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Book Review: Start-Up Nation

 

Book Review: Start-Up Nation

Bon Ami Laishram

Start-Up Nation is the book by Dan Senor & Saul Singer. The book was published in 2009 but I have recently completed this book. This is the story of Israel rapid economic growth despite being surrounded by not so friendly neighbours, lack of natural resources, small area size and so on.

Israel is the only Jewish state in the world and the controversies follow along. Muslim world doesn’t recognised Israel as a state except the UAE & Bahrain. It’s because the land is under the radars of two different schools of thought. One is being the Jews who consider the land as their divine homeland and other being the Arabs who consider the State of Israel as occupying force. However, there is change in the Muslim world as well. A couple of them came forward for diplomatic ties with Israel as they witnessed the persistent advancement of Israel in economy, technology, leadership. The epitome of Arab world also started secret diplomacy with Israel.

The economy is boosted by entrepreneurship as its open market economy there. More start-ups flourished in the tiny nation. With a population of less than 8 million, total area size of about 22,072 Km2 which is even smaller than Manipur have successfully taken over NASDAQ Stock Market with more than 64 listed Israeli companies. They are very keen about research and development and they are the one who spend a larger portion of the GDP in research and development. The surrounding Arab nations don’t spend on research and development as compared to Israel. The major tech companies Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Intel, IBM, Motorola & many more have set up their research and development facilities in Israel considering the sharp mentality of the manpower in Israel.

Israel has always in the state of war since its foundation. They’re in the war with neighbouring Arab states. Israel won all wars they fought. One of the famous wars which sent message to the world ‘Israel is undefeatable’ is The Six-Day War, June, 1967 fought against combined forces of Jordon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq & Lebanon. Israel defeated all five forces in just six days. The population of Israel was also growing at the same time and per capita income multiplied then and now. Israel didn’t slow down in the phase of the recession of 2008. They’re successful in increasing seed capital in the time of recession also. Per capita seed capital investments in Israel were that of the USA, European nations and other Asiatic economies in the phase of the recession of 2008.

They could do all these with much lesser population and smaller area size. Their manpower is their main strength. They left behind developed nations like UK, Germany and France in raising seed capital. There was full monopoly of government in the capital market before. Holding foreign bank account was illegal. The American dollar could be exchanged at banks only with exchange charges. Inflation was sky rocketed. They took almost a decade to come out of this. They realised their mistake and sought help from the IMF with the help of the USA. They came out of the ruin in the fastest way possible.

The book often signals that the skill, discipline, work culture, teamwork, innovation behind their manpower is the result of the military service they served for 2-3 years. .Military service is mandatory in Israel. Prime Minister Neftali Bennett , former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were prominent servicemen in the Israeli military, even the Wonder woman movie actress Gal Gadot served in Israeli military for two years. Her expertise in physical activities, knowledge about ammunition is considered to be her plus points in her acting career. Israeli Military helped Singapore in shaping their military structure; the ultra-orthodox Jews and Arab Israelis aren’t inducted in the military. So, they are little backward in entrepreneurship as compared to those who came out from military. These groups rely on government welfare schemes for survival. Their population is also growing rapidly.

The book addresses the rise of the state; however, it didn’t mention anything about the internal conflicts.

There are many lessons that the bigger nations like ours can learn from the tiny nation. After all, it’s the leader and manpower behind the success of the nation.

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