One Trip To Israel Can Teach A Lot About “True Meaning Of Innovation”
Two years ago I had a chance to visit Tel Aviv first time ever… I would attend Fuel Choices and Smart Mobility Summit. It was a kind of unique experience to witness a different culture and environment not only for business but a nation mind set of living.
I was working for one of the leading automaker company and Israeli Consulat had invited us to join the summit. I was suprised to be invited by a consulat to an event in their country. It was an indicator that they were taking the organization seriously and trying to improve the efficiency of the event from the beginning for all parties.
They did not only invite but organized the meetings. They shared a website and startup list with company details and asked which ones would we be interested to meet. They organized the reviews and helped us all the access permits including visa.
I was so exicted to go to Israel since it was not in my “places to visit” list for leisure and the opportunity to see a different culture came out of the blue. To be honest I had not known that Israel was the hub of innovation and startup environment so strong until that time.
We packed ourselves and travelled to Tel Aviv. We were met by our dealer company in Israel. They showed us true Eastern hospitality during our stay in the country. Thanks to them I began to recognize the daily living environment and the culture which is very suitable to boost the entrepreneurship as one the best outcome.
After arrival to the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv the owner of the company welcomed us in his office and showed us around. They made a presentation of their family business in proud sincerely. After spending an hour and half we left the building for a launch and we had a chance to talk about the life in Israel. Haim and his son was managing the family business. While we were talking about the trucks, his hands took my attention. His fingers were covered with oil stain. I thought he repaired some machines or trucks in the plant. I was wrong… It was soil… Haim told us how passionate he was with farming in his olive garden and wineyard. He personally works in his land at his free time. They distill their own olive oil and wine. I was so impressed as a nature lover. He explained how Israel was deeply involved with agriculture and farming while we were driving in a small road surrended with olive trees and the green fields. I learned the first and the most important ingredient in the secret sauce -if any- of their success in the worldwide startup arena during this short trip in the nature.
Haim told me that there is a community life style called Kibbutz in Israel. Their size varies from a couple of tens to a few thousand people. What wikipedia says about how serious was the communal life:
“ The principle of equality was taken extremely seriously up until the 1970s. Kibbutzniks did not individually own tools, or even clothing. Gifts and income received from outside were turned over to the common treasury. If a member received a gift in services — like a visit to a relative or a trip abroad paid for by a parent — there could be arguments at members’ meetings about the propriety of accepting such a gift.[24] Up until recently, members ate meals together in the communal dining hall. This was seen as an important aspect of communal life.”
The roots of Kibbutz dated to early 1900s and empowered after WW2 when Jewish people from different countries came to this land. They were settled in the areas and lands were shared within the groups. Each groups made their own decisions and got action for agriculture to survive. Their income was based on farming and some industrial operations to get most benefit of their product they harvested.
This life style “Kibbutz” took my full interest since it must have been difficult to get different families together for the greater good. The families live together, their kids grown up together. They are like a very big family. It sounds like a tribal life from ancient times. Every family has their house and there are common social areas to come together. Money is collected in one hand and distributed in a way to spend for their needs like furniture , clothing etc.
They decide how to invest money for the following years and venturing is a natural way of living from the roots. Some kibbutz become very rich and founded several companies. To choose this life style is optional today. Bu the impact on Israeli culture is tremendious. To protect each other, to support each other for the success. Rather than competing, to combine the forces. To seek the opportunities together…
When the sources are limited, people come together for survival if their existence depends on each other. I feel that this life style may be dated and deeply rooted since the existence of Jewish people in the history. Exiles and fled from their home in the history so repetitive and they still alive thanks to their collaborative culture.
So if people mindset based on collaboration no suprise to support startups too. I witnessed this became true the next two days in the summit. We participated two different events and we met fifteen different startups, listen to their pitch decks in one and half day. This is the record in my entire business career. Every startup took thirty minutes to tell their business and try to pitch. They were mostly young engineers with great knowledge and experience. So they were not recently graduate novice engineers. Their solutions or business were built on their skillset and technical knowledge.
While listening and discussing their solutions to the problems more in detail I tried to understand the startup environment in Israel. Every pitch deck has similar background, no surprise. One of the slides in every pitch deck took my attention: “Advisory Board”. They were presenting their “Advisory Board” slide with proud. The board consists of executives and former presidents of well known companies. This is a proof of how their idea is well recognized and respected. It is an impression on audience. But this slide told me another story from other perspective. People occupying executive chairs give value to young talent to advice. They care their ideas and support to success. When we chat with members and colleagues between breaks, I learnt that military service is a reach source of creating network. Every Israeli citizen -regardless gender- is on military duty for a certain time. After they complete their service, they don’t cut the ties they developed. They create a social and business network and this is boosting startup environment. “Networking” is one of the most precious value for startups. They can be either customer, funder, co-founder or advisor.
As far as I understand they work in active positions based on their technical skillset in military too. This helps them to improve the technical knowledge. Defence technology is one of the most influential area to boost the technology world. The novel technologies are born in either defence or space industry and grown in civil use. When we look at autonomous vehicles, drones, radars, cyber security has strong correlation with defence technology.
The last observation of my Israel visit was modesty. Both people and the city — building, cars, stores- were very modest. You can’t recognize how rich Israel is or the founders or investors we met. Especially buildings were quite old like from 70s. I asked the reason to our Israeli colleague and he briefly explained that Jewish people don’t invest on real estate but put money on business or precious metals. This was another sad experiences from their history. They had to abonden their houses suddenly to fleed and they had to carry their belongings with them. It is obvious they couldn’t carry the houses. The mind set of traditional culture of making money is to invest on business… This is holly heaven for startup culture.
So everything I observed in Israel gives no surprise to success:
They learned to collaborate to survive
They learned to create technology to survive
They learned to create network to survive
They learned to invest on business to survive
Human history was not favor of them but business history is. They create and lead the history of business world since ancient times. They know it in their DNAs because they learnt painfully and repeatedly. Now they teach the world how to implement.
This business trip to Israel thought me a lot about true entrepreneurship. How important to support each other, give value to efforts, teach people from the experiences you have…
No doubt if we want to be successful we have to help each other in any way you name; investing, collaborating, emotional support, teaching. When people come closer and work together to survive, the life gives their trophy when the time comes up.
Israel gives every support to innovation culture because their long term survival depends on its success. Nation’s history create the culture in every aspect from civilization to business.
A few weeks after I came back from Tel Aviv I found a bottle of wine on my office desk. Guess who sent? The guy who made his hands dirty to make the life on mother earth’s soil.
Many thanks to people I met in my visit in Israel. They thought me a lot both in personal and business life, for their great hospitality and friendship.❤️❤️❤️
