Amnon Shashua (Facebook photo)
More than 20 of the Michigan's leading CEOs are in Israel on a mission to meet with that nation's entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and nonprofits to get insights into an evolving model that melds a resilient culture with immigration, respect for education and little fear of risk to produce a hot-bed of innovation, Detroit News columnist Daniel Howes writes.
Could Israel provide some ideas for Michigan?
Howes writes:
Israel is widely considered to be one of the most innovative economies in the world. Its risk-taking business culture, forged in one of the world’s toughest neighborhoods, is enriched by Silicon Valley’s money, indigenous venture capital, waves of educated immigrants and attitudes shaped by military service that inform its entrepreneurial ethos.
“Their definition of risk is different than ours,” says Dan Senor, co-author of Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle. “Everything they do has a sense of urgency. They’re a very impatient business population.”
“It’s OK to fail,” Amnon Shashua, founder of Mobileye, a pioneering Israeli company providing driver assistance systems and autonomous car technology to the global auto industry, told the Michigan CEOs Monday, according to Howes. “There’s no shame in failing. The lack of respect of authority — in Israel we don’t respect the prime minister, we don’t respect the Knesset, we don’t respect anything. It’s part of the culture.”
