“Israel – a country of 7.1 million, only 60 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources – produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK.”
IIM Bangalore’s EPGP (Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management) provided me with a unique opportunity to learn and appreciate the complementary strengths of India and Israel in the world of business and technology, through a field trip that took place from November 27 to December 04, 2018 (some students extended the trip to December 08, though!). While India is playing technology catch-up in several industry segments that offer huge potential for both products and services, Israel is at the cutting edge of technology in several domains but has a small local market. Thus, there are several opportunities for collaboration between firms in the two countries.
The course, which spans across five months, is designed in a way that the class was divided into different groups, and each group had to find a collaboration opportunity between an Indian company and tech start-up based out of Israel. The groups were guided by professors such as Sourav Mukherji, Abhoy K Ojha and Srivardhini K Jha from IIMB, and Gadi Ariav and Jackie Goren from the Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University, which is the partner school for this course. There are two important parts to this programme which really amazed me. The first one is that there was a lot of emphasis on pre-preparation before going to Israel. We had drilled down our Indian anchor’s technology and business needs and then estabilished contacts with the companies based in Israel. Although the process was quite exhaustive, it also presented a chance to learn and enhance some skills, ranging from negotiations with international businesses to communication and dialogue in a global scenario. The result of this was that each group had at least one lead when we landed in Israel. The second was the mosaic of projects which each team was able to curate. There were projects in Cyber Security, Hi Tech – IOT, Agri Tech, Health Tech, Sports Tech and the relatively new but booming Food Tech. Each group was able to gain multiple perspectives with each other’s findings. We were also enthralled to see the wide spectrum of areas Israel is foraying into. Even though Switzerland would rank as the number one country in the world for start-ups but its strength lies mostly in the pharmaceuticals sector. Whereas Israel, which is not far behind in the rankings, has start-ups in almost every field.
Once we landed in Israel, we were greeted by Professor Gadi. The schedule of the programme ran across one week, which included lectures by the various faculty members of Coller School of Management along with presentations by various start-up companies which the groups had contacted. It gave us an overview of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Israel and how various factors such the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), lack of resources and small scale of the country contribute towards it. There was a guest lecture by Yossi Vardi, an Israeli entrepreneur and investor. Yossi Vardi is one of Israel’s first high-tech entrepreneurs, and he gave us an insight into the cultivation of the Israeli start-up system. We also visited the Indian Embassy in Israel and met Tshering Sherpa, DCM. He gave us some relevant information on the recent developments between India and Israel and how these countries can benefit each other, especially in the present scenario.
It was not only the classroom learning but also the field trips that helped us embrace the true culture and heritage of Israel. We visited the Israel Innovation Authority, Carmel Market, and Jaffa Port City in Tel Aviv and drove all the way to Masada National Park and floated in the Dead Sea. Fortunately, our Israeli partner company was based out of the holy city of Jerusalem. We also visited the Jerusalem Old City, and it was a blissful experience. Luckily for us, Jonathan, one of the co-founders of our Israeli company, accompanied us to the old city.
Finally, we presented our cases to a panel which consisted of some of the most experienced personalities in the Israel start-up ecosystem – Hilly Hirt (Director of India Funds- Israel Innovation Authority), Elad Itzkovitch (Head of Business Development A&G Partners) and Nohar Bresler (Director of BDO i2i India Facing Consultant). The panelists instructed us on the whitespaces in the technology sourcing process and advised us on the joint venture proposals. In all honesty, the criticism was ‘tachles’, which is arguably the most essential word in Hebrew which means purpose or goal. The programme wrapped up with a meeting with Eyal Muskal, CEO, TCS Israel. He shared his experience on cross-cultural ties and how TCS thrived in Israel.
With this, we finally bade farewell to this amazing country which has created an ecosystem which is very difficult to imitate. We believe that India as its partner can provide Israel with opportunities to scale up.
Before joining the EPGP at IIMB, Shubham Tripathi was working with Honda Cars India Ltd. in the Product Engineering department. He has worked in the Automotive Industry and gained diverse experience throughout the value chain right from Tier 1/Tier2 suppliers to OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers). He has spent the last seven years developing problem-solving skills.