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The great Israeli disaster in customer relations – part 1

28 December 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

Spot the misfit:

  • The national fruit of Israel is the sabra – very prickly on the outside, yet juicy and tasty on the inside.
  • In the world of selling, building strong relationships with customers is paramount, and that requires many skillsets including an ability to be empathetic from the start.

Just recently, my wife and I have had to suffer three two large Israeli concerns on a consumer issue. Once we had come through most of the ordeal, we realised that they all had the same techniques, humiliating and time consuming. What it boils down to is that while these retail giants thought they were improving their sales potential, they were actually shooting themselves in the foot.

For the record, I am talking about a credit card company and a cable TV outfit. ( I will name the third one in another blog). In both instances, we were calling up to cancel. And in both cases…………

  • They did not spend enough time listening to what was the key issue
  • They continued to insist they were so brilliant….when it was their so-called brilliance that had led us initially to our negative decision.
  • When we showed our perseverance and demanded a cancellation, they offered us discounts, which effectively had been available up to then but we had never known about! More insults.
  • And finally, the big trick!!! When they internalise that they are losing you as a customer, they say: “Please wait a moment, while we put you on hold”. As you can imagine, this becomes one of the longest “moments” in history. Why they need to put you hold in the first place is a mystery, except as a delaying tactic. They hope you become so exasperated that you will hang up, and thus they keep you on as a paying customer……..at the full rate.

Many years ago, El Al, the national airline, was considered so awful that the letters in its name were thought to stand for ‘every landing always late’. Times have changed. The company from top to bottom has learned. Today El Al is one of the world’s best selling stocks for airlines, and the customers are coming back.

Amazing what you can achieve, when you are nice to clients and treat them properly.

Years later, and people still don’t use Powerpoint properly

22 December 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel
  • Two weeks ago, my wife returned from a major conference in Tel Aviv, where she described the lecturers as boring. Even the slides had nothing to offer, she complained.
  • In the summer, I attended a webinar, where a series of very clever people offered me slides that had clearly been used for other events.
  • One of my leading Israeli clients insists on swamping his Powerpoint slides with hard text, because that is the only way he will remember what to say.

Three totally unconnected events. Several very capable people. All failing to use one of Microsoft’s key programmes, Powerpoint, when trying to highlight key issues of their talks.

Let us be honest, and I say this as a business mentor who is not the most savvy when it comes to tech, you do not need a lot of training to start yourself off in basic Powerpoint usage. It has some cool features. And if you do not like it, there are many decent competitors around.

A title of a posting on the BBC website summed it up very well: “How to avoid death by powerpoint“.

Why, in the age of the internet and millions of digital images, do slide presentations seem to belong to an older, duller decade?

The blog makes some great suggestions. Specifically, it is highly worthwhile providing unique photos. However, there is another issue here.

Most presenters do not take enough time to consider what will really, truly and continuously interest their audience, and then go on to test such assumptions! More often than not, this is not a ten minute process.

Look at it another way. By not investing in this brain-storming session, you are effectively saying that your potential listeners are not worth the effort. A bit insulting, no? I can also add that most people who I have seen do take their time in thought then go on to save hours later on, because the slides become that much easier to bring together.

Friends: We are at that season, when some of us declare resolutions for the new year. Let us all take it upon ourselves to make our presentations so much more acceptable for the rest of humanity. The lives of millions will be so much improved, and your may even go on to sell your products and services to others.

3 strikes and you are ….in: Israeli tech gets triple boost

20 December 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

Call it a belated Hanukah present. Call it an early gift from Father Christmas. However you describe it, Israeli tech has just been given the thumbs up three times from different international perspectives.

Start with 3M, a US$90 billion conglomerate, which has a hugely successful business model to manufacture and sell lots of basic commodities like sticky tape. Maybe unusual in the age of globalisation, but it works.

Their international operations executive, VP H.C. Shin, was in Israel a couple of weeks ago. The reasons for the visit is that  Holy Land has joined a large list of other countries where 3M operates an innovation centre. The delegation head noted:

We’ve been operating in Israel for 20 years, and it’s important to us as a strategic location. The reason why we’re opening the innovation center is to propel our investments into the next stage. …….is economically stable, and we see that there’s a future for 3M here, and the possibility of good penetration.

And 3M is being joined by not just by Bosch, but also by Barclays. They announced their intent to open an accelerator in Israel two months ago. Why? Of course, Israel is turning out to be an expert in the field of cyber security and the whole concept of Fintech.

Now consider what Derek White, Barclays’ chief design and digital officer, had to say about Israel. Quoted in the Hebrew press, Yediot Ahronot, today, he observed about his travels. “Israeli high-tech astounds me every time from scratch”. Israeli tech rapidly converts an idea into a global solution. The “Rise”‘ innovation centre is due to open its doors in March 2016 in Tel Aviv.

And my third offering comes from Rewalk, whose robotic ‘exoskeleton’, allows paralysed people to walk. The company really came to fame, when it was featured on the hit TV show, Glee. Since then, it has had a successful launch share launch on NASDAQ.

The sensational news, released on Veterans Day, is that the US Sate Department has agreed to sponsor the payment of such equipment for former American soldiers. This could change the lives of thousands who suffer, as well as their families and friends.

Can you imagine the negative of trying to stop Israeli tech and how people would suffer? Take a bow Israeli tech. You deserve it!

I hate to speak in public! Is there a slam-dunk cure?

18 December 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

So many people hate to speak in public. I used to count myself amongst this group. I used to look for a cure, when one day I realised that people like us do not need a wave of a magic wand. We should latch on to a  better understanding of what public speaking means and, …….for whom! Let me explain.

Exhibit one: An easy-read blog from Joel Comm discussed ‘how to overcome the fear of public speaking in five minutes”. Lots of very obvious tips that can be found all over the internet.

Exhibit two: Francesca Gino examined “how to make networking at conferences feel less icky”. If you do not understand the connection to the above, remember that networking is also talking in public to strangers, only in little groups as opposed to addressing them from a podium. Gino also produces useful generic info.

At this stage, those who are frightened will remain perturbed. Large audience or mingling, the questions bobble around our heads. What have I got to offer? Who will listen to me? I don’t even have the character / build / looks for it!

The common link to all of these points is that they are all addressed in the first person. It is as if we are saying that it is all about “the me”. Nonsense!!!

Comm and Gino have one common theme. “Think about what you can give, not just what you can get”, because it is not for you to judge what people do or do not already know. It is primarily about how your “content” can tweak an interest and a smile in those you meet!

I am a business mentor in Israel. One of the prime concepts that I try to bring to my clients is that they should be creating and delivering quality content for others, all day and every day. This can be while facing their own customers or carrying out back-office chores in private.

Therefore, public speaking and networking should be just a natural extension of this ability to produce innovative content on behalf of others. Why? Because it is not about “you”. In other words, you do not need a cure to an anxiety, but your are searching for a methodology  or some tips to help change your attitude towards interacting with people new in your life.

How to deal with anger in the workplace – one huge lesson

17 December 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

My wife recently passed me on a very interesting article about how to deal with angry work employees. Useful as the guidelines are, they ignore a critical point. Anger and ‘heated frustration’ emanates from several different points of contact in an organisation – the employee, the employer, the supplier, the client and who knows from where else.

My work as a business coach has led me to talk through a number of such situations in the past month or so. And yes, I also lost my cool for a moment with somebody. What can we do when faced with such a challenge?

Let me start with a big “no, no”. Do not be sarcastic nor mock. It is childish and unprofessional. They may deserve it, yet remember: At the end of the day, there is as situation that both of you want to resolve and assumedly end up on the same side.

Now for the big challenge, in two stages.

  1. Try to find the patience and emotional effort to take a mental step back. This can be a big ask. For example, much of my work is in around the Jerusalem area in Israel, where the heat of Mediterranean summers can often fuel sweaty tensions.
  2. And then, just ask what yourself what is the real story? Why are they angry? Is it what happened? Or are they actually cross with themselves? Maybe, you have forgotten to inform them about something. Is it something factual or a case of raw emotions? The list of possibilities can be long, but it is worth finding the actual answer…….for the sake of all.

My wife described one occasion where she simply listened out the complainant in front of her. During his forceful display of words, she realised that was important for him was not the facts, but protecting his status amongst his colleagues. She tactfully made sure he realized that this would be in tact, and then went ahead with her requests. He could than back down, and all left the room happy. Simple, no?

3 Unknown facts about the economy of Jerusalem

13 December 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

Mention the city of Jerusalem to people who live outside Israel, and they may associate the place with religion or tourism and even, unfortunately, terror. All understandable. But if you were to then query what makes the economy go round for its 850,000 inhabitants, then this may raise more questions than answers.

I did mention the tourism business, significant but not enough. The city also bristles with government offices, whose output is high, when measured in terms of paper pushing. But there is more, and often surprisingly so. Let me take a few lines to enlighten you as to Jerusalem’s economic value.

Biotech:

There are over 130 companies in the life science sector in the Jerusalem area. They are serviced by industrial parks as well as the research facilities in key campuses such as Hadassah Hospital. As I have written in the past, it is ironic that it is the complex diverse social culture of the city that makes this place attractive for overseas investors to look for the technology breakthrough in pharma and related fields.

The markets:

Jerusalem has three key markets; the primarily Jewish fruit and veg shops around Machane Yehuda, the four religious quarters of the Old City, and the stalls of Arab East Jerusalem. Each one is unique and worth a visit, but I want to concentrate on the third one.

It is not just that contrary to political hype, you do find a plentiful amount of Israel products with Hebrew packaging on full display. These traders have goods to sell that have originated in exotic countries that theoretically ban trade with Israel. You can find underwear from Dubai and cosmetics from Afghanistan. The latest addition is Syrian merchandise that has woven its way south via Jordan and the Allenby Crossing with Israel. And nobody complain about this free trade.

Future Thinking:

Over the past five years, Jerusalem has become inundated with networking groups. Two of the largest are JLM and JBNF. The point is that a whole community or generation is no longer prepared to be confined by the restrictions of religious leaders or the workings of bureaucrats. For example, as an active member of JBNF, I can vouch for the fact that at any one sessions, you will find a non-Jewish member sitting right next to an ultra orthodox Jew, all constantly looking for a new way to develop commercial realtionships.

The city is utilizing its diversity of peoples, languages and tertiary teaching institutions in order to bring the sum of the talent together for a greater good. One prime example of this is Glide, where you can see religious and non-observant working freely together to create a video app. This company has already raised several tens of millions. Bob Rosenschien’s Curiyo is another such example.

If there is a conclusion from this myriad of the unexpected, it is that Jerusalem has a n economy that defies the headlines of the newspapers. Yes, the key neighbourhoods may suffer a downturn, as per now. However the Holy City possesses an economic nature that defies belief (sic)!

What is Microsoft doing in Israel?

11 December 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadela, is due to make a return trip to Israel in February 2016. Why does this corporate giant need to be located in the Holy Land?

Israel is now home to hundreds of multinationals, many with incubators and / or manufacturing facilities. Intel led the way initially and now has three separate operations in the country.  This week, we learnt that Bosch will be joining the pack and setting up their own development centre.

However, Microsoft is clearly taking its Israel capabilities to another level. As a contributor to Forbes magazine observed:

Microsoft appears to have locked on an excellent strategy for building up a cybersecurity business. They’ve gone fishing for acquisitions in Israel, a nation who is second only to the United States as the largest exporter of cyber products.

Over the past year or so, Microsoft has spent over US$700 million acquiring five Israeli companies, mainly in the cyber arena. Arguably, the two key purchases featured Aorato and Secure Islands.

However, purchasing technology is not the only way that Microsoft benefits from the Israeli market. Zack Weisfeld, head of Microsoft Venture Accelerators remarked that their Israeli incubator is only one of seven globally. Graduates include RideOn, which developed ski goggles, and ThirdEye, which helps drones to navigate. More importantly, these technologies now permeate into other applications of Microsoft.

On a note of irony, the financial paper “Calcalist” pointed out that Nadela is by no means that first Microsoft chief to visit Israel. Bill Gates, Ray Ozzie and Steve Ballmer made the journey in the past. However, all of them left their position within another 18 months. Must be something to do with the country’s holy atmosphere!

Nevertheless, the bottom line is that Israeli technology via Microsoft reaches the homes and workplaces of billions of people every day. That is a stunning achievement (for a desert country of barely 8 million people), and obviously good business for the commercial giant.

Boycotting Jerusalem? Try this out this hospital

3 December 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

The campaign to boycott and to sanction Israel and Jerusalem argues that such actions will promote the rights of Palestinians. As I and many other commentators argued earlier this week, the politically correct elements of this statement are actually coated in the repulsiveness of raw racism.

With no small amount of irony, this week has also seen the release of two news items that must count as ‘big fail notices’ in the BDS corner. First, Jordan and Israel have released the details for a tender to build a canal together that will link the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. In parallel, it appears that during the Paris conference of world leaders,  the honoured guests were protected by a healthy chunk of Israel aerial technology.

And then there are ‘the gates of the righteous’ in Jerusalem.

This is the translation of the phrase “Sha’are Zedek“, which is the name of what is probably Jerusalem’s biggest hospital. And it is an institution that I have written about before. In a city of around 850,000 citizens, they carried out around 3,000 operations in November alone.

Walk into the hospital, you see visitors and patients of all persuasions from ultra-orthodox Jews in their own garb to observant Muslims with their own dress code. In the children’s dialysis unit, the receivers of treatment from whatever their socio-ethnic-ethnic background sit side-by-side for weeks and become ‘almost’ friends.

As for the doctors, there are around 25 Israeli non-Jews. In addition, there are about 20 Palestinian doctors, who are receiving training and then return to the various towns and cities in the West Bank. And you will find these post grads in most parts of the hospital; gastro, diagnostic imaging, surgery, etc. And I should quickly add that Sha’are Zeek is not alone in this multicultural approach, even when it comes to treating terrorists.

There is an alternative to these practices in a hospital in Israel: A boycott. But then how many lives – in Israel, in the Palestinian territories or even elsewhere – would be lost? How many families would suffer? So BDS is not just racism, it can kill. That to me is a double evil.

Welcoming the true success of the BDS economic campaign against Israel

29 November 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Palestinians

The BDS campaign is designed to secure support for the Palestinian cause, by highlighting the wrongs of Israeli society. Friends and campaigners are asked at the very least to boycott Israeli goods made in the West Bank. And this call to action has been extended to all Israeli products, as well as to entertainers and academics.

So, what does this mean in effect? There are those who determindly buy into this line of thought. On the other hand, just recently, there have been some startling rebuttals. For example: –

Just where can BDS make a successful difference against Israel? To show the way forward, last weekend, a group of protesters, dressed up as “inspectors”. They stormed into a large supermarket in Bremen, Germany, frightening customers and insisting that Israeli products be ‘correctly labeled’. A similar incident took place in the Galeria Kaufhof store in Berlin.

I can only assume that these people achieved their desired effect and thus sales on the relevant products dipped for the day. And it is almost 78 years to the day, Kristallnacht, when Nazi Germany created the same effect, demonstrating the full trust of their anti-Semitism.

Key task of a business mentor – secure growth

27 November 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

I think a large proportion of the inquiries I receive as a business mentor relate to the subject of growth. While this can encroach on many different sides of a corporate, the potential client is often talking about new, additional and continuous long-term sales.

Guy Kawasaki is a well-known sales guru. Only this week, I recommended to a client one of his first books ‘How to drive your competition crazy’. This week he was featured in a blog ‘6 tips for growing your business’. I particularly liked the concept of ensuring that your are able to tell your customers a compelling story, as well as securing key recommendations for your service / products.

Most important for me is the suggestion that you must ‘position yourself against a market leader’. This forces you to improve all the time. And thus you can claim with certainty that you are as good as the best.

To illustrate the centrality of this point, let me give you a comparison. A couple of years ago, my daughter was training for an important job near Jerusalem, Israel. This involved several physical challenges, including a 2km run. Try as she might, she could not complete the distance within the set target time. She (and others) were given one last opportunity, which was when she decided that she would run along side the best in the group…and stay with them whatever it took.

Needless to say, my daughter passed the test. In fact, her time was so good that she was asked to do the run again the next day to prove that ‘nothing suspect’ had occurred. In commercial terms, that demand is called a “repeat order”. And that means a new, happy customer, who appreciates that they do not have to go to the biggest in order to obtain the best.

Welcome to the world of a growing business!

Jade, Jerusalem and the true hope after Paris

24 November 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Israel, Jerusalem

When 130 people were slain in Paris, the world seemed to wake up. Almost double that number had been killed on the Russian plane that was brought down in the Sinai, a few days previously. 44 were bombed to death in Beirut and another 19 slaughtered in Mali. Outrage, but little more. Obama was silent when the American seminary student, Ezra Schwartz, stabbed to death in Israel, one of 23 recent victims in a rising toll.

However, it was the Islamic terror that pervaded Paris that did it. Obama mourned the American killed there. And regardless of the depth of each crime, you have to ask what hope is there for humanity after such a series of horrific incidences? Is there really somebody up there listening and watching?

It is to “Jerusalem” that I turned for an answer. It is the prime city of Judaism and is also vitally important to Muslims and Christians. Its literal meaning comes from the word peace . And if you were to play a word association game with the word Jerusalem, you may come up with phrases like “charity” or “giving”. The origin of “Jerusalem” can also be traced to oneness or wholesome.

Now we know that giving charity / helping others promotes a feel-good emotion, which in turn enhances resilience. As I read this week:

I know that helping others is beneficial, but I wasn’t aware of the research that shows how much it also benefits our own health.  I wasn’t aware of the extent to which it can lessen the stress and pressure most of us experience.

Three days ago, on Sunday, hundreds of Jewish communities throughout the UK celebrated “mitzvah day“. To translate “mitzvah” into English, you have a “good deed”. People actively gave time to charity – collecting items, distributing items, helping others and more.

Yes, for all the achievement, many have such events. What was different here is that in many areas the Jewish community involved willing local organisations. For example, I happened to be in the Swiss Cottage area of London. Here the South Hampstead Synagogue collected money for the homeless, which involved partnering the neighbourhood Catholic Church and others.

And then along came Jade, who I had never met before.

I was leaving the Synagogue after morning prayers around 9.30am, when in walked Jade and her friend. I guess she was about 20 years old. Very lively. Very presentable. And she was wearing a head covering. Not a covering of the type worn by married orthodox Jews, but clearly recognizable as belonging to a Muslim.

Yes, this devout Muslim and colleague were walking enthusiastically into the Synagogue. I admit: For all my pluralistic nature, I froze for a split second, until I recalled that it was mitzvah day……for all of the wider community. The rabbi, with his distinctive grey beard openly welcomed the two visitors. I later heard that the whole event was a success and those responsible are looking to repeat it.

I am unlikely to meet Jade again. I bet that out political views ‘do not coincide too directly’. And yet, this ‘meet up’ showed a way forward for all of us, in whatever country we reside. And this is the hope that rises out of the funerals in Paris, Beirut and Jerusalem, ensuring we can be more determined (resilient) towards becoming decent human beings for each other.

The untold abuse of Palestinian children

21 November 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Palestinian Society, Palestinians

Over six months has passed since Human Rights Watch (HRW) released an extensive report regarding the use of Palestinian child labour in Israel settlements. It sets out to detail that hundreds of children are employed, usually on farms, sometimes under aged, and frequently for miserable amounts of money. If correct, this is wrong. The analysis still triggers questions in the European, British and other Parliaments.

NGO Monitor has regularly pointed out the disproportionality of HRW’s work when it comes to Israel. In this specific case, the group rightly questions the methodology as well as the transparency of the evidence supplied. Reading the  HRW report, the flaws are obvious to even the untrained eye.

But what about those Palestinian children?

First, let us assume that there is just one Palestinian child abused on just one farm. That is one too many. However, as the report admits, Israeli child law is based on international law. Instead of investing millions in creating a 70 page document – of which over 50% seems to focus on the minutiae of irrelevant international law and not the children – and in order to obtain justice, HRW merely needed to ensure that prosecution lawyers were found – again assuming the allegations are truthful.

It would seem that HRW is not actually interested in the children per se. And for the record, HRW did not discuss the possibility of Jewish kids working on the farms – a point which I find abhorrently selective.

Second, and in my view more relevant, why is stronger criticism not thrown at the Palestinian middlemen, who reportedly connect the children with potential employers. If the kids need to work, why do the not place them with Palestinian businesses and farms?

Also lacking here is equivalency. There is no parallel HRW report of such Palestinian employees. Yet, if you surf the internet carefully, you will find documented incidences of how these children are exploited by their own community leaders.

The ‘need to work’ then prompts the issue of the Palestinian economy itself. We know that since the Oslo Accords of 1994, the Israeli economy has doubled in size. Yet, as asked by leading academic Moshe Elad, what have the Palestinians done to develop their own economy? Yes, the IMF has confirmed that the Palestinian economy grew annually by 5.5% for three decades since 1967 under Israeli supervision. However,

In other words, what can be left for the average Palestinian business owner in order to employ adults or even teenagers? Wages in the Palestinians territories are clearly so poor that it is the key factor why every day tens of thousands of Palestinians flock to work inside Israel, and this includes people under the age of eighteen. And as for the practices of good social government and the protection of children by the regimes in Ramallah and in Gaza, forget it!

Israel has often claimed that Palestinian children have been used as human shields in the fields of battle. That is against the Geneva Convention. But these youngsters have also become pawns in the battle for Western media and the opinions of decision makers.

The true winner in this  debate is ‘reverse psychology’. The Palestinian children are abused. The real criminals are shouting, pouring bile and blame in the direction of Israel. This rhetoric merely serves as a convenient cover for their own sins. The HRW was blind enough to lap it all up. And you now know who has lost out? The abused themselves.

The shifting sands of Israel’s economy

19 November 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

Despite being nearly 50% arid and comprised of desert, Israel has deservedly earned the escalation of ‘the start up nation’. For nearly two decades, the country’s economy has turned out high growth numbers, mainly thanks to a national model that embraces innovation.

And despite a sluggish start to 2015, Israel’s economy is on the move again. Growth for 2016 is estimated at above 3%. While there had been concern about the relatively high extent of consumer spending, this has cooled off somewhat. instead,exports have surged ahead by 4.4% in 3Q2015.

What are those stats hiding at a micro level? Interestingly enough, it has been known for some time that the large supermarkets are out of favour with consumers. In fact, one chain by the name of Mega has been shutting several shops and trimmed back many other outlets. In parallel, some of the large food manufacturers and distributors like Unilever, Tnuva and Strauss have seen their sales plummet by up to 6% since January.

The pattern is similar elsewhere. Fox clothes with hundreds of outlets is feeling the pinch. Cellcom, a key supplier of mobile services, has seen profits slump by over 50%. Soltam is a manufacturer of kitchen pots and has 15 outlets, yet its sales have collapsed by 40%, as it did not predict the success of other chains.

Bad? Well certainly not pleasant for the families of any laid off workers. Yet there is a flip side of the coin. At least for now, the additional tax on those who look to buy real estate as an investment has finally dulled (temporarily?) the drive for speculators to acquire new properties. And if you think the innovation – start up economy is tired, consider why 70 start up accelerators have emerged in the past three years alone.

There is much more work to do. Critically, key restrictive practices, such as in the Electricity Company, in the Ports Authority and in the distribution of fruit need to be commercially vapourised. Yet, the shifting balances are visible to all.

Back in 1986, Israeli literally froze 90% of the economy – wages, prices, etc. Since then, 95%+ of the population has benefitted significantly, as old industries lost their raison d’etre and structural changes were introduced. I suspect that Israel is beginning to embrace of yet another turnaround….. without having consciously engineered it. 2016 could well be a year of great promise for the economy of Israel, despite the bumbling of its government.

How to talk to investors, and win – the Jerusalem model

17 November 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

There are millions of guides, littered all over social media, proclaiming to be the perfect way to aim a pitch at an investor. Which one to chose?

For years, I used a model given to me by a seasoned investor, who told me that this is the way he always likes to receive proposals. And it never ceases to amaze me how often I am criticised, usually by entrepreneurs who are just starting out, that I am on the wrong track.

Similarly, I often recall the story of a Californian inventor, who was so nervous on entering the room of sharks that he forgot all his lines. In desperation, he threw the prototype on the table. Without prompting, the money guys started talking to each other about what could be done with the object. Ten minutes later, our hero walked out with guarantees worth millions.

So, what’s in a presentation? The answer still remains……everything. But you need to think things through fully and in depth, well beforehand.

Yochi Slonim is a seasoned entrepreneur. For over 25 years he has raised tens of millions of dollars for a range of software and internet companies in Israel. He is currently involved with Anima Biotech and Nextnine, a cyber security company.

Yesterday, I was honoured to moderate his latest talk at the Jerusalem Business Networking Forum, JBNF. Entitled “the start up maze runner“, Yochi explained how finding that illusive pot of investment gold was like working towards the centre of a maze. Each ring presents its own set of traps and disaster points.

Yochi identified four such layers: positioning, the market, the product and the team. Nothing new in that, but it was his insights that made the difference.

The keys points were:

  • Whatever you do, make sure you differentiate (position) yourselves away from the crowd, and in a manner that can be readily understood.
  • Validate your market. Just because you think it solves a real problem, you have to prove it.
  • The product must not only be “doable”, it must answer a defined market need and also demonstrate uniqueness.
  • The team must have appropriate skills and must have the determination to take the project through rough times, as well as the highs.

All exceedingly obvious? Maybe. Yet, how many of us actually apply these rules?

About six years ago, Yochi founded Leadspace, which supports B2B companies to find buyers on the internet. He raised over US$30m. Today Leadspace has over 100 ‘tier 1’ customers. If there is one set of lectures worth listening to on YouTube, I guess they belong to Yochi.

Is your boss a controller or leader? Part 2

16 November 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

Last week, I discussed if an owner of a business needs to be a controller or a leader. Then I questioned how each potential response is related to the topic of good management. I quoted Everette Taylor, whose experience had taught him that: It was an extremely valuable lesson to learn that as a leader, you have to be able to trust people. 

Now let me take the discussion to another level. The phrase ‘boss’ is often thrown around without due meaning. However, a boss – in a small or large corporate – is not necessarily an owner, as the name implies. It can be just the head of a team or department. (By the way, the origin of the word is not certain. Whether you trace it to Latin, Dutch or even Yiddish, it seems to refer to a person who is in a position of superiority.)

A recent posting on LinkedIn featured some observations from Richard Branson, who knows more than a thing or two about creating and then running successful businesses. Branson observed: –

When I started out in business, I did so to make a positive difference. I wasn’t determined to organise or direct people, but instead work with them to change the lives of others for the better. I feel that this is the role of a leader. Management is about maintaining processes, disciplines and systems — something that doesn’t come naturally to yours truly. Where managers keep the rules, leaders have to be willing to break them, or at least find creative ways around them. (Emphasis added by MH).

As a business coach and mentor, this raises for me a key issue, when working with CEOs. I find too many are trying to manage, when they evidently lack such skills. Thus, the important matter of creating a change in the market place is under resourced. Such chaos usually results in reduced sales.

The point is that leadership, management, control and even motivation are important terms to understand for the success of an enterprise, whatever its size. However, they are used so commonly that most people have forgotten the subtle yet substantial differences between each one. And that often results significant under performance and poor bottom line results.

Small business owners – controllers or leaders or what?

13 November 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

What is the role of the owner of a small business? Are they supposed to lead by example or control their resources?

I was faced by this question on a few occasions just recently when meeting clients in the Jerusalem area. They were looking to me, their business coach and mentor, for some motivating words.

The situations varied.

  • In one case, one partner was keen for the other to control overall operation, especially on the manufacturing side. However, there was a major concern that financial and administrative issues were being ignored.
  • Elsewhere, a CEO was so busy trying to put out ‘all the fires’ at once that very little was getting done, especially in terms of developing new clientele.
  • I met with a CEO who now proudly possessed complete control of her concern, yet admitted that the workers did not trust her. The value of that control is….?

And so the list goes on.

In some of the cases, I offered a different approach. I always like to recall that in the best case scenario, we can only control two things – what comes out of our mouths and how we move our limbs. Beyond that we can try to ‘manage’ factors and instances that are shot at us from a multitude of random directions.

As for leadership, Everette Taylor summed it so effectively in a recent interview. When asked if he felt that failure had been close, as he had set up his business, he responded:

There was a point when I was trying to do too much and it started to affect my work. I started losing contracts with a few companies that I highly valued. I had stretched myself thin and some of my best clients were unhappy. I had to take a step back, humble myself, and ask for help………….It was an extremely valuable lesson to learn that as a leader, you have to be able to trust people. You can’t do everything yourself.

What I feel that Everette is saying is that he learnt how to become a manager, exploiting his meager resources effectively. That in turn enabled him to become a leader in a much larger set up.

Israel explains the benefits of a ‘binational incubator’ to other countries

12 November 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem

As quoted on Business Insider, “these statistics show how insane Israel’s start-up scene is”.

  • At around 4%, Israel spends about twice the global average of its GDP on research.
  • In a country of 8 million people, there are nearly 300 development centres with about 60,000 employees.
  • Israel has around 3,000 start-ups, with the numbers growing exponentially.

New r&d experiments are common news items. As I observed last week, Microsoft’s purchase of Secure Islands for US$150 million will enable the American conglomerate to base its growing international cyber activities in the Holy Land.

Such initiatives are not just left to the ‘big boys’. More and more countries are now trying to learn from Israel’s experience. The visit this week of Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, was no coincidence.  The two countries had previously set up a joint tech hub about four years ago.

In the past month alone:

There is a common theme that brings together these developments. People and nations grow stronger through mutual support and trade. They learn to understand each other better, trust one another. On the flip side of the this coin of progress you can find boycotts and hatred. What do you prefer?

The bridge between Boris, BDS and business in Israel

10 November 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel, Jerusalem, Palestinians

Boris Johnson, mayor of London, conservative MP and possible future Prime Ministerial material, is leading a delegation of commercial leaders this week to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

His Monday morning in Tel Aviv was a great success for the locals. And that should come as no surprise. Bilateral trade between the two countries has grown consistently for over a decade. And Israeli companies have raised over $3.0bn in London financial markets in the past two years alone.

As Johnson himself said at a function: “Why would you – of all the countries in the region – why would you boycott the one which is actually a functioning democracy and a pluralist, open society…. the most vibrant?” And when interviewed on Britain’s Channel 4 news, Johnson referred to an academic boycott of Israel as ‘foolish’.

Johnson is not alone, both in his perception of how Israel and UK can work together and how BDS is an impediment to peace. Jan Koum, founder of WattsApp, tweeted his objection to BDS this week. Lord Robert Winston, IVF Pioneer. was similarly emphatic in his words, when receiving an honourary doctorate at the Weizman Institute from the British ambassador to Israel.

For all these announcements, this is also the week, when the EU is insisting on invoking its policy that products manufactured in the Palestinian territories are no  longer considered as Israeli, and thus must be labeled accordingly. Israeli officialdom has reacted angrily, noting that there are dozens of political – military conflicts around the globe. Yet in not one other incidence has the EU taken such an aggressive and one-sided approach.

Will this European move help the peace process? According to the respected journalist Danny Rubinstein, there may be about 1,000 manufacturing Israeli enterprises in the Palestinian territories. Many have parts made elsewhere and thus beat the regulations that way. A few, like Sodastream have left the area, thus leaving dozens of Palestinians unemployed. As for the rest, very few export…. and some are improving their packaging, which will actually help sales.

Just for the record, Palestinians employed in Israeli West Bank factories must by law receive all social benefits, such as national insurance as per any other worker in Israel. These are far more generous than those of the Palestinian Authority. In fact, however measured, their wages overall are much higher than their counterparts in Ramallah etc.

Johnson’s visit is all about building links with new partners. Prosperity increases the chances of peace. While the attention is on the London- Tel Aviv – Ramallah axis, this week Israel signed an agreement with Jordan. A new joint industrial zone will be built. “The Jordan Gate” will be supported by the construction of a new bridge to link the two sides. Is that the most interesting lesson for all in this time of heightened tensions?

Friday afternoon tea in Jerusalem – not what you expect

7 November 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Israel, Jerusalem

It poured down this Friday afternoon in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is an amazing place on Fridays. Observant Jews are rushing around, preparing for the Sabbath. In the Old City, Catholics can be seen, eating in fish restaurants. And around 2.00pm, the mosques finish the main prayers for the day and the worshippers pour out.

It was about this hour that my friend from the UK, let’s call him Robert, phoned me for directions to get to my place. “Take the 131 bus, and get off at the last stop. Simple, no?”

From my warm, dry apartment, I could see really heavens opening up. Well, this is Israel. Nearly an hour went past, before Robert called again. “Are you sure, this is the right bus for me? We seem to be going round the houses.”

Two minutes later, another call. “I am the last person on the bus.” More reassuring words from his host to be.

And then, the best call: “What do I do now? The driver has stopped the bus, got out his prayer mat and was offering his own supplications for the day. Yes, Egged, Israel’s major bus company, employs Muslims, and on an equal basis.

Just then, the driver finished and I was able to explain to him where to let my tourist friend off the bus. A few minutes later, a bemused Robert was recalling the incident over a hot cup of (English) tea.

But here is what really made me laugh. It was not that I live over the “green line”, beyond the 1967 borders and that the driver clearly had no problem working in the area.

Before starting to pray, the driver carried out the customary search of the bus, ensuring that the passengers had taken all of their bags with them. In other words, our Arab friend was checking that there were no suspicious items – potential bombs – left lying around. Somehow, there is a beautiful irony in this episode.

And beyond the irony and amongst the torrential rain, there is a wonderful story of coexistence that people overseas do not realise still remains in many parts of the holy city of Jerusalem.

Israeli academics new contribution to EU commerce

5 November 2015
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Categories: Afternoon Tea in Jerusalem, Business, Israel

A recent call by UK academics to boycott Israel has been treated by many as just a ‘politically correct version’ of modern anti-Semitism. Interestingly, the EU civil servants in Brussels have delivered a far more proactive response.

About two years ago, Israel was encouraged to join the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. This is designed to bring together the worlds of academia and commerce from member countries in order to develop the technologies of the future. Several other states are all allowed to participate, including Israel.

The approval of the most recent set of proposals has been announced. These include eleven, which feature an Israeli team. The total value of the investment from Brussels is estimated at over 200 million Euro. And at least three of the projects include a top Israeli university.

Dr Neta Erez from the University of Tel Aviv is part of MetCAF, which will consider molecular changes in cells disturbed by cancer.

Waste2Fuels features participants from both the Weizman Institute and the University of Ben Gurion in Beersheba. They have set out to convert food and agricultural waste into biomass, which will then be used for car engines.

Gravitate has come out of the Technion in Haifa, known in recent years for its Nobel Laureates. It is developing a software to help archeologists to recreate broken artifacts. Interesting that the British Museum is also featured in the grouping.

So what now? Well, I hope all the projects succeed. The alternative is that the boycotters could have their way. Europe would be worse off. Hate will have triumphed. And peace will not have arrived in the Middle East.

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