Engineers alone won’t make it. We need to put engineers together with writers, storytellers, advertising people, artists… We need to know how to put a smile on the face of a 16 years old girl if we are to succeed. An army of engineers alone can’t succeed.

The new era needs to go beyond the engineering club to work with different disciplines, like King Arthur’s 12 knights at the round table, each representing a different discipline: film, Web, storytelling, medicine…

This advice comes from one of the most influential businessmen in Israel, who is a high-tech and social entrepreneur but instead of having an engineer background, has a doctorate in philosophy from New York‘s Columbia University and is a former director of business development for the city of Jerusalem.

 

2 – Go To Creative Hubs not R&D Centers

To create, it is better to be around people with different mindsets. It’s not just a world where an engineer meets another engineer, it’s a world where an engineer meets an artist, a movie person, an advertising person…

The people, and even companies and countries that will succeed are those that will focus on creative hubs rather than R&D centers.

People misread Israel’s competitive advantage. Israel’s competitive advantage is not technology, it is creativity. If Israel is going to thrive in the next generation of high technology it needs to be a broader creative hub. That’s our biggest competitive advantage versus places like India and China, where you have quite a bit of engineering talent.”

Situated in the heart of Jerusalem’s “Cultural Mile”, the JVP Media Quarter gives expression to the vision of fusing technology, creativity and social action in one exciting complex. Over 300 young, employees gather there daily to work in the compound that encompasses the venture capital firm, the JVP Media Labs (our technology incubator), a dozen JVP start-up and portfolio companies, a performing arts hub, “Zappa Jerusalem in The Lab”, and a social profit organization “JVP Community” (Bakehila). Exciting fusion occurs as these engineers, artists, storytellers and entrepreneurs in the profit, social profit and entertainment worlds meet in the courtyards and corridors of the JVP Media Quarter.

 

3 – Focus on What not on How

Entrepreneurs should first focus on attending needs, then on making money. There is no need to show you can make money immediately. Before showing you can make money, focus on developing a crystal clear idea.

The role of a good VC is to help entrepreneurs develop their dream, their vision, even if the business model and how it will generate revenue is not clear. A good VC’s obligation is to allow the entrepreneur to crystallise his/her idea without focusing on the business model.

 

4 – Learn from the giants

One of the most amazing stories comes from Starbucks. You have to understand how someone can convince people to pay $4,50 for something they know costs around 9 cents. In fact, you should focus on learning from anybody who struggled to create anything from a school to a company. For instance, Steve Jobs was a controversial figure but a great entrepreneur, the two founders of Google redefined what search means and Wikipedia redefined how to collectively create and distribute information.

 

5 – Have your bags packed

In the beginning you can focus on only one discipline. However the act of innovation includes blending one discipline with another. It is easier to find something unique if the entrepreneur knows how to work not only with people from different academic backgrounds but also with cultural differences.

At JVP we employee many Arabs and women. We want to foster the entrepreneurship spirit among the Arabs. Our goal is to multiply by 20 the number of Arab entrepreneurs in the next five goals.

One of the main reasons for Israel to be a startup nation is that we are a nation of immigrants. You can’t determine where the world is going if everybody around the table is from the same nationality.

 

6 – Get Out of Your Own Way

Entrepreneurs are often their own main obstacles. The best entrepreneurs know they need to work with other people. You have to think inside and outside of your discipline. Successful entrepreneurs need to have strong points of view but also listen to others. They need to know how to create a dialect process with all stakeholders.

 

7 – Four must reads for aspiring entrepreneurs

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. You need to understand what quality means for you and for your consumers.

The story of David and Goliath. Storytelling is a key skill. Israelis have a great tradition as storytellers and is one of our competitive advantages. You must have at least one person on board that is a great storyteller.

Other works he indicated were Art of war by Sun Tzu and the biography of Steve Jobs.

Recently, I have met a Nobel Prize winner and a Brazilian billionaire who is the head of the largest retailer in Latin America and also author of a best seller book in Brazil. Erel Margalit has something in common with them, he is extremely knowledgeable about many different issues, our conversation covered many topics that I will be sharing in later posts. By the way, when I asked if he was a billionaire he simply answered “let’s talk about important things, Ricardo.”

I wouldn’t miss the chance of asking Erel’s opinion on Facebook, the hot topic of the moment:

Facebook IPO was poor managed. Individuals want to be treated fairly but Facebook made some IPO 101 mistakes. The company is amazing, the offering is amazing; Facebook is not a technological revolution but a cultural revolution. It helped revolutions in North Africa by putting the bottom of the pyramid on top.