(Forbes) Peter Cohan - Having returned a week ago from Israel, I remain impressed by its strengths as a place to start companies. Yet Israel strikes me as somewhere in the middle of a transformation - from a nation that starts and sells companies to the likes of Google and Intel to one that hosts its own publicly-traded world-transforming industry leaders - on the order of Facebook and Google. The 71-year-old nation of nine million people has in the space of a few decades turned itself into a country with more IPOs per capita than any other. Israel trains people to lead others and - for the elite who are selected for its 8200 and 8100 units (analogous to our NSA) - gives them deep knowledge of technologies that can form the basis of new companies. Israel's leading universities and research institutes - such as the Technion, the Weizmann Institute, Hebrew University, and Tel Aviv University - also supply intellectual property that finds its way into startups. This brings me to what I believe is the most significant transformation that Israel must undertake - from a creator of business leaders whom I call sprinters - who can turn an idea into a company that gets acquired - to a nation of marathoners - who take such companies public, generate revenues in the billions, and keep growing at 20% or more.
2019-05-30 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive