities. This concept has thrived so well in Israeli ad amongst Israelis. This concept helps to bond the family together and ensure sacrifice on the part of every member of the family. And they do it so well.
THEY TURN LEMON TO LEMONADE.
The story of Israel’s founding is itself a lemons-to-lemonade story. After being exiled from their native land, the Jewish people endured over 2,000 years of persecution, all the while yearning to return. In the last century, this yearning spawned a powerful movement that led to the rebirth of the Jewish state in 1948. With a physically harsh land, difficult relations with the neighbors and political tensions within their own ranks, Israelis have learned to innovate.
They are very good at thinking outside the box, working under stressful conditions and dealing with life and death situations — all skills crucial in entrepreneurship. As entrepreneurs know, adversity breeds strength and resilience. In Israel, this kind of environment has provided fertile ground for a strong culture of entrepreneurship. In fact, they always prepare and expect the unexpected, and improvise and pivot at such rapid speed that it sometimes feels as if the lemonade was made without lemons.
DIRECTNESS AND TRANSPARENCY GO A LONG WAY.
The classic Israeli mentality is direct, blunt and to the point — sometimes to their discredit. But the upside is that Israelis tend to be very transparent in both their business dealings and their personal lives, embodying a refreshingly genuine “what you see is what you get” disposition.Being direct and up-front can serve you well in business. As long as you are tactful, being direct and transparent with your employees, suppliers, and customers will earn you their trust. And, when people trust you, they’ll feel secure doing business with you. Sometimes a very high level of directness can come across as aggressive or rude. So it is important to remember to calibrate directness with empathy. When you have no hidden agenda, however, your partners, customers, clients and employees can be rest assured that they will always know where you stand. And that is how loyal, long-term business relationships are forged.
COMMUNITY COOPERATION IS EVERYTHING.
In most countries where entrepreneurship thrives, such as the United States, the focus tends to be on the individual. But in Israel, the society’s communal values actually give entrepreneurs a tremendous advantage. Israel is a small and interconnected country where it is very easy to get access to pretty much anyone. The culture is very socially oriented. Among Israelis, you feel a prevailing sense of responsibility.
Generally speaking, Israelis are willing to help one another. This can be of great assistance to an entrepreneur. As independent as most of us entrepreneurs are, we can benefit greatly from plugging into a community whose members help and support one another. In addition, when you help others, that goodwill comes back around to help you in return. So, pay it forward and help as many people as you can, as often as you can: This is how Israelis conduct themselves. There is a cycle, where you will see extremely successful entrepreneurs helping the young generation of entrepreneurs, and once this group becomes successful, they will mentor the new generation. It is like an unofficial school. This is one lesson the Indians have copied very well especially when they move to unknown territories, they bond very well with each other until they virtually control strong segment of the business community.
NOTHING IS TOO DARING.
The nation of Israel has had to develop a sense of daring and boldness out of necessity. Over the years, it’s conduct have been very bold, and not always internationally popular moves to ensure its survival. The notion that nothing is impossible and that any goal can be achieved if you work hard enough and are daring enough is a cornerstone of the Israeli culture and mindset. As one of the nation’s founders, Theodor Herzl, used to say: “If you will it, it is no dream.”
Ziv Aviram, CEO of Mobileye, which was recently acquired by Intel for $15 billion, said in a recent talk that his company’s Israeli engineers are most motivated by problems that are next to impossible to solve, and having worked with engineers all over the world, he said, he feels that that is something unique. Having the courage to fearlessly pursue your dreams and believing that you can do anything you set your mind is vital for success in entrepreneurship. The most accomplished entrepreneurs are the ones who think big and boldly go after what they want.
ALWAYS LEND A HAND.
The national Israeli character is one that’s been described as tough and prickly on the outside, but soft and sweet on the inside. In fact, a native Israeli is known colloquially as a sabra, or cactus. While your average Israeli may come across as tough and not one to mince words, Israelis will rush to your aid if you ever have a problem. As many can attest, if you’re in Israel and your car breaks down or you find yourself in a dangerous situation, most of those you meet will step in, ask what’s wrong, and offer immediate assistance.
WHAT MAKES ISRAEL A HOTBED FOR STARTUPS?
Israel’s startup scene is booming. In fact, it’s only second to Silicon Valley when it comes to producing startup companies. In 2013 alone, Israel produced 1,000 new startups, according to a survey by TerraLab Ventures. For every startup that failed, two more sprung up in its place.Thanks to Israeli government programs spurring innovation and the depth of STEM talent in Israel, it’s not hard to see why Israel has become a startup hotbed. The country has built an ecosystem that continues to grow and create synergy and new opportunities for entrepreneurs. Here are just a few reasons why the startup scene is thriving and growing in Israel:
1. Necessity is the mother of invention — and startups. Not long ago Israel was mostly a land of desert and swamps. Today, other than the Dead Sea, the country is very much alive, fertile and blossoming. Forced to find solutions to survive, the country became a hotbed for research and development in irrigation and water technology.
Similarly, the fierce geopolitical conflicts in the volatile Middle East elicited advanced defense-related research and development efforts, which later became the basis for many non-defense innovations in the areas of healthcare, telecommunications, security, transportation, aviation and more.
The need to fight and to innovate for survival made Israelis tough and resolute as individuals, and cohesive and united as a group. Israelis strive to progress together no matter what life throws their way. It is no surprise, then, that tenacity and experience in being calm under pressure has led to startup founders who aren’t likely to throw in the towel the first time they hit a bump in the road. A setback is an opportunity in disguise to these entrepreneurs.
2. Shareholders, not employees. A former prime minister of Israel once joked that “in Israel, there are 3 million prime ministers.” (The country’s population at the time. Today, that number stands at 8 million.) In a small and young country that is fighting for survival and in which everyone serves and contributes, there is a strong sense of individual responsibility and accountability that compels people to voice their opinions, to take action, and, when needed, to challenge authority and the status quo. People don’t feel a mere sense of belonging to the country — they feel a deep and genuine sense of ownership over it. They see themselves as shareholders of the state, not its employees. Consequently, in the business world, Israelis are drawn to taking the “driver seat” and steering their company and team with conviction and resolve, even (and especially) amidst uncertainty, challenges and risks. Fear of failure is a very distant second to the fear of inaction and paralysis.
3. Bringing improvements to the world. In Judaism, there is a concept called “Tikkun Olam,”which bears upon all people the responsibility to heal, repair and transform the world and to bring about better welfare for society at large. Entrepreneurs in Israel aren’t just driven by monetary payouts. They are inspired by bringing great new ideas and technologies to the world. They are eager to address burning challenges and solve big problems that can help and serves others. Entrepreneurs in Israel look at big hurdles as reasons to roll up their sleeves and get working.
Israel is young and small in size and population. It has very little natural resources, and more than its share of perils. Yet, despite this, Israel has become a luminary tech city on a hill. In a world in which innovation plays an ever-increasing role, there is a potential lesson here for other countries and societies, as well. It is recommended to foster innovation around areas of necessity (everyone has these). Risk-taking and challenging of norms and status quos should be encouraged — societies that discourage risk and failure inhibit innovation. There are great benefits to exercising compulsory drafts or social service — it turns citizens from employees to shareholders, and elicits greater collaboration.
Culled from “How To Create A Billionaire Child” (By Adewale Williams, 2019)
