Israel Valley : “Le bouclier technologique de l’innovation”, new edition, by Edouard Cukierman and Daniel Rouach
Edouard Cukierman and Daniel Rouach have written a new issue of their 2013 book “Israel Valley, the technological shield of innovation”. This new edition offers a complete update of the data that occurs in Israel’s high tech environment;
It also puts into perspective the new technologies that have emerged over the past 5 years that have completely transformed the global high-tech landscape: life sciences, artificial intelligence, cleantechs, cyber security… and the consequences of the rise of the new Chinese power.
A presentation of the 100 Israeli companies at the forefront of innovation completes this panorama.
Beyond the stories of the multi-start-ups who revolutionize our daily lives, this book is also an objective testimony to a country’s state of mind, of which adaptation, multiculturalism, risk-taking and the development of partnerships are the key principles.
Abstracts:
At a time when cities such as New York, Berlin, London and even Paris are emerging as credible rivals of Silicon Valley, Israel Valley faces several crucial challenges: this ecosystem has not yet allowed the emergence of large-scale national champions and is defined more as a successful model for producing and selling start-ups than as a country that would structurally impose itself on others.
It should be recalled that 95% of the funds invested in venture capital funds do not come from Israel but from pension funds or foreign insurance companies. In addition, Silicon Wadi faces the risks that its Californian counterpart is now facing: the threat of a future Internet bubble, a shortage of skilled labour, an explosion in the cost of real estate, accelerated pollution, an increasing social gap between rich and poor…
Yet the Israel Valley model has proven its worth and has been copied in many countries. For example, Chinese billionaire Li Ka-shing invested $130 million to create a subsidiary of Technion in southern China, the Haifa Technological Institute, one of Israel’s leading technology entrepreneurs.
But a simple transposition of structures is not enough to duplicate Israel Valley’s success because it is complex.
The Israeli innovation ecosystem and its dynamics are based on a set of creative tensions: they reflect the extreme vulnerability of an isolated, small state, almost devoid of natural resources, which can only ensure its survival through an indisputable military capability. This situation justified a very strong initial intervention by the State, which, through direct (investments) and indirect (tax benefits) actions, laid the foundations for a remarkable entrepreneurial system, where the various constituent parameters (large companies, investors, the army, universities, etc.) are mutually consolidated and which continues in actions carried out by an innovative private sector.
This system is also immersed in a sense of a powerful community that transcends the country’s borders and ensures both a high diversity of recruitment and a high level of solidarity.
Israel benefits from this important growth potential induced by disruptive innovations in the fields of genetics, biotech, biomedicine, robotics, nanotechnologies, blockchain, everything that allows Israel to challenge the classic laws of economics that want investment returns to decline.
Israel has an advantage over other advanced economies in the most crucial sector of growth projection, namely the size, orientation and education of the 20-34 age group, those who innovate, those who take risks, those who work hard, those who consume, those who produce and those who defend militarily. This age group, responsible for 40% of economic growth, is decreasing in Europe and other advanced countries, but it continues to grow in Israel. The fertility rate in these other advanced countries – other than Israel – is less than 2.1 children per woman, which is essential to maintain the population level, while the Jewish fertility rate in Israel is higher than 3 and sometimes can reach 3.5 children per woman.
Similarly, Israeli exports have been able to avoid the slowdown in world trade by developing niches that are unique and essential to the majority of countries, in the sectors of security, medicine, health, clean technology, cybersecurity, agriculture, irrigation…
The success of Israeli start-ups therefore goes far beyond the economic impact, which is only in terms of the amount of transactions carried out, since it has an impact on tourism with an increasing number of visits by international businessmen to Israel (restaurants, hotels, real estate), but also on many service providers who offer support to Israeli high-tech companies.
So even if only 3% of the Israeli population works in the high-tech sector, this has a significant economic impact on GNP. High-Tech is the driving force behind Israel’s economic growth because it accounts for more than half of all exports. These “start-upists” who sell their companies at a very young age, reuse the resources obtained by creating new companies, hence this dynamic, quite unique in the world of economic growth, directly linked to the success of High-Tech.
Thanks to the Internet, these companies can have the ambition to become global players (Mobileye, Waze), even for those with less high-tech-oriented structures that have become global leaders in the water sector such as Netafim or IDE.
Thus, the number of Israeli actors involved internationally reaching a critical size (Teva is another example) is growing, allowing us to see the Israeli economy grow with an ambitious future perspective.
It may seem pretentious to proclaim that it is difficult to imagine a world without Israel, because without it we would not have all the innovations, technology, creativity, medical advances that have already been given to the world through this country and we would miss all the remarkable contributions that are coming.
And this is where the Israel Valley model can face the future with strength and have confidence in its model.
Le bouclier technologique de l’innovation, Editions EMS, en vente à la FNAC,sur Amazon
