(by Skye G.)
We're going back to Mongolia! It's been a long time coming, but after waiting and waiting, now everything is moving faster than anticipated! :)
Lots to do, not much time left...
We'll fly out of Norfolk on the 5th of August. So, in the next couple of weeks (I'm not counting the days!) we'll be wrapping up things at work. At the same time, we need to go thru all of our stuff, and sort into take, give, sell, ship, and discard piles. whew! hoping that this sunday afternoon can be a massive sprint thru everything in a garage, and then we'll tackle the house. ;)
Pray for us!
Besides all that, though, we are excited to be heading back.
(You can read our recent newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/eTmJg.)
We'll miss folks on this side of the world but are looking forwad to seeing friends and family on the other side! Keep in touch! Maybe you can come and teach in a Business Development Center in Ulaanbaatar...!
Friday, July 22, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Book Review: Start Up Nation
Start Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle
by Dan Senor and Saul Singer
Review by: Jason Benedict
Why does Israel have the highest density of start-ups in the world? Why are tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Intel, beating a path to their door? Why are there more companies listed on NASDAQ from Israel than from all of Europe combined? Why have they been able to attract over two times as much venture capital per capita as the US? What has created this ecosystem? This fascinating book by journalists Senor and Singer explores Israel’s economy, culture, politics and modern history to answer these questions.
In the last decade Israel has emerged as a leading innovator. Surrounding Arab countries may be able to pump oil, but the country of Israel is like a huge tech incubator that is pumping out new ideas at an unprecedented rate. This has allowed them to attract tech giants, leading thinkers and venture capital from around the globe. Though trans-national tech firms are setting up shop around the globe in countries like Singapore, India and Ireland, they don’t establish their mission critical work in those places. The authors quote an American executive from eBay saying, “Google, Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, eBay…the list goes on. The best kept secret is that we all live and die by the work of our Israeli teams” (p. 17).
The book outlines a number of factors that contribute to Israel’s success in this area. Perhaps the most striking theme is the way that Israel’s history, trials, mandatory military service and proximity to hostile neighbors has created a culture of entrepreneurship. This culture is observed in characteristics like chutzpah, resilience, egalitarianism, willingness to risk and a need to question the status quo and find a better way.
Chutzpah is the Yiddish word for an audacious, assertive, “never take no for an answer” attitude. Most Israeli’s possess an extreme egalitarianism and zeal for better ideas and improvement. This in turn produces very flat, cross functional organizational structures with little attention to hierarchy and protocol combined with a commitment to questioning, challenging and debriefing.
What does this look like? In the military, officers are challenged openly on ideas by enlisted men; in companies clerks challenge CEOs. Military officers are spread thin and important decisions are pushed down the ranks. Titles are dispensed with and teams work together for the best solution. Every action, successful and unsuccessful, is examined and debriefed in great detail. People are allowed to fail, but they had better learn from it. “Defending stuff that you’ve done is just not popular. If you screwed up, your job is to show the lessons you’ve learned. Nobody learns from someone who is being defensive” (p. 94).
The role that compulsory military service plays in shaping a culture of innovation is featured prominently in the book. The military, the IDF, has an extremely entrepreneurial culture: it puts young people in intense situations where they must learn teamwork, develop clarity, maturity, and judgment. They are put in charge of million-dollar equipment and expected to make life and death decisions. The authors contrast the average Silicon Valley worker in their mid-twenties with those in Israel: Israeli techies in their mid-twenties are veterans; they have a graduate degree and are married. “They’re much more mature; they’ve got more life experience. Innovation is all about finding ideas. In Israel you get experience, perspective and maturity at a younger age, because society jams so many transformative experiences into Israelis when they’re barely out of high school” (p. 73). The military also creates a powerful lifelong social network that plays prominently in many Israeli success stories. In Israel there is only one degree of separation. The IDF creates a kind of interconnectedness, transparency and accountability in society (p. 76).
Other factors that strengthen innovation are immigration, the proximity of hostile countries, and clusters. The book makes the case that immigrants are pre-disposed to entrepreneurship. “One or two generations back, someone in our family was packing very quickly and leaving. Immigrants are not averse to starting over. They are, by definition, risk takers. A nation of immigrants is a nation of entrepreneurs” (p. 130). Jewish communities globally also have placed a high value on intellectual capital, and have invested heavily in education. Immigrants were on average very well-educated and brought this highly portable intellectual capital with them.
Senor and Singer also develop the theme that the hostility of surrounding Arab populations has fed into the characteristic of chutzpah and created a kind of serious-minded resilience in Israelis. They are assertive, they focus, they don’t take things for granted, and they get used to risk. Scott Thomson of PayPal described his first all-staff meeting with his new Israeli acquisition. “Each face was turned raptly to him. No one was texting, surfing, or dozing off. The intensity only increased when he opened the discussion period: ‘Every question was penetrating. I actually started to get nervous up there. I’d never before heard so many unconventional observations – one after another. And these weren’t peers or supervisors, these were junior employees. And they had no inhibition about challenging the logic behind the way we at PayPal had been doing things for years. I’d never seen this kind of completely unvarnished, unintimidated, and undistracted attitude. I found myself thinking, ‘Who works for whom?’” (p. 30).
Another theme the authors develop is that Israel has created a classic cluster of the type described in Michael Porter’s work: education, talent, venture capital, and industry. However, they are careful to point out that clusters lack transformative power without the culture of innovation. Senor and Singer contrast Israel with Dubai’s largely ineffectual effort to create clusters that produce innovation. In fact, they are careful to point out that it is Israel’s combination of factors that works. Singapore has great education and compulsory military service, but their hierarchical, “never challenge the status quo” culture stifles innovation. Similarly, North Korea is under constant threat, but can’t foster entrepreneurship. The USA has an innovative military but has not been able to bridge the divide between military experience and the business community.
While Israel has been successful in becoming a kind of national incubator for technology startups, other parts of their economy have been lackluster. The authors are careful to explore challenges and pitfalls. This theme—success in spite of themselves—is instructive. For example, flirtations with socialism, Keynesian stimulus, and central control have hurt Israel in the past. From the mid-70’s to the mid-80’s there was an economic slump called the “lost decade”. While the tech sector is soaring, other parts of Israel’s economy have suffered from policies that are less business-friendly. Additionally, significant parts of the society, like the Hassidim and the Arab Israelis (communities exempt from compulsory military service), have high unemployment and low incomes. A combination of high birth rates and dependence on social welfare in these communities threatens Israel’s continued economic success.
Start Up Nation is instructive in many ways, but perhaps most importantly, by contributing a definition and prescription for creating an entrepreneurial culture: blend a culture of assertiveness, willingness to question, good judgment, courage, willingness to risk, resilience, and esteem of experiential learning, along with an appreciation for real solutions, instructive failure and experimentation. These characteristics, when present together, make an excellent environment for entrepreneurship.
One topic the authors didn’t explore, a gap in my estimation, was the concept of spiritual capital, and the possible role it could play in Israel’s economic miracle.
Book website: http://www.startupnationbook.com/
by Dan Senor and Saul Singer
Review by: Jason Benedict
Why does Israel have the highest density of start-ups in the world? Why are tech companies like Google, Microsoft and Intel, beating a path to their door? Why are there more companies listed on NASDAQ from Israel than from all of Europe combined? Why have they been able to attract over two times as much venture capital per capita as the US? What has created this ecosystem? This fascinating book by journalists Senor and Singer explores Israel’s economy, culture, politics and modern history to answer these questions.
In the last decade Israel has emerged as a leading innovator. Surrounding Arab countries may be able to pump oil, but the country of Israel is like a huge tech incubator that is pumping out new ideas at an unprecedented rate. This has allowed them to attract tech giants, leading thinkers and venture capital from around the globe. Though trans-national tech firms are setting up shop around the globe in countries like Singapore, India and Ireland, they don’t establish their mission critical work in those places. The authors quote an American executive from eBay saying, “Google, Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, eBay…the list goes on. The best kept secret is that we all live and die by the work of our Israeli teams” (p. 17).
The book outlines a number of factors that contribute to Israel’s success in this area. Perhaps the most striking theme is the way that Israel’s history, trials, mandatory military service and proximity to hostile neighbors has created a culture of entrepreneurship. This culture is observed in characteristics like chutzpah, resilience, egalitarianism, willingness to risk and a need to question the status quo and find a better way.
Chutzpah is the Yiddish word for an audacious, assertive, “never take no for an answer” attitude. Most Israeli’s possess an extreme egalitarianism and zeal for better ideas and improvement. This in turn produces very flat, cross functional organizational structures with little attention to hierarchy and protocol combined with a commitment to questioning, challenging and debriefing.
What does this look like? In the military, officers are challenged openly on ideas by enlisted men; in companies clerks challenge CEOs. Military officers are spread thin and important decisions are pushed down the ranks. Titles are dispensed with and teams work together for the best solution. Every action, successful and unsuccessful, is examined and debriefed in great detail. People are allowed to fail, but they had better learn from it. “Defending stuff that you’ve done is just not popular. If you screwed up, your job is to show the lessons you’ve learned. Nobody learns from someone who is being defensive” (p. 94).
The role that compulsory military service plays in shaping a culture of innovation is featured prominently in the book. The military, the IDF, has an extremely entrepreneurial culture: it puts young people in intense situations where they must learn teamwork, develop clarity, maturity, and judgment. They are put in charge of million-dollar equipment and expected to make life and death decisions. The authors contrast the average Silicon Valley worker in their mid-twenties with those in Israel: Israeli techies in their mid-twenties are veterans; they have a graduate degree and are married. “They’re much more mature; they’ve got more life experience. Innovation is all about finding ideas. In Israel you get experience, perspective and maturity at a younger age, because society jams so many transformative experiences into Israelis when they’re barely out of high school” (p. 73). The military also creates a powerful lifelong social network that plays prominently in many Israeli success stories. In Israel there is only one degree of separation. The IDF creates a kind of interconnectedness, transparency and accountability in society (p. 76).
Other factors that strengthen innovation are immigration, the proximity of hostile countries, and clusters. The book makes the case that immigrants are pre-disposed to entrepreneurship. “One or two generations back, someone in our family was packing very quickly and leaving. Immigrants are not averse to starting over. They are, by definition, risk takers. A nation of immigrants is a nation of entrepreneurs” (p. 130). Jewish communities globally also have placed a high value on intellectual capital, and have invested heavily in education. Immigrants were on average very well-educated and brought this highly portable intellectual capital with them.
Senor and Singer also develop the theme that the hostility of surrounding Arab populations has fed into the characteristic of chutzpah and created a kind of serious-minded resilience in Israelis. They are assertive, they focus, they don’t take things for granted, and they get used to risk. Scott Thomson of PayPal described his first all-staff meeting with his new Israeli acquisition. “Each face was turned raptly to him. No one was texting, surfing, or dozing off. The intensity only increased when he opened the discussion period: ‘Every question was penetrating. I actually started to get nervous up there. I’d never before heard so many unconventional observations – one after another. And these weren’t peers or supervisors, these were junior employees. And they had no inhibition about challenging the logic behind the way we at PayPal had been doing things for years. I’d never seen this kind of completely unvarnished, unintimidated, and undistracted attitude. I found myself thinking, ‘Who works for whom?’” (p. 30).
Another theme the authors develop is that Israel has created a classic cluster of the type described in Michael Porter’s work: education, talent, venture capital, and industry. However, they are careful to point out that clusters lack transformative power without the culture of innovation. Senor and Singer contrast Israel with Dubai’s largely ineffectual effort to create clusters that produce innovation. In fact, they are careful to point out that it is Israel’s combination of factors that works. Singapore has great education and compulsory military service, but their hierarchical, “never challenge the status quo” culture stifles innovation. Similarly, North Korea is under constant threat, but can’t foster entrepreneurship. The USA has an innovative military but has not been able to bridge the divide between military experience and the business community.
While Israel has been successful in becoming a kind of national incubator for technology startups, other parts of their economy have been lackluster. The authors are careful to explore challenges and pitfalls. This theme—success in spite of themselves—is instructive. For example, flirtations with socialism, Keynesian stimulus, and central control have hurt Israel in the past. From the mid-70’s to the mid-80’s there was an economic slump called the “lost decade”. While the tech sector is soaring, other parts of Israel’s economy have suffered from policies that are less business-friendly. Additionally, significant parts of the society, like the Hassidim and the Arab Israelis (communities exempt from compulsory military service), have high unemployment and low incomes. A combination of high birth rates and dependence on social welfare in these communities threatens Israel’s continued economic success.
Start Up Nation is instructive in many ways, but perhaps most importantly, by contributing a definition and prescription for creating an entrepreneurial culture: blend a culture of assertiveness, willingness to question, good judgment, courage, willingness to risk, resilience, and esteem of experiential learning, along with an appreciation for real solutions, instructive failure and experimentation. These characteristics, when present together, make an excellent environment for entrepreneurship.
One topic the authors didn’t explore, a gap in my estimation, was the concept of spiritual capital, and the possible role it could play in Israel’s economic miracle.
Book website: http://www.startupnationbook.com/
Friday, June 17, 2011
Rwanda Entrepreneur Profile: Yves Tuyishime
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| Yves, 24 years |
Yves has a Bachelors degree in Economics. He completed internships in the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of East African Community and is now doing an internship at DOT Rwanda, an NGO promoting Entrepreneurship and ICT.
He is hard working, open minded, and a fast learner. His desire is to change lives and be successful by starting his own business.
BUSINESS IDEA: Consultancy in carbon market projects
Yves is one of the 29 entrepreneurs studying at the Rwanda Business Development Center, Spring 2011
OneMaker: Hope for a Jewelry Business for Deaf Artisans in Kenya
Blog post by Jana Harp Dean, President of OneMaker and consultant to organizations starting businesses to employ poor women in developing countries. OneMaker is a 501c3 organization that exists to be a tangible expression of God's love to poor women and girls vulnerable to trafficking and other exploitation by giving them opportunities through education and business ventures. Visit www.onemaker.com for more information.
Just last month, I had the privilege of providing strategic business consultation and training to DOOR International at their campus just outside Nairobi, Kenya. Mike Buus, the president of DOOR International, dreams of starting-up a jewelry-making business that would employ 100 Deaf artisans in Kenya.
Like in most developing countries, the greatest felt need in Kenya is for jobs. The last estimated unemployment rate for Kenya was 40% (est. for 2008, reported in the 11/9/2010 report of The World Factbook). In a ranking of 200 countries from lowest to highest unemployment, Kenya ranks number 185. (The World Factbook, a CIA publication, 2010). Among the Deaf, the unemployment rate is even higher, perhaps even as high as 85%.
The president of DOOR International conducted an informal survey among the Deaf at a church service. He asked how many people in the room had a job. No hands went up. He then rephrased the question, “How many of you have a part-time job or a temporary job like painting a room for your brother for which you get paid?” About 15% of the hands went up. Although they may be skilled and hard workers, because employers don’t know sign language, the Deaf are hard to employ.
To address this problem, DOOR has already started business ventures to employ the Deaf, including a rabbit farm, a fishery, and an organic produce farm. DOOR wants to continue to create more jobs for the Deaf and expand its business portfolio to include a business that taps into an international market.
A jewelry making business does just that - taps into the international market - and has some other aspects that make it especially fitting to the context. Basic jewelry making skills are relatively easy to learn and it takes a relatively short time to acquire them. The tools and equipment needed for making simple jewelry are inexpensive and some raw materials are available locally. The global market for jewelry is large and the U.S. represents about half of the global jewelry market. Exporting creates the potential for generating more revenue and more profit than a business creating products to be sold only inside Kenya would.
To start a jewelry making business in Kenya, there are many issues to work through, including a 50% tariff on any imported items, even raw materials imported to use in items to be manufactured for export. Although there are many raw materials available to incorporate into jewelry, higher quality finishing pieces, like clasps, would have to be imported, at least initially. Another major challenge is finding a business person to champion the start up. Over the week I was there, Deaf women demonstrated that they could master the skills required and, because they need jobs, were very much in favor of a business start up that would employ them. Those on the planning team love the idea as well, but, as in many Christian organizations, most of the staff had too many responsibilities already and could not take on more.
Over the week I spent with DOOR, several days were devoted to teaching jewelry making skills to Deaf women. Mike had mentioned that the Deaf tend to be very attentive to detail and are eager to do a good job. He was right. I have taught jewelry making skills to women from many countries and often through translators, but have never encountered a group that was able to master as many skills as quickly as this group. As visual learners, they noticed even the smallest details in the demonstration of the particular technique. They consistently asked for feedback and wanted to know if there was anything they could improve on. They caught the concepts quickly and translated the concepts into completed pieces of jewelry.
Next steps:
DOOR has commissioned OneMaker to design 15-20 pieces of jewelry using materials available in Kenya plus some higher quality supplemental materials not available in Kenya. Later this year, I plan to return to Kenya to teach the artisans how to make each one of those products. In the meantime, we’ll keep praying that God will raise up a business manager.
The president and I will also work on the business plan together. Then, when the Lord has provided the business manager, I hope to provide training for him or her as well. I’m so honored and delighted to be able to be part of a business start-up that has the potential of blessing so many.
Would you pray with me for:
- God to raise up a business manager to lead this business that would employ 100 Deaf people one day.
- Creativity and wisdom as I design 15-20 jewelry pieces.
- Retail buyers for these pieces of jewelry.
- Blessing on a business that would provide for the physical needs of Deaf Kenyan artisans and their families as they work in dignity.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog entry and for your prayers for these budding artisans and this business venture. If you’re interested in receiving future updates on this or other OneMaker consulting projects, please email me at jana@onemaker.com.
Evening 1
Arriving in Africa feels a bit to me like moving from air to water. You know how when you dive under the surface of the water, your movement is in slow motion? It’s like that here. To me, it actually has a quieting effect. Having lived in slower-paced cultures, like those of Guatemala and Afghanistan, this environment feels familiar and comfortable. I landed and got in the visa line with my completed application and my $25, as new and crisp as I could find, and then I waited……and waited…..and waited. I was one of the lucky ones who had a worker actually sitting at the desk processing applications at the front of the line. Poor souls in the line to the right of me had no worker at all until one of them approached another worker to inquire about where this one was!
I wasn’t in a hurry so just enjoyed looking around at all the people in all the others lines to either side of me…..waiting. There were Africans and Indians and British people and other westerners.
I learned that the Indians built a train line through here many years ago and many of them settled here in Nairobi. They started lots of businesses and are now known as the “white Kenyans”.
Upon arriving at the campus, I learned how important security is here. The walls had razor wire uncoiled along the top of them to keep would-be intruders out, but that’s not all. There are two night guards and ferocious dogs that patrol with them. Apparently, these dogs will tear up anyone who comes out of their building onto the grounds at night except the guards themselves. If jet lag wasn’t enough to keep me in bed, the thought of those two dogs patrolling about was more than enough! I was also told that paw prints of lionesses were often seen on the dirt road in front of the main compound gate. And, interestingly, there are never any stray dogs loitering about.
Click here to read complete post.
Click here to read complete post.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Rwanda Entrepreneur Profile: Mathilde Umurerwa
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| Mathilde, 37 years |
Mathilde has been married for 17 years and is a mother of 8 children. She is a born again Christian and is a deacon at the Restoration Church.
She has a Diploma in Nursing and has worked with the FAV NGO, Relief Rwanda. She now works with the Jireh Business training center as the in-charge of the health and nutrition program.
She initiated a program of making BASKET Agaseke by mothers of poor children to have an income generating activity. Her goal is to serve God and continue her studies
BUSINESS IDEA: Supply & home delivery
Mathilde is one of the 29 entrepreneurs studying at the Rwanda Business Development Center, Spring 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Rwanda Entrepreneur Profile: Sarah Mukundwa
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| Sarah, 24 years |
Sarah is newly married. She holds a Bachelors degree in Business Administration and works as a career Advisory Manager at INILAK.
She is a simple and quiet person who wishes to be an independent entrepreneur and run her own business.
BUSINESS IDEA: Mobile beauty care business
Sarah is one of the 29 entrepreneurs studying at the Rwanda Business Development Center, Spring 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Rwanda Entrepreneur Profile: Aime Munyanganzo
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| Aime, 36 years |
Aime is married and a member of JCI. He has a Bachelors degree in Management. He has worked as the operations manager at AXIS Rwanda; corporate relationship manager at ECOBANK and the in-charge of OTM at Ecobank. He now works as a customer Advisor in Cogebanque.
He loves listening to gospel and country music as well as reading and playing tennis;. He dreams of becoming an independent successful Entrepreneur.
BUSINESS IDEA; Banking excellence center (training in partnership with a US Based banking excellence center)
Aime is one of the 29 entrepreneurs studying at the Rwanda Business Development Center, Spring 2011
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