Business Archives - Page 15 of 67 - Michael Horesh Business Coach and Mentor

31 October 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

Frequently, one of my first requests as a business mentor is to help my client ‘sort out’ one of their own customers. And the reality is that this is a customer that they do not need. Thus my issue becomes one of explaining why they need to let go of something that is supposedly the proverbial jewel in the crown.

In a classic case study a few years ago, I was asked by my client in Jerusalem to meet with his customer. The aim was to convince them to keep working with my client and to pay a higher price. And as the discussion progress, it was clearly evident that the customer had no loyalty to my client. For him, it was a cheap ride.

The core of the problem was that my client has made the classic mistake. He had been so determined to take on the customer that he had ignored some basic rules of running a business. And as he himself knew only too well, you cannot get away with that play too often.

However, there is the opposite scenario. What happens when your customer starts out as a ‘fat fish’, but implodes? Typically, this arises in a long-standing situation. Personnel on both sides may change. The deliverables alter, even if this has not been officially documented. Externalities, such as regulatory issues, creep in. Maybe the remuneration becomes fixed for too long.

In other words, the joy of that once special relationship has evaporated, and without both sides comprehending how or when. Such a situation is known as the ‘golden cage’ scenario. It looks like a great deal for one or the other side – maybe both – but actually you are trapped.

This is a story that many of my clients face. One area where it comes up is in support services for digital media. Payment is determined by a fixed number of monthly hours. However, these are rarely sufficient. The work is carried out and the revenue seems healthy. At the same time, my client wakes up to the fact that they have less resources for more lucrative contracts. Ouch!

It is at this point, where a business mentor steps in and forces the service provider to answer a painful question. Is the effort truly worthwhile? And the determining factor may not just be financial reward. Other elements, such as brand creation, interest, training of juniors, and more may come into play. Yet, whatever the issue, hard decisions do need to be made.

And sometimes you just have to let go, for the peace of mind of both sides.

(Dedicated to my mother, who passed away this week).

24 October 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

Yes, there are differences between a business mentor, business coach and a business consultant. And yesterday I was offered a wonderful opportunity to illustrate them.

I was asked to deliver a presentation near Tel Aviv to the 9th Annual gathering of the Israel Small and Medium Sized Business Association. It was a surprisingly wide variety of 700 people. For me, one of the highlights was the panel featuring Jamilia Hier, a Druze lady whose soaps are now sold in dozens of countries around the world.

Jamilia started from next-to-nothing, in a society that does not necessarily enhance the status of women. As she explained to a captivated audience, 95% of her staff are female. And she employs Druze, Christians, Jews and Muslims, and nobody checks to see who is who.

My own talk featured six key reasons why people should seriously think about engaging a business mentor, as a person who sees what is not said or is overlooked. This outlook is neatly surmised in the following two questions:

“What is the question that you do not wish a business mentor to ask you,……and why”?

Yes, a mentor is a person who sets out to challenge; to drive beyond the accepted boundaries. He looks for an entrepreneurial spirit.

In contrast a business coach, can be compared to a sporting analogy. He is looking to improve core skills. And the consultant has a more hands-on role, often becoming involved in the decision making process.

Preparing the presentation proved an interesting challenge. Most of my work is with those who were born in English speaking countries, usually in the Jerusalem region. This time, I was confronted by a more natural Israeli audience, where a Jerusalemnite was the rare exception.

So, I had to mentor myself by considering: –

What was going to be the wow factor?
What is the hook to the main point?
What would make them laugh?
How could I deliver something new?
What would be the closing punch line, and how to deliver it?

It was a fascinating process. In each instance, the differences were not huge, but subtle and important enough to force me to change my patter. And I had to practice, repeatedly, my delivery, exactly as I encourage my clients to do so.

If there is one tip I can leave you with, it is as follows. The talks that appeared to be more successful – and I hope that includes mine – included a personal element. The presenters hid the boring commercial message behind a story that contained human insight.

Guess what? In those cases, I believe that fewer people in the audience were “just checking their mobile phones…..yet again”.

17 October 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

The cliché logic runs as follows. “I am the CEO. Therefore, I am important. Therefore, I know everything. And thus I am busy all the time and have to be busy all the time.”

This phrase seems to be particularly true in Jerusalem, where I have many clients. And as their business mentor and coach, I constantly strive to fight the false links in their thinking and actions. However, this begs the questions: What is the optimum amount of time that a CEO should be pouring into his / her business and in what manner?

I want to use three anecdotes that I have picked up just recently that together make a very powerful generic point for us all.

First, let me recall an interview featuring both Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. Watch it here, as Buffet reveals a half-empty diary. And he makes the point that he can buy almost anything he wants. However, he cannot buy time!

Next and unusually for me, I find myself quoting the actor Ashton Kutcher. No longer just a star of sit-com, he has made several successful investments in the world of high-tech. This is his secret as to why he has time for most things:

When I wake up…I spend the first hour of my work not looking at email, and actually just writing out what it is that I want to accomplish in a given day. And then before I go through my emails, I’ll do all my outgoing, outbound stuff, which is what I want everyone else to do for me. And then I’ll go and get reactive to whatever’s going on.

Finally, I was totally struck by an article in the Harvard Business Review, which surmarised the research of 1,000 successful CEOs from six different countries.

On average, about one-quarter of CEOs’ days are spent alone, including sending emails. Another 10% is spent on personal matters, and 8% is spent traveling. The remainder (56%) is spent with at least one other person, which mostly involves meetings, most of which are planned ahead of time. About one-third of the time CEOs spend with others is one-on-one; two-thirds is with more than one other person. (This data includes a CEO’s entire workday, not just time in the office.)

For me, the takeaway message is that just because you are a CEO does not mean you have to be 120% busy, 130% of the time. Thinking and strategizing are just as paramount. These create leadership and management skills that are to be valued, even more than an ability to be a road runner.

13 October 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

So, me, business mentor and coach in the Jerusalem area, had to enter some quick, hard core, negotiations the other day. I could see it coming up. I had prepared my tactics in advance.

When it comes to negotiating, many people just cringe back with the very thought. It touches on all their vulnerable emotions. I used to be in that category. Nowadays, I play the game very differently.

The background was ostensibly straight forward. My wife and I needed the help of a third party in order to carry out some necessary work on the household. The unofficial guidelines used to say that the fee was – let us call it – 10%. We had done our homework, and we knew that the market allowed for as low as 2.5%.

After the general chit-chat, the moment of truth drew upon both sides, ourselves, junior salesperson (JS) and senior salesperson (SS). Nothing was going to happen, until we had signed a paper saying 10%, or otherwise.

My wife opened the bidding. Softly and encouraging, she argued that the market rates demanded a figure lower than 10%. She was politely rebuffed by SJ. She pleaded again, and again firmly but politely she was told that a lower fee would not be possible.

My wife than upped the emotional talk. She announced that she was prepared to sign, but felt she was being made a fool of. To that, SS jumped in. He assured us that we had the backing of his whole team and this was of considerable value to the project. To be blunt, this is an extended version of the gambit called “blame the higher authority”. In other words, I do not make up the rules, and therefore YOU have to agree to them.

It was only at that stage, once both of our opponents had played their best cards, did I step in. I initially played to their ego, saying that I was sure they had heard all the excuses in the past, to which they agreed. I let them know that I am a business consultant, and I can argue their side just as eloquently as they can. I also reminded them that they too are familiar with market conditions.

Bottom line, as I said to them, stop fobbing us off with irrelevant comments, that superficially appear so compelling.

In effect, we were hoping to save ourselves a lot of money by applying three rules:

Formulating an effective tactic in advance.
Letting them assume they are winning
Not blinking when you do not have to.

In the end, both parties compromised in the middle. In other words, we won.

6 October 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

Historically, this is the quiet season for Israel’s economy, as the country is in the midst of a three-week season of festivals, eating and time off work. Trying to fix a meeting during this period is near impossible. And yet, the spread of positive economic news from the Holy Land continues to be wide and encouraging.

What follows are five tasters, representing the various key strengths of the Israeli economy.

At a macro level, cash flow is far better than planned.

The tax collection surplus (in September 2017) pushed the budget deficit for the past 12 months down to just 1.9% of GDP. Expenditure by the government’s civilian ministries has risen by 8.6% since the start of the year, compared with a planned rise of 8.9% and defense expenditure rose by 6.4%.

Much of the additional revenue has come about as a result of taxation of large profits or high-tech exits.

And whilst regular readers will know of my criticisms of the Israeli government for failing to tackle structural issues, on one subject I must applaud.

There are currently around 270,000 skilled people employed in the high-tech sector, say around 8.3% of salaried employees in a country of just over 8 million people. The Innovation Authority has just published a working paper to double that number within a decade. This will help to service amongst others the 307 r&d centres of overseas conglomerates, and thus encourage others to join them.

Moving on, Forescout intends to raise US$100 million on NASDAQ, presenting a company valuation of around US$1.5 billion. This is yet another example of Israel’s strength in the financial and cyber security commercial space. It is interesting to note that J.P. Morgan are to underwrite the offering, considering that the bank’s chairman recently visited the country, openly seeking new opportunities.

On a totally different level, I noticed that Global Village, the new VC fund of Zuckerberg, Bezos, Magic Johnson, et al, will also look to pick out Israeli start ups. The aim of the fund is to provide a link between key entrepreneurs across the globe. Israel will now be an official part of that eco-system.

And finally, my reading drew me to the attention of MySize, traded on both NASDAQ and the Tel Aviv stock exchanges. The company was originally founded by Dr. Erez Morag. When he was at Nike, he worked with some of the world’s leading sportspersons, including Roger Federer (tennis) and the Brazilian footballer, Ronaldo, ensuring that the equipment was fine-tuned to the last gram, literally. Morag’s company offers the consumer an opportunity to measure themselves or other elements to ensure that shopping is a much more accurate and thus more successful task.

Individually, these anecdotal highlights are fascinating at best. As a collective, they present the true vibrancy of the economy in Israel. Those who miss it or boycott it or turn their back on it, do so at their peril.

29 September 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

I spot it in people’s eyes at their first meeting with me as their business coach and mentor. The look says: Give me that quite fix, right now, so all my problems will just vanish.

I came to think about this, when I was reading about repentance. Tomorrow, Jews all over the world celebrate Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. For 25 hours, you fast, pray, and maybe sleep a lot.

In Hebrew, the correct term is ‘teshuva’, which can be translated as return. It is a mechanism to return to a manner of moral purity, where T = 0 (if you want). And as Rabbi Ari Kahn points out, citing a religious text, this is performed by using our inner power to rediscover the meaning of the Torah, the Jewish law.

In a talk that I am preparing for a conference in Israel, I will be discussing how I can spot something incredibly obvious in a client’s organisation, although they are blind to the issue. I may not understand their processes or technology, but I can see a fault glaring out at everyone. Why me? Because that is my skill set. However, the question is why can they not see what is happening?

The answer lies in applying (or not) that inner strength’ which I referred to previously. In our daily lives, we are so busy running around the immediate that we do not allow ourselves time to take on those tough subjects, which are often critical. We do not challenge ourselves to manage in depth what needs to done, especially when an “über-type” fix is not apparently available to us. Here are two examples:

I was recently asked to analyse some financial reports for a young company. A couple of hours later, I had a very good understanding of a problem that the client had been grudgingly prepared to admit existed, but had done precious to rectify for a long time. They had put off the matter, until it really began to stop them from making core decisions.

From a different perspective, I met up this morning with a fellow and younger runner. He is concerned about how the sport negatively impacts on his body, but had not done very much about it. I explained what steps I had taken about similar health issues. He really wanted a fix, but again had not looked too far.

I explained how I have been training and how I have bought specific equipment. The result is that I have run just what he wants to run, for all the difference in years.

Finding an “inner strength” to take on difficult, maybe scary, tasks is not easy. Some set aside time and concentrate. For me, it is often a process that takes place over time. However, all of us have that ability to change ourselves and to change our lives, and thus to change our businesses.

About a year ago, I saw a posting on Facebook about a father who ran a long race, while pushing his 10 year old handicapped son in a pram. Just before the finish line, the child forced his parent to stop. The young kid struggled out of his pram and walked or hobbled or stumbled the last 50 meters by himself. Heart breaking, but somehow he dug the will out of himself to do so,

And so can we.

20 September 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

The Jewish calendar ends up placing its new year around about the second or third week of September. In Israel, a country of 8.7 million people of whom 75% are Jewish, this is always a time for reflection on changes in its economy.

According to the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics in Jerusalem:

The average income per household stands at 18,671 nis ($5,300) a month before taxes, one of the leaders in the region.
Most Israelis own their homes, with 67.6% living in an apartment they own and 39.9% paying mortgage.
88% of Israelis said they were very satisfied or satisfied with their lives. Some 1.1 million (21%) feel stressed always or often. 34% said they have a hard time covering their monthly expenses.

Moving from the individual to the national level, there seems to have been a downturn in the growth figures in the second quarter of 2017. However, given the low rate of unemployment (under 5%) and the encouraging performance of exports. growth for 2017 should still come in at around a healthy 3%.

So where are the weaknesses?

First of all, much of the growth is led by a continued sharp expansion in personal consumption. There was a 6.5% in the last quarter alone. In laymen’s terms this means that the economy is being powered by the consumer and not by the creation of new wealth (through production).

Next, vested interests still dominate key sectors of the economy. I have written in the past about how the powerful unions at the docks ensure that the costs of imports are forced upwards. This week an exposure on the cost of kosher authorisation determined that this was a 2.4 billion nis annual ‘market’ (US$0.7 billion). This includes the supervision of slaughter houses, restaurants, imports and much more.

The key players here are the various rabbinical houses in the public sector or those affiliated with political parties. There is a strong whiff of ‘jobs for the boys’. A relatively new orthodox organisation called Tsohar is trying to challenge these closed practices. If it were to succeed, this could allow food prices to drop by anything up to 10%.

And finally there are the 120 members of the Kenesset, the Israeli Parliament. If you are not a minister, you are allocated a budget of 94,000 nis annually to do what you want, so long as it helps connect you with potential voters. However, there is no law that says you have to detail where that money goes. And if you are one of the few, like Miki Zohar, who overspent, there are no emphatic sanctions.

Thus, individual parliamentarians spend tens of thousands of shekels on Facebook advertising, sms announcements, surveys, entertainment and much more. A near carte blanche, where there is little transparency. It is like clerks in a company having ready access to the petty cash box.

And as we all know, except for those who do not want to admit it, when the petty cash box becomes open territory, the rest of the establishment becomes the victim in all kinds of other ways. A pathetic slippery slope. Sad for the other 8.7 million people.

Bidding all my readers a SHANA TOVA and a happy new year.

18 September 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

A SPECIAL guest in Israel last week was Roderick Lord Balfour, who is the fifth Earl of Balfour. He was here for the From Balfour to Brexit conference, which was held at Mishkenot Sha’ananim in Jerusalem (in honour of the late Sir Naim Dangoor.)

At a dinner on the first night of the conference, Balfour, who has a delicious sense of humor, said that he’d been overwhelmed by the number of selfies for which he had been asked to pose, and then told of his first visit to Israel in the mid-1990s. A friend was driving him around, and he told his friend that he had an appointment and gave him the address. The friend did not immediately put two and two together, and when the car drew up outside the President’s Residence, the friend asked him if he was sure he had the right address. Balfour replied that indeed he did and that he was having afternoon tea with the president, who happened to be Ezer Weizman, the nephew of Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, who had influenced Balfour’s ancestor Arthur James Balfour.

The younger scions of the Balfour and Weizman dynasties were having a great time talking on many subjects, when their conversation was interrupted by a phone call. The president excused himself, saying: “I would like to talk to you all afternoon, but there’s this new Prime Minister Netanyahu, who’s not behaving very well, and I’ve to call to tell him he must do something, because he’s not running the country well.” The revelation was met with howls of laughter.

(As reported by Greer Fay Cashman in the Jerusalem Post: https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Grapevine-A-diplomat-with-a-kick-505250

15 September 2017

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Categories: Business, Israel, Jerusalem

The past month has seen some exciting progress in Jerusalem’s business climate. What is really encouraging is that many of the initiatives are coming from the ground up.

Jerusalem has been the united capital of Israel since 1967. Yet for decades, it had just two key sectors for employment – the civil service and tourism – and little else. Around the turn of the century, along came a few sparse giants such as Intel and Teva, providing a much needed base for employment. And in recent years, start-up successes like Mobileye and dozens in the bio sector have also made an impact.

What has been lacking has been the opportunity for the independent entrepreneur to make their mark in the holy city, which is also the capital of Israel.

As I have written before, the Jerusalem Business Networking Forum (JBNF) has been trying to challenge that status quo for about a decade. Last night, I moderated their annual speed-dating session, attended by around 50 people. For over two hours, there was deafening noise as entrepreneurs and innovators from a vast score of backgrounds swopped business cards and elevator pitches at a frightening pace.

MATI, a Hebrew title for the “Jerusalem Business Development Centre”, has just released a fascinating set of statistics. In the past twelve months:

It has helped and supported around 3,800 entrepreneurs and businesses.
It has conducted 120 seminars and courses
It has written over 300 business plans
It has helped business owners raise over 60 million shekels, approaching US$20 million, which does include grants of a further 1.5 million shekels.

As one of MATI’s business mentors and coaches, I can confirm just how invigorating this pattern of commercial rejuvenation really is.

More specifically, I was delighted to learn that a former client of mine, Yuval Wirzberger, is one of the main figures behind 200Apps. This now boasts over 30 employees – religious, secular, Arab, and a cross over of many other cultural divides. Equally impressive was their launch this week to promote a new studio and incubator.

Now I come to think of it, it would be interesting to learn just how much of the new iPhoneX is also dependent on Jerusalem brain power!

12 September 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Jerusalem

Innovation is one of the commercial buzz words of the moment. It is usually found in the high-tech scene. It is often associated with the X, Y , Z generations. The question is should us other mere mortals, perched outside these categories, need to bother?

In the UK, the piercing role of innovation in SME growth was detailed in the Unlocking UK Productivity report, co-produced by Goldman Sachs, the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC) and the British Business Bank (BBB).

Across all sectors, it found that innovation boosted productivity and facilitated substantial growth in sales. Survival rates were also higher in SMEs that innovate, for the simple reason that they are better able to adapt to challenging market conditions.

This message was brought home to me earlier today, when I met up with a client in central Jerusalem. Now this was early days as their business mentor. However, they were eager to stress: –

They constantly seek to learn about new techniques available in their profession.
They look to boost sales via this acquired knowledge.
Further, the knowledge appears to empower the business owner, who is totally committed to what they do. they love their job, and try to motivate others around them.

Interestingly, without having ready numbers available, it would appear that their sales have just about held their own, at a time when local competitors are struggling.

A few hours later, I received an email from another client of mine, Sonya Davidson, who is developing her start up company in the field of alternative energy. Summarising her trip to France, where she met up with potential investors, Sonya effectively spelt out how her technique to be innovative is beginning to pay off. What she stressed was that entrepreneurship does not just refer to new technology. It applies to all aspects of a business – client management, financial planning, logistics et al – and for all types of commerce.

Remember the lesson of the great manager of Manchester United Football Club. Even when he had a team conquering the best opponents in Europe, he was looking to recreate it around a small successful core of key players. Why? He was always aware that his opponents would catch him up quicker than could be anticipated.

There is an obvious lesson in this posting. Be you a shop, service provider, high-techy or otherwise, whatever your size, you cannot afford to rest on your laurels for too long, in any aspect of your business.

8 September 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

Israel, the start-up nation, where growth is powered by continuing investment from overseas. Israel has created a culture of innovation in the past generation, and much of this comes through necessity. Military issues have forced the land of the Jews consistently to be one step ahead of its neighbours.

The Talpiot Unit is a classic example of this leading edge. Teenage geeks are picked out in their last years of school. They are then drafted into this special intelligence unit where they spend a minimum of three years developing solutions that….well, who knows what they get up to?

And from Talpiot, many find their way into the core of Israel’s high-tech sector or even become entrepreneurs themselves. A typical example of this is Via, which was set up in 2012 by Oren Shuval and Daniel Ramot, yes ex Talpiot servicemen. Via is a direct threat to the Ubers of this world. AS their website encourages you: –

Book a ride and in under a second our algorithms match you with a vehicle going your way. Via makes sharing with other members seamless and is nearly as fast as a taxi.

Via employs over 200 workers, primarily in Israel and in the USA. It has raised serious capital in the past and from some notable names. These include Hearst Ventures and the Russian mogul Roman Abramovich’s Ervington Investments. The latter is the owner of Chelsea Football Club.

Via has just secured an additional US$250 million in funding. The leading investor is Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz Vans unit. Evidently this has major strategic implications.

However, it is important to stress that this is definitely not the only deal in recent times, where large car manufacturers have looked for innovative salvation from the Israeli market. In May 2016, VW bought into Gett Taxi, which was followed a few months later by a move for CyMotive Technologies. This summer, Toyota invested in Autotalks. Ford, Skoda and others also have their stories to tell about Israel.

Following the Arab boycott since 1948 and encouraged by the oil price wars starting in 1973, Israel became the pariah of the car industry. Today the opposite is true. It would be interesting to learn how much these companies lost out by caving into malicious political pressures, never mind what this forced consumers to forgo.

3 September 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

My second week in the UK has been based in Glasgow, thousands of miles away from the bustle of Jerusalem and many of my clients. On reflection, the holiday has reminded of a valuable lesson in business.

While my wife has been biking around the wonders of Glentress, I have had the thrill of visiting some amazing places. I took a guided tour of Stirling Castle with its fascinating history and stunning views. I booked a hired tour to Loch Lomond. I could have sat there for hours, contemplating, taking in the amazing scenery. And if you check my Facebook postings, you will find out just how many distilleries I visited.

And it struck me that there was a common feature running through all the site visits. The staff I met were without exception incredibly friendly and helpful, with a smile. This applies right down to the student parking attendant at the castle, even if he was clearly bored out of his mind with his summer job.

Another feature was that many of the people I encountered had been in their jobs for several years. They loved working where they are. To prove my point, the guide at Edradour Distillery, shall we say a touch mature in age, admitted that he had only been there for 12 months. However, he was full of anecdotes and extra information, as if he had been employed since birth.

And there was Saturday in Glasgow itself. In the bustling Buchanan Street, I visited the stand of the Glasgow Friends of Israel, engaging with passers-by and gently informing dozens of Israel’s pluralistic society. In contrast, 200 metres away, a Palestinian solidarity group was pouring out hatred in a contrary direction. Whenever I passed by, it was noticeable that they drew less people to their table.

Later that evening, we visited the famous pub, The Pot Still. The lady who served us knew her whiskies and could offer professional advice on each one. After we left, we popped in on The Central Hotel, where the desk manager took five minutes out of his valuable time to give us brief yet brilliant history lesson of the place – Sinatra, Marilyn M, Harry Lauder, Gene Kelly et al.

As a business coach and mentor, I am often asked by corporate decision makers how they should react to issues involving staff and personnel. I always try to stress the difference between managing situations as opposed to motivating individuals. And this encouragement can come in many forms – not just financial; a smile, a carefully chosen word of empathy, the addition of a more interesting task, or just simply listening to their advice.

Evidently, all but one of the above cited examples feature people thrilled by what they are doing and imparting that to others with a smile. You want to go back. I assume that they are well supported or cared for by seniors with invisible faces to you and to me. In the case of the exception, I recall few instances where bile is able to promote long-term success and achievement.

Loch Lomond, Arran, Edradour, et al has turned out to be an incredibly motivating adventure for me. Maybe this wee picture can enlighten you as to what I mean and thus encourage others to learn this valuable lesson.

1 September 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

Walk down the street in Israel and it would appear that everyone is eating or playing with their mobile phone, or both. Israel is the champ for a quick dunk of pita in humous. However, now it appears that there is a rival on the scene. Believe it or not, I am talking about seaweed.

Health blogs, natural food shops, fitness freaks – around the world they are all looking for the next wonder food. Goji beans, almond nuts, coconut oil, and broccoli are just some of the items frequently mentioned. Seaweed has often been considered, but few have succeeded in commercialising the slimy substance. Few that is until Ofer Sela took up the challenge.

Ofer’s company, Seakura SST, is located near Michmoret, about half way along the coast between Tel Aviv and Haifa. They cultivate the seaweed inland in a sterile environment. The result in their words is “not only is super seaweed bursting with nutrients that are essential for growth, it’s also a simple way to sneak some extra vitamins and minerals into favourite foods”.

The food is suitable for just about all of us: young and old, vegans, athletes. This looks to be the start of something big. The global sales market is currently estimated at close to US$10 billion, rising by about 10% annually.

Seakura is already available in several European countries. It has just locked a deal with Whole Foods in the UK. Assuming that this trial is successful, the retailer will find space for the product in their 432 outlets in America.

22 August 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Blog, Business, Jerusalem

Looe is a quaint small town, located on England’s southern Cornish coastline. Yes, it is pronounced the way you might fear to call it. And yes, while it might seem just a quiet, idyllic spot for tourists, there is a lot of commerce going on in the former smugglers’ coves.

My wife and I are camped down in the village, putting about 2,500 miles between me and my business mentoring clients in Jerusalem and its surrounds. And yet, I just cannot escape the subject of coaching.

For example, we set ourselves up in an airbnb and turned on the TV. Struggling with lousy reception, we hit upon the programme “Dragons’ Den”. Here, budding entrepreneurs pitch their start ups to investors. The anti-hero of this story has a very clever idea for monetizing public sports’ facilities.

However, when questioned about the distribution of profits to date, it became very evident that he was hiding something. It turned out that he had incurred a fine to the tax authorities, which he was seemingly reluctant to disclose.

And that was silly, to say the least. In reality, those investors were his market. And he had deceived them, when all he was required to was tell the truth openly. He had broken that relationship of trust with his market. They rejected him flat, despite his clear talents to build up a new business from scratch.

As I was checking in the newspaper for what to watch next, I hit upon an article about James Timpson. He has 1,925 sites in the UK. He reheels shoes, duplicates keys, prints pictures, and he makes a huge fortune in a depressed market.

What’s his skill? It would seem that he knows where his market is located. First, as he observes, these are not exactly services that will lose out to the internet. As for site placement, favourite choices are next to McDonalds. Failing that, they try to be as close to public toilets as possible. For good measure, the journalist accompanied Timpson to one of his most successful franchises…..a prefab structure in a car park of a large supermarket!

I also glanced at an article about Generation Z. These are people who are so determined to have everything, and immediately, that they actively look for apps that provide delivery services even at 3am in the morning.

This reminded me of a true story a couple of years back, when I was offering some pro bono advice to a friend of my son, both of whom had just finished three years military service in Israel. The friend wanted to set up a sandwich delivery service, at night, in Tel Aviv. I could not understand the concept. Surely, there were not enough people awake at those hours to justify any initial injection of resources?

The 21 year old entrepreneur was quick to explain himself. In my naiveté, I did not know that after taking certain drugs, people need to eat, immediately. In other words, his business model was based on the growing abuse of young Israelis of their own bodies.

Sad, but clever thinking. It will be interesting to see if he goes on to emulate J Timpson. Meanwhile, Sitting in Looe has been very educational for me.

18 August 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

The cities of Charlottesville and Barcelona are both steeped in history. They are also connected because this week outsiders ensured that innocent bystanders suffered horrific acts of violence. However, the links between the two go beyond these facts, drawing in Brussels and Jerusalem along the way.

Throughout much of August Thursday 17th, much of the free world was occupied in condemning President Trump for his seeming refusal to condemn outright the march of Nazi thugs in Charlottesville. Trump was understood to be appeasing the right-wing demonstrators, who had terrorised locals, shouting out racist and anti-Semitic expletives as they walked along undisturbed by the authorities.

The attack in Barcelona targeted tourists. And yet in a city full of visitors from overseas, few members of the foreign press have commented on the fact that the ISIS-linked terrorist chose to commit his act of multiple murder close by to a Jewish kosher restaurant, Maccabi. (For the record, the manager of the establishment is a Turkish Muslim, whose immediate actions may well have saved the lives of many more.)

Is the Jewish connection a coincidence? Recall for a moment the awful incident in Brussels airport in March 2016. Of all the spots in the area to pick, the attack took place right close to the El Al check in counter.

Trump’s actions this week were interpreted as partially justifying the bigotry. They began to remind me how for years since the 1990s, Western leaders have partially excused Palestinian terror on Israeli citizens. In this case, the ‘get out of jail package’ seems to stem from an understanding that in some way Israel has been acting illegally / prohibiting peace.

What these pacifiers forgot and still forget is that terror is terror is terror. Terror breeds off funding, sensational and inaccurate reporting, and politicians who do not apply the rule of zero tolerance.

Trump’s response opened the door for poor coverage. He did not state that the Ku Klux Klan and its associates are an abomination. He did not condone as he should have done, unequivocally. As for the Barcelona tragedy, the press have failed to connect the dots. The act was perpetrated by a person indoctrinated in hatred., where he was bale to target Jews, Israel, Christianity and the West in one.

For over a decade now, the authorities in Jerusalem have hosted numerous delegations of politicians as well as senior police teams and emergency services from the West, who have come to learn how cope with terror. There are two themes to the visits – how a democratic society should defend itself and how can authorities react speedily to any incident.

For all the repulsive hatred of ISIS inspired attacks, they can neither hide nor eliminate the fact that there is a reason why over 300 conglomerates have R&D centres in the Holy Land. There is a reason why Israel is the one country in the Middle East, where the number of Christians is rising or where the new senior doctor in the army is a Druze. And there is a reason why Israeli incubators increasingly provide room for Muslim centric start ups.

The acts of hatred in Charlottesville and Barcelona are a rejection of societies based on pluralism and mutual understanding. These are the key components of countries with strong economies and where opportunity is offered to almost all. Trump and Europe’s leadership are advised to recall how Israel has shown what can be gained by denying such forces of evil their supplies of ‘air and water’.

13 August 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

In a week which saw considerable political instability in Jerusalem and Israel’s largest company, Teva, lose 20% of its share value, the international commercial community still saw fit to back the country’s high-tech sector, and in no uncertain terms.

Neuroderm was founded in 2003 and is located in the heart of Israel’s biotech industry in Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv. It develops treatments for Parkinson’s Disease. And it caught the eye of investors , when it announced a cash take over by Japan’s Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp for nearly US$1.1 billion.

What is amazing is that much of the previous investment also came from external investors. That is to say, according to Neuroderm’s CEO, Dr. Oded Lieberman, with a few minor exceptions, local VCs ignored his approaches for years. As they say, look who is smiling now.

Also licking their lips are the founders of Plarium, a social gaming platform. The company, founded in 2009 and today employing 1,200 people, has been purchased by Aristocrat for US$500 million. They are based in Australia and the largest manufacturer of gambling machines. Significantly, the deal could be worth an extra US$200 ,illion dpeneding on future sales’ growth.

These are no isolated exits. Two weeks ago, six Israeli start-ups, including SimilarWeb, Iguazio and PermimeterX, announced on the same day that they had raised a combined US$142. “EMK Capital LLP announced that it has agreed to acquire a majority shareholding in Luminati, the enterprise proxy network division of Hola Networks, at an enterprise value of $200m.” And in a separate move, “US shared workspace company WeWork has acquired Israeli B2B sales and market intelligence developer Unomy.”

You have to wonder. If Israel was managed better – better politicians and better strategists in some of her larger companies – just how much more well off would the country be? In other words, how much is the country missing out because of ineffective leadership at the top?

4 August 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

Conversations with several of my clients in July centred around the observations that they are not making enough sales. As their inspiring business coach and mentor what could I suggest.

I could point them to a recent blog on the Harvard Business Review: “7 reasons salespeople do not close the deal“. Very interesting, but not specific enough. A better lead is the infographic: “16 tactics buyers use in sales negotiations”. However, I must take my hat off to Deepak Malhotra, Harvard professor and author of ‘Negotiation Genius’.

In his talk Malhotra explains over twenty techniques to secure a victory in a negotiation bid. Key point, which the other prior links allude to: Be credible. Show that people can afford to believe in you.

A shining example of this occurred a couple of days ago with a client of mine in Jerusalem. Call her Andrea. Andrea received a nasty email from a customer, who claimed they had the backing of several others. Bottom line – why had Andrea treated them so badly, and in effect taken their money and run.

I encouraged Andrea and her team to call each individual, professionally explaining in detail the circumstances. Without criticising anybody, they showed how each customer was benefiting from the changes initiated. Without exception, all have since maintained their commercial relationship with Andrea. She had strengthened the trust between all the parties concerned.

The element of trust is also at the core of the matter when big brands get things wrong. For example, do you remember the crisis with British Airways a few months back? After a computer failure and PR catastrophe, would you rush to book with them again?

Globally, fewer governments are prepared to take America at its word on many an issue, as the Trump administration shows a continued capability to change its opinion at will. At the other end of the spectrum, many countries in central Africa had felt compelled continually to oppose Israel in international forums. This mistake is being rectified as the government in Jerusalem has repeatedly the importance of sharing its technology with those less well off.

Note that what can take years of brand creation, many a posting of blogs, a huge investment of resources and more can all be destroyed with one innocent mistake.

I summarise with a beautiful story that I heard from an international salesperson. They explained to me how when they create a deal, they try to “teach” the potential client about the advantages of what they can receive. It is a wonderful analogy, which brings home the point of creating trust, when you want to make a sale.

1 August 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

I have been practicing the profession of business coach and mentor for over a decade. I am often asked if there is one key phrase or anecdote that applies to just about everyone.

By way of background, many of my clients are in the Jerusalem region in Israel, although some are located further afield, if not overseas. The scope of commercial activity and development ranges enormously from high-tech start ups to large public institutions. The issues commence with finance and strategy, and will work their way round to production, human resources, time management, and much more. The social and religious diversity of those in the room only adds to the challenges – all this in a country which has more than its fair share of political conflagrations.

This week, I was talking with an entrepreneur that has come up with a very practical commercial solution for a problem in the entertainment sector. I have an immediate task- to help the team develop a prototype within a short timeframe. That means that I have to find a way through the customary ‘web of issues’ in order to find the key problem that is restraining progress.

So, as our session finished and after I had set a list of tasks to be completed before the next meeting, I added my customary challenge. Looking at the less than sportly characters that were sat in front of me, I insisted that they go speed-walking for 20 minutes, 5 times a week.

A wealth of recent research, including a new study published this month, suggests that any type of exercise that raises your heart rate and gets you moving and sweating for a sustained period of time — known as aerobic exercise— has a significant, overwhelmingly beneficial impact on the brain.

I happened to come across this article from Business Insider just 24 hours after my meeting. What is even more fascinating is how it went on to mention that:

…the evidence that aerobic workouts have a wide range of potential beneficial impacts on the brain — from reducing the symptoms of depression to strengthening connections in parts of the brain linked with memory — is robust and growing.

And what results do I achieve with my exercise mantra? First, I never believe the answers to corporate issues lie solely in front of your computer. You need to engage with and learn from the real world. In addition, people return to my meetings with greater clarity and improved purpose. That significantly enhances their likelihood of achieving the change / corporate development that they are seeking.

31 July 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

Clearly, the Jordanian monarch and his government is furious with its Israeli counterparts in Jerusalem. Following the riots on the Temple Mount in the Holy City and then the shooting of two Jordanian citizens by an Israeli security guard, the Israeli PM welcomed home the same guard as a hero. This act was seen as the proverbial last straw of insult.

Jordan has since published the ID of the serviceman on the internet. More sanctions are threatened. At a time when Israel’s relations with Turkey are again looking fragile, this instability with an Arab regime, which is theoretically friendly, is plain unwanted.

However, all is not so simple. Once you peel away the rhetoric, the Jordanians know that they have as much to lose by sanctioning Israel as they have done with Qatar. The reasons are many. And these start with the fact that that the 1994 peace agreement between the two sides launched a series of commercial and social ties that are extremely valuable to the Hashemite Kingdom.

Current bilateral trade is worth over US$500 million, and that is just the official figure.

The creation of the free trade zone near Tiberias will provide thousands of jobs directly, and also create much extra trade in both directions.
By 2013, there were already around 900 Jordanian lorries a month using the port of Haifa.
At the beginning of this summer, Israel finally started to export gas to Jordan. This US$10 billion deal secures for Jordan an alternative source of power, considering that the current options of Egyptian and Qatari suppliers are politically and diplomatically unstable.
Jordan is scheduled to invest over a billion dollars of its own money in the ambitious Dead Sea-to-Eilat pipeline. This is designed to bring desalinated water to peripheral regions, thus benefitting Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians alike.
And then there are those socio-economic stories that rarely hit the headlines. To give just one example: Most of the Israeli agricultural settlements straggling the southern Negev border with Jordan provide agricultural training for the or neighbours. A generation or more of Jordanian Bedouin have benefitted from this trade of skills.

For sure, Israel’s government has acted in a crass and arrogant manner in regard to the feelings of the average Jordanian. And all this hopefully to secure a few extra votes for Bibi’s party. That said, for all the public and assumedly genuine rage of Kind Abdullah, Israel and Jordan will probably find a way to patch things up. They are almost too entwined to separate.

28 July 2017

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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Blog, Business, Israel

Israel, the Holy Land, an important spiritual centre for the three monotheistic religions. Israel is also an important location for the secondary meaning of the word ‘spiritual’, and here I am referring to the alcoholic kind.

The bible is littered to references to wine, starting with Noach in Chapter 9 of Genesis. Today, Israel’s wine industry will happily try to compete with the global best at international wine awards. Over the past decade, the Golan Heights winery has consistently achieved great success. And the national industry’s continuus improvement has been noted in the 2017 World Wine Awards of Decanter Magazine.

However, what many people may be surprised to learn is that Israel is now sprouting a whisky industry. Still very much in its infancy, the signs are clearly there.

For example, last night I attended an open house at the Milk and Honey Distillery in Tel Aviv. It marked the official launch of the first whisky to be distilled in Israel. Bottled just over three years ago at 46%, it was recasked and moved back to the distillery during its third year.

Now, I am only a bit of an amateur whisky buff, but I have to admit this product really is a very impressive start. the company was under the initial supervision of the master taster, the late Dr. Jim Swan. I was presented with a whisky with a light brown colour and a sweet citrus smell. The first taste was much stronger than I had expected, but the surprise was quicker replaced by a gentle orangey, fruity flavor. The finish had a hint of chocolate and left you wanting more.

One of the ways that Milk and Honey have funded their start up is selling gin, a known by-product of the industry. This leads me to the north of the Israel, where a Canadian entrepreneur by the name of Zibell has set up the Golan Heights Distillery.

This outfit did initially release a whisky less than three years old. To be polite, it tasted as young as it was. However, their Holy Land Gin has just been made a Silver Winner in the 2017 International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC). Hopefully, their true whiskies will also reach such standards.

Is there a takeaway from this? First, physically, very much so. I own a bottle of Milk and Honey whisky. What all these innovative Israeli ventures do demonstrate is that there are few barriers to what can be achieved in the Holy Land which is 50% desert.

Pages

When you need to let go of a valued client

When the business mentor practices what he preaches

The CEO, the business mentor, and time management

Hate negotiating? Try this tactic

Discovering the strength of Israel’s economy

Running a business: Why hide your strength?

The Israeli economy starts its new year, in September

A most noble “Afternoon tea in Jerusalem”

Jerusalem’s business scene – how times are changing

Innovation – Why a small business owner should bother

Israeli entrepreneurship: From Chelsea FC to Daimler Mercedes-Benz

Glasgow and Jerusalem: What they taught me about business coaching

Israel’s latest wonder-food is seaweed?

Know your market – what I learnt from Looe

Connecting Charlottesville and Barcelona

Backing Israeli hightech

The one reason your team is not closing a sale is…….

As a business coach and mentor, what is your mantra?

The commercial value of Jordan’s anger with Israel

Israel’s “spirituality” – something worth tasting

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