How to Globalize: Expansion Lessons from Israeli Business Leaders

There are a lot of countries laying claim to being the best place for startups.

However, few can boast the same results as that of Israel. This can be summed up in the following two examples:

• There are close to 100 Israeli-founded startups that are valued at over $1 billion each. 

• The country also has the highest number of startups per capita in the world. It really is the home of startups.

Israel’s standing in the business world says something about the mindset of Israeli business leaders. There’s no doubt that the rest of the world can learn quite a bit from them. We have gathered some of the insights of Israeli business leaders on growth and leadership in order to help other companies in their quest to expand to other markets.

Why Israeli Businesses Are at the Forefront

Before we discuss the lessons from Israeli business leaders, we need to take a quick look at why Israeli businesses are at the forefront of development and innovation. Why are they so far ahead of companies from other countries?

There are several reasons for that. One, of course, is that Israel had learned to become self-reliant early on. Right from its founding in 1948, Israel had a contentious relationship with its neighbors. The country had to stand on its own, so it looked to its people for strength. Industries needed to be built from the ground up, prompting the state to create its own research and development sector. This reliance on science and development has influenced the business sector as well. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that many tech companies have been founded in Israel throughout its history.

The country’s geography also played a role in its drive for growth. When it comes to expansion, Israeli businesses really had no option to grow within their own neighborhood. They needed a more expansive outlook if they hoped to develop in any way. It led them to look at other world regions to foster their own growth, especially since translations have made market research and communication more efficient for Israeli businesses to enter new markets.

That tradition continues today and is partly the reason why there are so many startup businesses that have sprung up in Israel.

Top Lessons from Israeli Business Leaders

It’s time to take a closer look at the insights shared by Israeli business leaders. 

Empowering the Team

Jacob Mendel is a Senior Lecturer and the head of Cybersecurity Study at the Coller School of Management. Mendel believes that it is very important to empower one’s team, which can be done with proper delegation. But before that can be achieved, one must know the ambition and the career path of the individual members of the team, otherwise, the empowerment given will not yield the desired results.

Using Language for Expansion

Ofer Tirosh is the founder and CEO of Tomedes, a company that provides translation services, interpreting and localization solutions in Israel. He offers some insights into the power of language and communications for global expansion. “As a language service provider, Tomedes has helped a lot of companies expand. We have seen the power of properly knowing the right language for a specific market.”

Israeli companies have used Tomedes‘ translation services to effectively convey their message in any medium and better connect to international customers. This has brought about exponential growth, though many companies must pay more attention to language‘s power. There have been plenty of cases when mistranslations have caused the entry of a company into a new market to end in disaster.

Take the example of Ford when it launched a campaign in Belgium. The campaign tagline was “Every car has a high-quality body.” Unfortunately, the translation was more like “Every car has a high-quality corpse,” which was not the message that the company wanted to convey. That’s where knowing the language of a specific market becomes so crucial.

Using Positivity

Hilla Ovil-Brenner is the Managing Director of Techstars. She believes in positivity and making people feel comfortable and appreciated. The problem in so many companies today is that leaders forget to appreciate their team members as people, not just numbers or a means to reach quantitative goals.

Ovil-Brenner believes that proper communication is needed to lead a company toward expansion. Everyone must know what the main goals are, and one’s personal goals should be properly aligned with these. Positivity should also be used at all times to motivate team members to reach for and hit those goals.

Difference Between Leadership and Management

Raz Bachar is the Managing Director of Microsoft for Startups Israel. Bachar points out the difference between leadership and management. He says that leadership is the ability to gather people behind you and understand what is driving each and every one of them. Having that ability will allow a leader to accomplish a lot of goals.

Unfortunately, business leaders fail to see the distinction between leadership and management. Confusing the two can result in team members becoming frustrated.

These are just some of the insights from business leaders from Israel that can help businesses everywhere in their objectives of expansion. As you can see, these insights emphasize the importance of leading people properly and treating them right. In many ways, that’s what’s behind the success of Israel: their reliance on their people.