Innovation Economy

I attended a talk by Eli Groner, Israel’s Minister for Economic Affairs. He was at UCLA campus to talk about Israel’s innovation economy and innovation in general. Did you know that Israel with its small population of 7 million people has more successful start-up companies than Japan, China, India, and UK? More than 63 Israel companies are listed on the NASDAQ, more than those of any other foreign country. Eli attributed this astounding success to an Israeli mindset, a mindset of innovation that permeates across all sorts of industries and all sorts of functions, across all levels of hierarchy within organization. 

One example he gave to illustrate this innovation mindset was the mindset of an Israeli young man who went on to a found Netafim, the world leader in drip irrigation. I did not exactly understand the mechanism of this story but the point was that he was told to do something specific (plug the holes where there’s leakage) by his boss, and rather than blindly following the order, did something exactly the opposite(poke more holes in the land).  It was open-mindedness on his part, having thoughtful approach, and having information his boss didn’t have and feeling comfortable enough to defy his boss’s order that brought the innovation.  

Eli went on to say that real secret to innovation is cultivating a culture in which people are not scared to fail, not scared to think independently and think on your own. This line of thinking is something you might have heard before, but it’s good to be reminded and good to hear in the context of another country. As I write this, I worry people feeling jaded and cynical about having heard this sort of argument before because I also felt a little of that…but I think there is SOMETHING to be said about the record, Israel’s track record of having that many successful innovative start-ups. It’s hard to brush aside Israeli minister’s comment just because it’s a message we heard before of “don’t be afraid to fail.” 

Defying authority might be a very hard thing to do in non-western culture . But maybe there’s another way around it in non-western culture. Instead of openly defying authority in the company…you could go to your boss privately and convince him or her why you think you should go with his way, and not the boss’s. Boss and the company has role in this too….making people feel not AFRAID to fail, not afraid of repercussions, and not AFRAID to challenge them….making environment and making precedents so that people can come to you feeling comfortable to suggest something completely opposite to boss’s opinion. 

Anyhow back to this guy Eli. He reiterated that innovation is a mindset, an approach, how we think about things. Too often we do things because we are told or because it’s a way that has been done always. Biblical phrase he introduced in context was “we have eyes but we don’t see.” I think what he was trying to say through that biblical passage is…with our eyes, try to see beyond what we are told, beyond what’s in front of us, and be open to change and other possibilities. 

Somewhat abstract level of talk about innovation but nonetheless it was interesting to listen to.