Saturday, January 02, 2016

Start-up Nation

Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic MiracleStart-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle by Dan Senor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As Asian whose culture is subscribe to elders, seniors, people of title it is a big surprise for me that Israelis with a prominent military culture can still have a culture of openness and reject the rigidity that comes with hierarchies. Telling your leaders they are wrong is frowned upon in other cultures.

Actually every entry about the military is an eye opener for me. Perhaps it is only real in the Israeli context but before reading this book when I thought of armies I thought rigid and closed. Here it’s a springboard. There’s team; it’s one of the most important social glue in the country. There’s intermixing of disciplines including high tech.

I also like the part of clusters. I always thought about that subject in a smaller sense (an office) wherein it’s not always about the infrastructure and the systems, there is an informal social glue or links you have to consider, and you can’t just manufacture.

There are also parts about Israeli history, explanations of how they became that way or like in the kibbutz, how they overcame challenges. The book is quite comprehensive. A must read.

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