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Business Mentoring in Jerusalem – 3 quick case studies

12 November 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

People often ask me what is business mentoring about. Surely, it is another form of consultancy, they ask sarcastically and almost rhetorically, implying that I am trying to pose as an expert on everything in order to get a buck.

So, here are three quick case studies of what has happened to some of my clients in the past few weeks. While this may sound like showing off, together they represent a response to the critics above and show what a mentor or coach can offer most businesses, large or small. (For the sake of brevity, some of the stories have been slightly altered)

1) The Bank:

To cut a long story short, my client’s bank acted illegally. He was exposed to possible financial damage as well as embarrassment re suppliers and customers. The client, call him Adam, at his own initiative turned up to his next meeting with his banker, armed with a big smile and a lawyer’s letter. Adam calmly, no shouting, told them what he thought. He told them to go away and come up with a response.

At this stage, I was able to ask Adam what he wanted to obtain out of the process. I put forward various scenarios. Ironically, later that morning, the bank responded. Bottom line, Adam effected one of the options and walked out, not just very pleased but much better off.

2) The missing customers.

Many of my clients complain that their own customer basin has run dry. Things are not looking good. I generally react by encouraging people to look at their existing pool of commercial knowledge. Quite often, it is more extensive than we give it credit.

For example, not for the first time, I encouraged a client of mine (Bll) to actively engage some of their quieter customers. Although the initial feedback was friendly but dull in terms of revenue, the medium term results have been staggering. William is too busy to meet me – no exaggeration.

3) Formulating strategy

Most senior business execs know their territory and are constantly looking to challenge their own strategy. However, it is just as common that they do not have the means to think things through and / or to discuss the alternatives. This can be a result of the pressure of time management, a lack of people to confide in, or just old-fashioned fear.

Most of my meetings take place with people off-site, where they are able to move away from the ‘obvious’ thinking that familiarity breeds. In the past few weeks, I have had several encounters, where I would just ask a seemingly innocuous question about how to develop the organization, and the others present found that they could not stop talking. Suddenly they were creating a detailed map to move on to the next level of sales, production or whatever. Naturally, they did not leave the meeting without receiving some further homework from me.

In each of the case studies, it is my client who does the hands-on work in order to change. My role as mentor is enhance and fortify their achievements. A mentor does not have to be an expert in any given field, but they do have the ability to provide an extra perspective. This is what places significantly added value in to the business.

A right and just way to market a hospital – case study

7 November 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

When it comes to marketing tools, there is no shortage of help from the internet, some very entertaining indeed. In some ways, promoting a hospital or a specific medical unit, can be relatively easy, as you are able to play on raw human emotions.

Yet what do you do to brand a hospital that is seemingly doing just what it is supposed to do – save lives, return people to good health, enhance the surrounding community?

This week, I had the privilege of accompanying a delegation from ASHA (American Schools and Hospitals Abroad), as it visited one of its partners, the Sha’are Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. ASHA is the arm of the federal government that since the early 1960s has been supporting medical and educational institutions across the globe. Ostensibly, Sha’are Zedek is just yet another large hospital, even if it is the only one located in the center of the Holy City.

The tour commenced. A lot of impressive equipment was discussed. The visitors saw how both staff and patients came from all sides of the ethnic equation in this political hot spot. New building programs were inspected. Much seemed very stereotype, that is until questions were asked directly to the teams on duty.

For example, Dr. Anthony Verstandig is Director of the Interventional Radiology Unit. An observant Jew who grew up in the UK, he has reorganized his department around stunning digital machinery sponsored by ASHA. As he explained, the procedure at that specific point in time was being supervised by a senior trainee from Ramallah and assisted by a devout Muslim from down the road in Jerusalem itself.

This example of coexistence was not isolated. The ASHA team learned about two women, sitting side-by-side for hours, receiving blood transfusions. Both were of an ultra-orthodox persuasion and both heavily dressed as a sign of modesty. However, the styles of clothing were different, as one is Jewish and one is Muslim.

In 2012, Sha’are Zedek opened a comprehensive breast health cancer center, also financed by ASHA. What I found specifically impressive here are the social dynamics. It is not just that the department now finds tumours that were previously undetectable and thus treatable when caught early. As indicated above, Jerusalem is host to large numbers are women, who live in conservative environments. The new mammography unit offers them a chance to reach out for help in a direct yet discreet manner.

Arguably, the best work done by members of the Sha’are Zedek hospital has very little to do with Jerusalem. Ignoring the training program for nurses or even the research work which can involve centers in America, Bethlehem or Europe, the ASHA visitors were introduced to “just another senior surgeon”. However, Dr Ofer Merin has directed field operations in many of the world’s hot spots.

For example, the Israeli field hospital in Haiti was deemed to have saved thousands after the earthquake in 2010. A year later, the assistance given in Japan was so successful that Dr Merin explained how he was asked to leave his equipment behind. He agreed to this with the exception of the laptops, which ……….were ‘made in Japan’. And in the past few months, Merin has supervised the treatment of hundreds of Syrian refugees in northern Israel, where the situation requires both medical and diplomatic savvy. At a time when opponents of Israel are calling for sanctions, one wonders why such hatred is more important than improving the lives of the average human around the globe.

During the tour of the hospital, the question was asked: Where does the name Sha’are Zedek come from? It refers to the phrase the “gates of righteous”, found in the Book of Psalms. In other words, regardless of background, all who are ill are considered amongst the righteous.

It is this core basic understanding, dating back thousands of years, that Sha’are Zedek offers to the whole populace of the wider Jerusalem community, and beyond.

Doing your best or is average good enough?

1 November 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

Remember that phrase from school? “Could have done better”. The fact is that my teachers were usually correct.

However, here are two more facts: Few explained to me why it was important to do better and an even lesser number showed me how. OK, that’s my statement of revenge, but where does it get us?

This morning, I was reading a blog from the Harvard Business Review which argued that average is usually good enough. I was surprised by the tome of the article, especially coming from such a peer source.

On the other side of the coin, I often refer my coaching clients to a six minute clip from the film “Facing the Giants“. The coach of an American college football team urges his team to do “their very best”. I ask people to consider what that really means.

What is your very best? How far can you really go in order to achieve what you desire from business and from life? Just because all of this may not get you to where you want to be nor make you the tops, does that mean you have failed? And the killer question, where I demand total honesty; would you have gone so far through the approach of ‘just getting by’?

All this was brought home to me by three different people, whom I have met over the past month in Jerusalem. Each one is struggling to move on commercially. And each one has been just doing enough in between sessions to keep moving ahead, a bit. After all, to sum up their stories in a generic response, what else could they have done?

Well, my response was to set each one a task (academic, financial, physical or any combination thereof), which I sugar-coated in welcoming phrases, but I knew would not be simple to perform. Effectively, I was showing and encouraging them how to move ahead, placing a host of psychological fears to one side.

In parallel, through a series of questions, I forced them to recognise the consequences of ‘staying where they are today’. Again, each individual had their own Achilles heel.

I am sure there are situations where being average is good enough. However, as a rule of life, that policy is not………..good enough. It is not the best, which is usually so more beneficial.

2 inspiring thoughts from (business) coaches

29 October 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business

I am always on the look out for a new approach from coaches, something that lifts. In the past week, I have the rare scoop of reading two such articles, which deserve a wider audience.

Brain Pickings is run by Maria Popova. Celebrating seven years of writing, she write about the seven things she has learned in that period. Her observations are simple, yet amazingly accurate.

  1. Allow yourself the uncomfortable luxury of changing your mind. As Popova observes, internet culture does not always allow us this luxury.
  2. Do nothing for prestige or status or money or approval alone. This was an adage of my late father and has always paid off for me. Prestige is not something you can take with you, because it weighs so much.
  3. Be generous. It is so easy for all of us to be caught up with our own timetable and needs. I find that when my mentoring clients begin to realize how dependent they are on other people and thus open up accordingly do they make progress.
  4. Build pockets of stillness into your life. Never a truer word. In religion, this is called a Sabbath. Even farmers let their fields lie fallow.
  5. Sleep. If anybody thinks that they can function efficiently and effectively without continuous good sleep, they are wrong.
  6. Believe who you are. Popova wrote:  “You are the only custodian of your own integrity, and the assumptions made by those that misunderstand who you are and what you stand for reveal a great deal about them and absolutely nothing about you.”
  7. Expect anything worthwhile to take a long time. Try to ignore the demands of the 21st century. For all what we see on the news and the rapid stories of start up fame, these make headlines because they are the exception to a rule that applies to 99.9% of us.

In vast contrast, Neil Burns is a former cricketer and now inspirational life coach. He takes on current players, who have enormous talents, but cannot seem to apply them on the pitch.

An excellent example is the England player, Monty Panesar. For all his considerable skills, Panesar began to do everything wrong, and this eventually caused problems in his personal life. He was then sacked by his previous team.

Burns talks about “strengthening strengths” and empowering clients to “develop a stronger sense of self”. …..The principal of mentoring, in Burns’ mind, is to provide a player with someone who is “100% in their corner” while also exploring “painful truths”. In particular he believes players can become stuck when they dwell too intensely on under-performing and when they judge themselves too harshly when things go wrong.

As Burns says: “Knowing yourself and knowing your own game is everything for an elite performer experiencing a downturn.” And this applies to all forms of life; in sport, in business, in the home.

The relative methodology to understanding BDS

25 October 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Palestinians

The Methodist Church in the UK has created an on-line survey to ask for opinions on BDS – Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions – a global economic, academic and cultural campaign to apply political pressure on Israel.

In a nutshell, supporters of BDS argue that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank since 1967 is brutal and contradicts international law. It must be stopped.

Israel’s advocates believe that this is a politically-correct truth, wrapped up in a lie. It is George Orwell’s newspeak at its most triumphant. After all: –

I am not an expert of Methodism, which arose in the 18th Century as a response to perceived hypocrisy in the established Church of England. I do believe that any true religion does not look to generate separation, distrust and hatred. Rather it should be seeking to invest in co-existence at grass roots level. In the past few years, Israel has made the following advances towards working with Palestinians: –

  • Contrary to BDS circulars, Israel helps to provide extra water and sewage solutions to the Arabs, inside and outside the Palestinian territories.
  • President Peres recently invited the Barcelona football team to Israel, and great efforts were made to ensure that the players visited Ramallah.
  • A new scheme has been launched to ensure that 500 Arab teachers are employed in Israeli schools
  • Increasing numbers of Arabs – Christian, Muslim, female – can be found serving in the Israeli army
  • The ‘Save A Child’s Heart’ campaign in Tel Aviv has saved the lives of hundreds of Palestinian children with cardiac conditions over the past two decades. (Actually, the team is currently involved in a unique project in Tanzania. Should that too be boycotted?)

All that is left for me to understand is what precisely the proponents of the boycott intend to achieve? Yes, they can put pressure on celebs like Stephen Hawkings not to visit Jerusalem, even though the very tools keeping the professor alive are powered by Israeli tech. Please note that Microsoft, Siemens, HP, General Motors, Facebook, R&D centres operating in Israel and turning out services for the whole world. Just check out on the internet re the levels of foreign investment in Israel. (However, I suggest caution before using Google, as it is co-owned by an Israeli.)

PWC estimates that Israeli exists in 2012 were valued at US$5.5 billion (mainly from overseas) and this figure will be topped in 2013. This year has already seen:

  • IBM purchase Trusteer, which protects millions of bank accounts in the UK and America from computer theft.
  • Communications giant, Cisco, add intucell to ten other Israeli acquisitions. These applications are found next to the television set and in the phones of billions globally.
  • Facebook buy onavo to enhance its mobile app capability.

Should these deals be reversed, and why? Warren Buffet, French retailer Kiabi, health giant Prolor Biotech and so many more have upped their positions in Israel during 2013, effectively benefitting millions internationally.

So what is BDS really trying to say? If I refer back to the position of the Israeli advocates, they point out that one of the founders of BDS, Omar Barghouti, advocates for the total destruction of the Jewish state of Israel, even though he studied at the University of Tel Aviv.

I suppose this same Barghouti would boycott all the theories and the science of Albert Einstein, because the estate of this Nobel Laureate has been dedicated in its entirety to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This leaves many to believe that BDS is another name for the theory of relative hatred.

Turning a desert in to an oasis, of money

23 October 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

In a land of miracles, Israelis used to have a phrase “making the desert bloom”. For a small country, approximately the size of Wales and where around 50% of the land is barren, this was a powerful statement. And yes, farms or kibbutzes have been established in the middle of nowhere.

In 2013, when the world is looking to protect the environment rather than to exploit it, Israel is using its technological prowess in a smarter manner. There is a greater emphasis on either finding water or ensuring that it remains pure.

WATEC 2013 in Tel Aviv has proven an excellent conference to highlight these new skills. In terms of exports, these capabilities were valued at US$2 billion in 2012 and are expected to grow a further 10% this year. Over a hundred foreign delegations have come to see what is on offer.

Some companies like Takadu already possess a considerable overseas presence in America and in the UK, helping local authorities prevent water leakage and thus saving consumers billions every year.

I spoke to the CEO of Watergen, which allows air to be converted to water under disadvantageous conditions. Their first product, which is in use in several armies, allows the generators in military tanks to create pure drinking water. Logistically, this means the vehicles now have space for alternative equipment. It also means that unprotected water carriers are no longer needed in danger zones. Secondary ‘spring’ products are available as backpacks for individuals.

This week, an Israel seed tech company , Kaiima (which means sustainability in Hebrew) launched a new US$65 million fund for the agro-biofuel sectors. Judging from the successes of above and Kaiima’s previous triumphs, Israel will have a lot more to offer the world’s rich and poor in years to come.

Women, empowerment, money – Why Israel?

21 October 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

Yesterday, I asked a client about household finances and how high his bills are. He did not have a clue. ‘My wife deals with that’ was the gist of the response. As a rule of thumb, when I speak to people, if anyone is taking responsibility to the home finances, it tends to be the female.

Why? Maybe an answer lies in the appointment of Israel’s new – and for the first time, female – Governor of the Bank of Israel, Dr Karnit Flug. Competent and experienced, she was the acknowledged choice of her predecessor, Professor Stanley Fischer, himself an internationally renowned economist. And yet, it took the government over 100 days and several failed efforts to make the decision. Historians can debate whether egos, politics or any other pathetic reason saw the country’s banking system left partially unprotected.

As things stand in Israel, Flug now joins a growing and honourable list of women at the top of the country’s finances. The three leading banks – Leumi, Hapoalim and Discount – are led by females. Similarly, three of the leading positions at the Ministry of Finance are occupied by women, including that of Director-General.

Women are prominent elsewhere in Israeli society. Ms Sheli Yahimovitch is the leader of the opposition in the Kenesset. Ofra Strauss runs one of the country’s largest food manufacturing companies. Tahunia Rubel, a 25-year-old model born in Ethiopia, won the 2013 season of Big Brother. And so the list goes on.

Yes, women in Israel still have to overcome many of the problems faced elsewhere around the globe. Studies show that equivalent female wages can be at least 20% lower than for men. Specifically, in the film industry, women producers have found it more difficult to receive funding. And religion can ensure that a women’s place remains in the kitchen (or the bedroom).

Israel is a country surrounded by enemies. It has large variations in wealth. Over half the country is covered with barren land. That said, female empowerment in Israel continues to move forward and is light years ahead of its neighbours in the Middle East. (In one extreme case this year, an Iranian cleric blamed women for his country’s earthquakes.) Israel has developed, and continues to do so, as an open society. After all, Dr Flug herself can recall how her family left the anti-Semitism of Poland in the early 1950s and she grew up in poverty in Jerusalem.

And today? It was the Huffington Post which posed an interesting question just recently: “Guess Who’s Valedictorian at Israel’s Top Medical School?”

It’s a 27-year-old stereotype-buster: a charming, feminist, smart, open-minded and observant Islamic woman named Mais Ali-Saleh who grew up in a small village outside of Nazareth, in Israel’s Galilee.

“If it’s not broken, why fix it?” Right or wrong in business?

20 October 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

Several times a year, I will hear business owners quote back at me ‘if it is not broken, why fix it?’. They have a point. And yet……….

ITEM ONE: Earlier this summer, a client of mine broke off their business mentoring sessions earlier than initially planned, because life was all right. Money was coming in. Two weeks ago, they phoned me back – times had changed and they required a back up strategy. How could I help? Quelle surprise I thought to myself.

ITEM TWO: A different surprise, ex football manager supremo, Sir Alex Ferguson, is the lead story in this month’s edition of the Harvard Business Review. Ferguson is arguably the most successful manager ever in the history of this global sport, and this fascinating study analyses his achievements from 8 different perspectives. An underlying theme is that of “change” – accepting change, encouraging change, looking for new improvements…….even when you have built a winning team.

For me, that message also applies to your business model.

  • As a young teenage, I remember discussing with my late father as to why he did not look at new revenue streams. One of his excuses was that his current lines were doing OK. However those good days were already at their peak.
  • Consider those banks like Lehman Brothers that collapsed with the credit crisis, still less than a decade ago, because they could not recognize the dangers opening up ahead.
  • Another client of mine came to me, complaining of poor sales. How could I help? I encouraged the company to undertake a simple market survey, which revealed that the core business had simply shrunk without the owners being prepared to acknowledge the fact.

Keeping things simple and not wishing to tinker with anything that works are solid, natural instincts. However, any business leader has to look beyond the present in order to understand how they will survive in the future. For those who are afraid of change, that challenge can be too much, both on an intellectual and emotional level.

Grit, procrastination and the Jerusalem Syndrome

18 October 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

I was meeting my client in central Jerusalem. She proceeded to outline a series of excuses as to why she had not began to execute her business plan. Bottom line – problems with the kids had provided her with the perfect excuse to have cake and coffee with friends rather than to move ahead commercially.

So, like any business mentor, I refused to accept this procrastination and tested the client. Was she aware of the implications of not getting done what they needed to do? Again, cutting to the chase: no project means no income, which means no presents for the kids. Could she internalize that message?  Or would the Jerusalem Syndrome win through and her painful cycle of feelings roll around once more?

One blogger describes this ‘antidote’ as the “so that methodology”. In other words, we need to understand that we do something specific “so that”…etc etc. Something good should result.

On an intellectual level, we all know that procrastination is stupid, if not financially dangerous. An academic qualification does not offer automatic success in commerce. It is interesting to note that in Israel, which still averages over 3% annual economic growth, only 36% of the adult population has a university degree. By way of comparison, in Britain and Japan, 55% and 44% respectively have higher qualifications, but their economies are struggling.

However, there is another factor to consider when moving through a work project – “grit”. Just recently, I had the fascinating privilege to read a review of the work of Angela Duckworth. Maths’ teacher turned child psychologist, she discovered in her early research that “students’ self-discipline scores were far better predictors of their academic performance than their IQ scores.”

To cut a long story short, Duckworth has come up with the “grit scale”, which is increasingly showing the likelihood of the success of a student (or worker) in a given situation. For example:

The military has developed its own complex evaluation, called the whole candidate score, to judge incoming cadets and predict which of them will survive the demands of West Point; it includes academic grades, a gauge of physical fitness, and a leadership potential score. But the more accurate predictor of which cadets persisted in Beast Barracks and which ones dropped out turned out to be Duckworth’s simple little twelve-item grit questionnaire.

Back to my client in Jerusalem: They have knuckled down over the past few days, and suddenly they are motoring along, with far less time for cake tasting and additional calories.

Facebook, Bush and banks in Israel

15 October 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

Warren Buffet has upped his investments in Israel. E-Bay, Apple, Intel and Microsoft have all expanded their r&d centres in the Holy Land.

This week, Facebook has announced its largest ever purchase of an Israeli company, Onavo for around US$150 million. Not only are the jobs of the employees secure, but it will become a hub for Facebook in Israel.

As I keep stressing in these writings, such moves are not one-off efforts. Neil Bush is the brother and son of former American Presidents. At the age of 58, he has made it clear that he intends to lead an American-Far East group of investors into the land of miracles. By all accounts, the first stop will be a significant pounce on the IDB group, which controls the Discount Bank, investment holdings, retail groups and more.

As the IMF recently predicted, Israel’s growth through to the end of 2014 is expected to be about 3.5%, significantly higher than many of its competitors within the OECD.

Marketing, mobile apps and Israel

14 October 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

In a fascinating blog, Colin Raney describes how mobile apps are changing the face of marketing. Even though the charges have usually been reduced to a minimum, “the lesson is clear: the point of payment isn’t just the end of a customer’s journey, but rather an experience to be consciously designed.”

Designers are quickly learning that instead of asking for money in exchange for downloading the app (when the user is used to paying), it’s best to carefully design payment moments within the experience. It’s common now to be prompted to pay for new functionality, extra gameplay, or hiding those annoying advertisements. This evolution to in-app purchases is a small shift in experience that has large implications for the developer’s business model.

For all the media noise about apps, it is surprising how many people still do not know what they are. Basically,an app is a piece of software, designed for smartphones. Advances are so rapid that for example 4G technology is now enabling medical tests to be performed from the home environment and sent to the doctor immediately for evaluation.

Israel has been at the forefront of the internet and communications industrial revolution. So, it is no surprise that start-ups from the Holy Land have jumped with two feet into the deep end of this new sector of commerce.  Notable success stories included the exit of Waze to Google for over US$1 billion. IBM has taken over Trusteer for ‘only’ US$800 million. And this pattern had been set up earlier this year by Cisco, which purchased Intucell for US$450 million.

A recent survey has assessed that apps are used more in Israel than in any other country. It could not be too much of a surprise when “The Verge, an online tech magazine, revealed that the Israeli firm Any.do played a role in inspiring Apple’s iOS 7’s new look.”

The head of Israel’s export institute noted in a conference last week that 2013 has been a year of contradictions. Exports, which are fundamental to secure the growth of the country, have been stagnant. Yet exits, as described above, are now just as valuable contribution to the economy.

I detected another irony. If Israeli management has historically had a weak point, it is in the field of marketing, specifically international sales. (Yes, Israelis did create GPS tech.). Maybe the country’s success in mobile apps will also encourage a new style of commercial leadership.

Israel’s economy – friend or foe?

11 October 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem, Palestinians

Consider these facts on Israel’s economy, released by international financial organisations in the past few days.

  • The World Bank believes that Israel’s control of the West Bank hinders the Palestinian economy to the tune of US$3-4 billion per annum.
  • The IMF has assessed that Israel’s economy will grow by around 3.3% in both 2013 and in 2014, at least double the rate of the USA and the European Union. Interestingly, the Palestinian economy is expected to contract for the first time in a decade.

Many of the newspapers that followed the first story have been asking why Israel does not withdraw from the Palestinian territories, and then economic wealth should flood in. No?

There again, reports from Reuters and elsewhere indicate that corruption is so historically endemic in the Palestinian territories that any new money would merely flow towards those already accustomed to receiving it.

I wish to propose another question.

If the Palestinians and others would cease their attacks on Israel, would this not release vast additional resources for social and commercial projects? After all, Israel has already approved 300 economic and humanitarian projects for Palestinians in the past 24 months and more are in the pipeline. If so, then maybe the economy of the Holy Land could help to lead others towards greater prosperity. Yes?

The triumph of capitalist socialism, on an Israeli kibbutz

6 October 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

Israel has become famous as a start up nation. Just today, it was announced that Warren Buffet had made yet another purchase of Israeli high-tech, Ray-Q, which develops electrical solutions for military industries. The company is located in a modern industrial hub, near the country’s main airport.

Now travel a few hundred miles north, right to the edge of the Israel-Lebanon border, a region which mainly hits the headlines as Hizbollah and the Israel Defense Forces stand off from each other. There we can find Kibbutz Sasa. It’s all very picturesque, and the residents run some excellent local hospitality.

However, if you thought that the ideology and economic set up of the kibbutz movement went belly-up in the 1980s, it is time to think again.  Scratch the surface of Sasa and you find the hidden element of Israel’s success in commerce. It owns, totally or in partnership, several key factories.

Start with Plasson, whose sales of protective armour secure vehicles of the American and other armies around the world. Annual revenues come close to a billion dollars with the net profit level at a remarkable 25%. Sasatech employs hundreds of people, as it manufacturers a wide range of cleaning and packaging materials for domestic and industrial usage. We can add to the list a large ice cream factory, a leading diary farm and much more.

This week, the kibbutz invested in 20% of a milk cooperative, whose annual sales are calculated at around 85 million shekels, about US$30m. The intention is to create a line of high-end, quality cheese and yogurt products. Not bad results for a collective, stuck nearly 1,000 meter high amongst windy hills, and which has found itself in the middle of a war zone for much of its 65 year history.

And the punchline? Like much else in Israel’s economy, the kibbutz has learnt to survive and thrive despite the country’s on-going geopolitical nightmare. Maybe that helps to explain why the country continues to reach 3-4% annual growth, while much of the rest of the OECD is struggling.

When is a client not a client?

4 October 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

A new blog offers “advice for increasing the odds that the clients you sit down with will want to sign on with you“. Interestingly enough, one of the comments urges us to sometimes walk away from the new prospect.

Superficially, this is a direct contradiction to what we are taught at 101 studies in commerce. That is to say: If somebody offers you money for your service or product, take the cash and run to the bank…….no?

This week, I was mentoring one of my own clients in manufacturing, challenging him to revisit several of his own customers, where there had been negligible communication for too long. My prospect protested that he would be wasting his time as his contacts were simply too small for him.

Similarly, another client of mine was confused when I had encouraged her to stop chasing prospects, who demanded that she work for a minimal service fee. Facing her qualms that she was concerned about earning a brand as somebody who is uncaring and elitist, I explained that the opposite is true. She had to earn a proper living so that she could help so many others.

And many of us will know of that potential client who keeps rechecking info, demanding further and further price changes, never seemingly coming to a decision. That is the person who is often saying: ‘Even if  I close with you, I will be too much of a pain and bother for you to manage me successfully’. In other words, a lot of work for no profit.

There are many more other such examples. The client, potential or existing, is a waste of time and effort. For large companies, many of such issues can be absorbed. There is that bit extra manpower.

However, for small companies, there is far more at stake. They are eager for each extra dose of revenue, but they do not have the resources to ‘invest” (waste?) on the duds. It is a fine line to walk, knowing when to pass on a seemingly interesting opportunity.

And how to make that judgement call? That is a separate blog in itself. Note: The better decision makers are not just the lucky ones. They are able to combine knowledge, experience and a solid understanding of communication skills, ensuring in advance that a potential customer is what he appears to be.

What Israel and Iran don’t tell you about their economies

2 October 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

Via President Obama, President Rouhani (Iran) and Prime Minister Netanyahu (Israel) have been slugging it out at the UN in New York.

Earlier this year, Rouhani, described as a reformist, won the Presidential election,claiming that he would improve the economic lot of his fellow citizens. He came to America, proffering a smile and words of placation. Israel sees the Iranian leader as a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing‘.

Looking beyond the war of spin, mainly addressed to the world’s media, there is a simple litmus test. Let’s use Rouhani’s own measuring stick – the respective economies – in order to see who is doing the most for their own countrymen.

Starting with Iran, a recent Reuter’s report noted that international sanctions have cut oil exports, Iran prime source of finances, by 50%. GDP has fallen around 3% over the past 24 months. It is known that the annual inflation rate is over 40% and unemployment is climbing sharply above the 15% level.

Meanwhile, since Rouhani’s rise to power, there is no visible sign that Iran has ceased investing in an expensive uranium enrichment programme, whose sole obvious purpose is to manufacture offensive long-range nuclear weapons.

Turning to Israel, which has spent all of its 65 year modern history juggling resources between fighting existential threats while creating a modern society, the picture contains a visibly different set of colours. News items from the past week show:

  • Unemployment has fallen to a 20 year low at a little over 6%.
  • Recurring annual growth of around 3% and a tighter budget has ensured that the fiscal debt is now back under control.
  • The Tel Aviv stock market rose by over 7% in September, ahead of structural reforms and new management.
  • “The Yaskawa Electric Corporation from Japan, a global leader in planning and manufacturing industrial robots, is set to invest tens of millions of shekels in an Israeli company in the robotics industry.”
  • Intel is expanding its operations by a further 800 workers.
  • etc etc etc

You have to ask the question. What is more important to Rouhani? Does he want to keep his election promise and return Iran to its former economic glory, just where Israel is today? Or is that merely a ‘nice-to-have’, whereby his country’s threatening weapons programme is more of a priority?

What business mentors can learn from Moses

27 September 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

I read a fascinating commentary yesterday from Rabbi Ari Kahn. He referred to the last chapter of the five books of Moses, Deuteronomy.

As the curtain is being drawn with sadness and drama, the reader is reminded of “the mighty acts and great sights that Moshe displayed before the eyes of all Israel.” And the greatest of all those moments is when Moses shatters the first set of commandments.

Ari Kahn asks a valuable question: Why is Moses, the law giver, to be remembered as the ‘law breaker’? He answers thus:

He smashed the Tablets, and started again. He worked his way back up the mountain, literally and figuratively, from ground zero. Rather than eradicating the evidence of failure, the shattered Tablets were housed and guarded in the very same Holy Ark as the second set of Tablets that Moshe brought down to the people.

Moshe “did not despair. He started again, undiscouraged, and led the people to a new beginning.” As Kahn surmises,the lesson here is that our eventual successes are seen as an outgrowth of previous failures. 

As a business mentor, I am frequently faced by people with new ideas, but who do not know how to start. They are afraid. They have not found out enough information. They become entangled in that ‘what if scenario’. (What if this, that or the other goes wrong).

My job in all of this? First, it is to show the client how very often the pieces of the jigsaw are lying right in front of them. I have to explain how they can go out and find the missing elements. They will learn, step-by-step, when and how to put it all together. And yes, the road may not be simple nor speedy – hopefully not 40 years long.

Second, I am required to teach clients how they have to keep ‘working and guarding’ their achievements, constantly giving their best against all challenges. And yes, it is Kahn who pointed out this was the very charge given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Ostensibly simple, but look what a serpent can ruin!

Funny how biblical writings taught us these methodologies thousands of years before universities and the internet came along.

7 new economic and social quirks of ‘the Middle East issue’

26 September 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Palestinian Society

Some readers often ask me why I do not write specifically about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In response I explain how there are so many bloggers already out there, each with their own agenda. Another one will not make a difference.

That said, just recently, I have come across a series of financial and social issues that are out of the ordinary – certainly, unexpected – and deserve wider review.

1) Investing in Palestine: As the UN Assembly meets and President Abbas implores the world to support his cause against Israel, I recently questioned who is actually investing in the emerging Palestinian economy. The bottom line is that the Arab block, who Abbas says wants to recognise Israel, transfers relatively few funds towards its favourite political project. Most of Ramallah’s joint ventures are with ……Israel.

2) Israel’s economy and the global recession: At a time when America is struggling to maintain its economic momentum and the UK may finally be seeing an initial emergence from a deep recession, Israel’s finances appear to be under control. The stock market  is beginning to perform and public expenditure is finally in check. Growth predictions for 2014 have been raised to 3.4%.

3) The level of aid for the Palestinian economy: It is well established that the Palestinian economy is bolstered by aid received from large international agencies. One recent report calculates that “the Palestinian people, have received per capita, adjusted for inflation, 25 times more aid than did Europeans to rebuild war-torn Western Europe under the Marshall plan after the Second World War.” Much comes via UNRWA’s near US$1,000 million annual budget, a self-perpetuating black hole of Western taxpayer largesse.

4) The main beneficiaries of Israeli Arabic health care: About six months ago, Israel’s largest health fund released a series of training videos in Arabic for the local market. Over 90% of the million plus views have been registered to countries with no official relations with the Holy Land. So much a for a boycott of the Jewish state.

5) The main beneficiaries of Palestinian justice system: Amnesty International (AI) has just released a report condemning the Palestinian Authority (PA) for not allowing free political demonstrations. It is only a month since AI condemned Hamas in Gaza for its frequent use of executions, a horror confirmed by the BBC. When one considers that the Palestinian Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counseling has documented 25 honour killings so far in 2013, it has to be asked: Why does the Palestinian system demand political and social justice from Israel but does not apply the same principles for its own people?

6) What Egypt and Syria are teaching others:   The Arab Spring, the revolting pictures emerging from Syria, the Islamic-Marxist rule in Iran and more have challenged a vital core part of Western thinking for decades. Until now, it was accepted that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the main core of distress in the region. Clearly, it is becoming evident that pressuring Israel into a peace deal will not bring overall peace to the Middle East. Well done Assad and co for highlighting the unspeakable.

7) Not worth visiting? So with all these trouble points and instability, who would visit Israel today? Well for the first eight months of 2013, 2.13 million tourists were recorded. That figure continues the upward record trend over the past three years.

Success in businesss is based on skill and what else?

25 September 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

I wrote last week that I am not a great believer in luck in order to succeed in business. To excel, you need to do your very best. More often than not, we create conditions – deliberately or otherwise – through individual skill sets that help us move ahead.

A recent item on the BBC website reminded of something I had overlooked. The true story referred to a professional racing car driver, who suddenly and unusually decided to slow down while taking a corner:

By doing so, he avoided running smack into a pileup around the bend. Watching video of the event later, the driver realised he had taken clues from people in the crowd. They were staring at the crash instead of at him. His subconscious took over and guided him away from the crash.

Call it a gut instinct. Describe this as foresight. You can even say that this is a combination of skill-sets, which we do not realise that we possess, because we are so well-trained.

The question is what encourages us and gives us the confidence to use this instinct? Psychologists, such as Dr Robert Brooks, would argue that children who are empowered – who are taught to be resilient from a relatively young age – excel in this way later on in life.

Now this is interesting when I relate this background to a particular type of client in my business mentoring sessions. They are often the people, who have an idea, prove that it sounds good in theory and then ask me: “But what if it does not work?”. This is frequently the same person who previously told me about their nondescript or sheltered background.

Interestingly, many of these clients are second or third generation members of families with Holocaust survivors. They have been taught not to be noticed and to keep their heads down. On the other hand, a different group of survivors developed a life philosophy of ‘going for it’ and not to be afraid of anyone telling you off.

I am no psychologist. However, I wonder if there is a clinical survey detailing which approach allowed the offspring to learn to ride their luck and go on to success as entrepreneurs.

Israeli stock market – looking for a new direction

24 September 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

The past few months have not been an easy time for the stock market in Tel Aviv (TASE). Several members of the senior management team have been asked to leave (or dumped) as performance has dropped off sharply in recent years – even allowing for the global downturn. Last month, a typo saw TASE plunge for a few hours. Not very professional.

Yet suddenly, it is ‘all-change’. Bloomberg has reported that “Israeli stocks are extending their longest winning streak since 2006 as valuations below international peers attract buyers encouraged by Federal Reserve stimulus and efforts to avert a strike on Syria.”

The fact is that the fundamentals are positive.

  • The Bank of Israel has confirmed that the fiscal deficit has dropped under 4%. As measured against GDP, it matches most rivals in the OECD.
  • Similarly, GDP is expected to reach 3-4% during 2013 and 2014. Again, a very healthy stat on its own and in international comparison.
  • And yesterday, the Bank of Israel cut interest rates to 1%.  Although a surprise, this will clearly help to increase the flow of funds towards the financial markets.

TASE is now at “a level last seen in July 2011, and just 6% shy of the all-time high set in April 2011.” It is to be hoped that a revitalised management team in conjunction with a continuance of more sound fiscal policies will enable the Holyland’s stock exchange to produce new miracles for her investors.

How governement can be effective – Israeli case study

22 September 2013
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

Jokes about civil servants, paper pushers, the world of “Yes, Prime Minister” are centuries old and shared around the globe. Citizens pray for better and keep praying.

Let me introduce you to somebody who has shown how government can act differently and with permanent success. Idan Bar Tal is an intelligent investment broker, practically unknown outside Israel’s commercial community. Four years ago, he was summoned by the then incumbent Minister of Communications, Moshe Kahlon, to become the Director General. To a skeptical public, they promised a cheaper mobile service and a greater choice of servers.

To the surprise of the whole of the country – except for established mobile providers and their shareholders – our heros achieved their target. Prices have plummeted. Further, they have also ensured that fibre optic services are available via the national electricity grid – another major structural improvement.

So what was the secret? How did they push aside vested interests of the industry and within the ministry?

In a recent interview with a Hebrew newspaper, Ben Tal recalled an initial briefing, when he was brand new at the ministry. Within five minutes, he appreciated that his power base of 150 people and 8 separate departments lacked an operations manager. In any effective commercial organisation, one needs that person to bring everything together. Ben Tal soon rectified that situation.

His second observation was that his deputies were often his enemies. They were used to a DG leaving after a year and thus they were rarely required to prove their stature. In fact, it was near impossible to replace them with people of talent, who wished to show it off to the world. In order to shake things up, Ben Tal simply stopped renewing the contracts of certain ‘assistants’.

My phone bill was halved about two years ago. If I want to, I can shave off another 20%, but it is my choice to stay (for now) with my current server.

Now look around you. Why is your favourite government ministry not effective?

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