Emilie
- All the top innovators said something like they knew they were not the smartest, but they stepped up and did the work. They were quick to acknowledge their failures, without prompting, and share their learnings. That is, no matter how bad the situation is personally and for the country, just do it. That sentiment became magnetic to top talent and companies from around the world. Failure is just a step towards success.
- They are incredibly open in sharing ideas and help. They have an abundance, not a scarcity mindset that everyone benefits together. It is not a zero-sum game. There are enough great ideas to go around without fretting about stealing.
- They find change and innovation exciting, not a drag. They have come to love the country’s shortcomings.
- They have had a couple of decades of putting in the foundations and then a decade of flourishing of the innovation ecosystem. Now, anyone who wants to innovate there is embraced and supported in an incredible way. That is, the investment may take a while, but a century-old company can have the guts to make it work. There is no magic pill to build such a cohesive ecosystem.
- Instead of losing themselves by copying the world, every innovation is adapted to their uniqueness and feels very Israeli. The globalization element is in taking their wins to the rest of the world. That is, our current path of adapting and improving the world’s best is proven to work.
- Israelis love to learn new things all their life. No complacency.
- Lots of mix-and-match of existing tech, plus basic science.
- Kibbutzim learned that nothing is for free—they originally had lots of Western school-leavers come to live and work there in the 1960s onwards, but after a little work, they just wanted to embrace their jumping hormones, commune-style. That is, embrace people who create value, not the cheapest options.
David
The objective/goal is to Dream Big. Go Big or Go Home.
My takeaways in achieving the goal is to have/embrace the following;
1. The strength of leveraging the differences in heterogeneity
2. Having comfort in organised chaos
3. Absolute condor flat hierarchy
4. End-to-end thinking/planning/execution the importance of ecosystem
5. Data is at the core
6. No shame or embarrassment in failure
7. Expertise (either one’s own or the ability to find the right expertise needed to succeed)
8. Pragmatism and tenacity to succeed against all odds
9. Finally —>Flexibility. Just because a process or system was designed for X doesn’t mean it can’t be changed for Y.
