Vietnamese delegation with 21 participants in various fields has completed the course on Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Israel. There were a lot of feelings, ranges of lessons learnt and of course, bunches of ideas to apply for businesses in Vietnam.
Lessons were a mix between teaching content and the "Israeli atmosphere". Meir Golda Center was very thoughtful to arrange study tour. We did not stop at looking at the slides, but see, touch and feel the Israeli creativity.
We were shown that startup is the combination of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Innovation might not be a big idea, but something small and effective. That was what Haime Amsel said to us. Innovation is to address a problem and create new value. We suddenly realized "lack of market demand" was the reason why many Vietnamese start-ups were not successful. When talking about Entrepreneurship, it was amazing when a scrap dealer could be compared with Steve Jobs. Entrepreneurship or the business spirit is a must for everyone, from a person who shape the world to a person who live from hand to mouth. "Perseverance" or the spirit of accepting and overcoming all challenges in Entrepreneurship is something similar to Vietnamese mindset.
Rather than making a long, time-consuming business plan, we are introduced to Business Model Canvas. It is a tool to see whether the idea is good enough. Business Plan is the next step, developing from Business Model Canvas.
Everyone in the delegation was impressed by the warm welcome from Israeli incubators and accelerators. There were robots, drones, arduinos and other intelligent devices. It is noted that such centers are the cooperation of government, universities and the private sector to ensure harmony between theory and practice, between production and market and educate the generation of how to be creative.
Israel created a strong "internal force". The Israelis came together to build this nation in 1948 with a population of only 500,000 and GDP per capita of over $1,200. Now it grows to 8 million people with GDP per capita of over $30,000. A small nation in the Middle East rely on nothing but internal strength and the spirit of creativity to create a the miracle of Israel.
Vietnam and Israel also have many similarities with thousand-year culture. Both nations went through the wars. Vietnamese and Israeli are both hardworking and stubborn, always willing to develop. Respecting creativity from Israel, we will contribute to spread knowledge about Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Israel to make a stronger Vietnamese young community.
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