Ran Poliakine

Water, Water Everywhere…Nor Any Drop to Drink

Samuel Taylor Coleridge –  The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Dear Friends,

About 12 years ago I was traveling through Mexico City enjoying the sights and trying to soak in the local culture.  Since this was my first trip ‘south of the border’ (so to speak) I remember surveying the place with a keen eye.  I also remember the one sight that struck me like a lead weight. In fact, that sight has stayed with me, even until today. It was in the suburbs of Mexico City at that time that I saw an epidemic of people stretched out in the streets in the obvious throes of terrible disease.  When I asked several of my travel mates what exactly was the cause of this epidemic they told me that it was ‘water sickness’ and that it was a common occurrence throughout the country.  Later on I learned the fundamental cause of this disease which shocked me almost as much as the sight of its victims: a lack of access to clean water.

Now there’s no doubt that I’ve been blessed in my life, but I have to admit that up until that time I, along with most of you I’ll venture, had taken clean water for granted.   I mean if I wanted clean water it was never as far away as the nearest faucet.

However, not everyone is so blessed. The things that many of us take for granted are exactly the things that we should be most thankful for. For instance, if you don’t have to worry on a daily basis about where you will get the food to feed your children on that particular day, you are already in a better position than 33% of the world’s population.  And, as I learned, if you have never suffered from thirst because of a lack access to clean water, then you are more blessed than roughly 1 Billion other people in the World.

Think about it: in the year 2013, 1 Billion people translates to roughly one out of every eight human beings around the globe who don’t even have access to clean water. And yet, you and I drink as much as we want every day, bathe for as long as we want, as many times as we want every single day. We water our plants, go to swimming pools for recreational purposes, even put decorative fountains in our front yards just because we like the way it looks.

A few hard – and sobering – facts from the World Health Organization:

• Of the 1 Billion people that lack access to clean water, 3.5 million will die this year from a water-related disease
• 1.5 million of those deaths will be among children under the age of five.
• 98% of all those deaths will occur in the developing third world.

At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.  A major contributing factor is that 80% of sewage in developing countries is discharged into rivers, lakes and coastal areas without first being treated.  And the problem generally perpetuates itself.

A community water crisis leaves a far greater impact on the community than just the absence of clean, usable water which, of course, is devastating in and of itself. Women and children are forced to spend hours every day in the pursuit of that basic need with little room for anything else. Children are neglected, things like studying and personal development are thrown by the wayside and basic notions of human kindness are forgotten. In fact, the health of the entire community is put at risk when a staple as basic as clean water is removed from the picture.

What’s even worse is that in many of these third-world countries water, like other natural resources, is viewed as a strategic commodity that can be horded and traded for political significance. As one might expect of third world regimes, the ability to control the available water supply is used as leverage to keep the people in check.

Of course there are a host of international organizations dedicated to helping provide solutions for access to safe drinking water and the work they do saves countless lives.  But according to Water.org over 50% of water projects worldwide fail. Less than 5% of the projects are ever revisited and less than 1% of completed water projects are ever monitored for any length of time so that if they break down at any given point they are rarely reinstated.

This is the part where I’d like to be able to say that I immediately ran out, enlisted the help of my friends and came up with a super awesome technology to purify water supplies in every third world country on the map.  In fact, it took 12 years and the support of my close friend and business partner, Moshe Moalem, to address the issue in any meaningful way.

Having spent much time in Africa among third world populations, Moshe quickly impressed upon me that if we wanted to really make a difference, we needed to target individual households, and not public agencies.  His reasoning was spot on. Individual households and not government agencies account for the largest investment in basic sanitation needs on a 10:1 ratio.

The idea is simple and at the same time completely effective. We use ultraviolet waves commonly found in LED lighting to kill bacteria and other impurities by means of a hand operated UV water purification system for home use.  The beauty of the system is that it is stand alone and is targeted for use in locations that have no access to electricity or running water.

The system is operated by manual spinning of a crank handle generating the kinetic energy for operating a water pump and power generator

The system is a portable and can be used both at home before consuming collected or stored water while, at the same time, being economical, long lasting and maintenance-free.

We have already begun to cultivate the necessary ‘supply chains’ needed to get our life-saving water systems into the hands of those who will most benefit. As you might imagine, every day provides newer and greater challenges.  But in the end every day also brings us a bit closer to reaching those most in need.

Warm Regards,

Ran

Dear Friends;

Think back to the last time you cut yourself…either shaving or mishandling a knife or even a paper cut. No big deal.  It happens to everyone, right?  But consider this: there was a time not so long ago when a simple paper cut could have been deadly.

In fact, before the discovery of penicillin in 1928, a simple cut was anything but.  Minor ailments by today’s standards, like an ear or urinary tract infection or any of several strains of skin rashes, were cause for great alarm because of the potential for infection and resulting death.   In fact, until Alexander Fleming looked at that weeks old piece of bread and thought “Hmmm….maybe that furry green thing on that fetid roll could help cure the infection spreading through my body” (in a million years I would never have put the pieces of that puzzle together) people routinely died from infections that are easily cured today.

We are fortunate to be living in a time with access to a great many technologies and discoveries that have made our lives better, richer, safer and longer than ever before. We take for granted things like the World Wide Web, X-Ray machines, GPS systems, Air Travel, TV, Antibiotics, cars, telephones and so many more innovations without which we would be lost. But these things were not always available.  And in most cases people didn’t even know that they needed most of them until after they were invented and mass produced.  Today, who among us would even give up their TV remote control let alone penicillin?

Henry Ford once said “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”  His point, of course, was that often we ourselves don’t know what we need until after we’re presented with it. I can remember the time before the Internet quite well. Did we think we were missing something because we had to go to the library to get our information? No. But now, would I even be able to go back to pre-www days if I had to?  I’m not so sure.

The people who lived at the time of the industrial revolution assumed they had reached the pinnacle of technological advance.  They had seen the advent of trains, stream boats, and even mass production of Ford model cars.  They had also seen first-hand the benefits to their general way of life afforded by these inventions.

I wonder what they would say if they saw my wife ordering a week’s worth of groceries in 10 minutes from Fresh Direct or me making reservations to be at a trade show in Barcelona on Tuesday, then flying back to Israel on Thursday only to board a plane for Beijing the following Sunday?

Which brings me to the point of this blog: there are those technologies that once created, discovered, or unveiled set us on a path of no return. For better or worse they are so disruptive as to alter life as we know it to the point that we couldn’t possibly do without them once experienced. I have always said that technology, in and of itself, no matter how cool or shiny or new is worthless. The real and only measure of the worth of any technology is in its capacity to make the human condition that much better. Either it helps us or it doesn’t.

Wellsense Technologies, a company that I founded several years ago, employs the kind of technology that fundamentally makes a difference in people’s lives.  Wellsense’s technology enables caretakers (nurses, etc.) to view pressure points along the length of a bed-ridden patient’s body and, in doing so, determine those spots where the pressure is either intense or unremarkable.  In turn, the caretaker is able to more effectively reposition the non-ambulatory patient to avoid the onset of a decubitus ulcer (bed sore).  Anyone forced to lie on a bed over a long period of time without the ability to move is at risk for developing bed sores. In fact, According to this month’s issue of Right Diagnosis from Health Grades, the incidence of bedsores in The US is an astounding: 474,692 per year, 39,557 per month, 9,128 per week, 1,300 per day, and 54 new occurrences per hour.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that caretakers, (including medical personnel), however well-meaning, have no way of knowing whether they have alleviated the pressure point as a result of repositioning their patient. They operate by intuition and are essentially forced to guess whether they have successfully done the job and simply hope for the best.  In most instances they are operating blindly to prevent what could become a severely painful and life-threatening condition. By placing a bed sheet with built-in Wellsense technology under a patient, the caretaker is empowered to actually see whether or not undue pressure points have been alleviated by means of a color-coded easy-to-read map projected onto a monitor.

Does it work? You bet.

According to Dr. Ronald G. Scott, Director of Wound Care at a North Dallas Long Term Acute Care Hospital that conducted one of the first long-term studies of Wellsense mapping technology, a significant reduction in pressure ulcer occurrence was realized over the six month period in 2012 once the technology was implemented.  During this period, zero hospital acquired pressure ulcers occurred, in comparison to 16 pressure ulcers in the same timeframe in 2011 (check out more of the findings in the links below).

Scott_MAP prevention_poster_NPUAP-2013_v3

Scott_MAP biofeedback_poster_NPUAP-2013_v4

Like I said, the real measure of a technology is measured in how it affects our lives.  And while I sincerely hope that none of you will ever need to “enjoy” the benefits of Wellsense, it’s gratifying to know that we’re making a difference for those who need help.  In the end, it’s all that really matters.

Warm Regards,

Ran

Dear Friends,

Hello and welcome back my friends! After a too-long hiatus in which I have neglected you all, I am back and ready to blog! For starters, It’s nice to see you all again.

Before jumping into the business side of things…which is going swimmingly (thank you for asking)…I’d like to share my thoughts on an event that we recently hosted in partnership with the Department of Industrial Design in the Holon Institute of Technology right here in Israel. Rarely am I so inspired and at the same time humbled by a project we have set in motion with an outside source.

The innovation project which was open to students of industrial design at HIT was entitled, ‘A World without Wires.’ The goal of the project was to create a ‘think lab’ where the students would provide their takes on wireless energy delivery…now and in the future. Utilizing Powermat technology, the students were challenged to showcase products and designs that either addressed current wireless energy issues or future products that will be invaluable as a ‘World without Wires’ comes to fruition. Two professors from the Holon Institute, alongside a professional team from within Powermat, including experts in Technology, OEM, marketing, design & manufacturing led the charge (pun intended). The project ran over the course of four months, and came to an end just last week; the students presented their projects and ideas they came up with and the outcome was beyond sensational.

Without giving away the entire store (the ideas were SO good that we will work to implement several of them as part of our manifesto to take over the world!) I can tell you they ranged from a wireless generator that helps you stay powered as you ride your bicycle around town (very eco-friendly) to a very innovative design for staying powered up while you enjoy your McDonald’s Happy Meal and even a way to wirelessly light your cigar! In short: BRILLIANT.

Why did we do this?

These students and their designs represent not only the future of wireless technology but the future itself. We need their buy-in to secure the vision of a wireless world. At no other time in our collective history has technology moved and changed things at such breakneck speed in so many areas of our lives. I often say that if the designers of the original ‘plug and outlet’ model of electricity delivery were to suddenly stop in for coffee in current day America, they wouldn’t recognize a single thing as familiar except for their original design. By approaching the students, who are our ambassadors to the future we achieved two amazing results at once: Powermat has expanded its future products portfolio with products that consumers actually want and we have sparked the imagination of the students who will one day make a real difference in spreading the wireless dream. Win-Win.

It was also very rewarding to see the students come up with their own ideas for products development, market research insights and problem solving including rethinking the design and functionality of day to day products so that they deliver the best possible service, and then incorporate all of their findings into a real working model (in this case a prototype.)

With current technology such as 3D printers, and the help of Powermat’s tech team, the students delivered innovative designs product at low costs without compromising their ideas and concepts. We were able to providethe students with a level of practical experience that they otherwise wouldn’t have had. In return, they gave us the future.

I’m happy to report that the future looks both bright and wireless!

Back soon…promise.

Warm regards,
Ran

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.
- Bob Dylan

Dear Friends;
I can remember a time when CEOs, like the monochromatic neckties they seemingly wore around the clock, came in a “one size fits all” model. In the not-so-distant past the standard model CEO was inevitably male, Caucasian, ivy-league educated, somewhere beginning in his mid-50’s, married, church-going and, by all accounts, “living the American dream.” I remember it was a VERY big deal back in 1999 when Carly Fiorina was appointed CEO of Hewlett Packard, effectively becoming the first woman ever to lead a Fortune 20 Company. And I also remember that the media was on her like white on rice. She was vilified by some, deified by others and stereotyped by just about everyone. In the end, when she was forced out after a contentious merger with Compaq and the resulting diminution of HP stock by more than half, the media even referred to her as “the token bimbo.”

Fast forward a mere 13 years later and the story of the day is the appointment of Marissa Mayer as the CEO of Yahoo. And while she joins the ranks of other women CEOs that have filled the gap between her tenure and that of Ms. Fiorina (think Meg Whitman of eBay, Anne Mulcahy of Xerox, Indra Nooyi of Pepsico, and Lynn Elsenhans of Sunoco to name just a few) the new twist on the issue is that she is pregnant with her first child! The debate now shifts once more from whether a woman is as capable as a man of leading a company (of course she is) to whether women can truly have it all (juggling the responsibilities of both high-powered career and raising a family.)

The issue was debated recently in a June 26 New York Times article about Anne-Marie Slaughter, a well-known Princeton professor and former top aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton in the State Department who after only 18 months of trying to “have it all” quit her job to return to her Princeton-based family and tend to her husband and troubled teenage son. In a cover story that she subsequently wrote for The Atlantic titled “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” she cited an imbalanced work/life split and a realization that she was shortchanging her family by throwing her all into her foreign-policy dream job.

The resulting uproar was thunderous. Chief among the voices of dissent was Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook whose out-of-the-box experience with her own atypical CEO (a 28-year-old prodigy by the name of Mark Zuckerberg) is further proof of how far we have strayed from the traditional CEO paradigm. According to Ms. Sandberg the trick in having it all is (among several more obvious prerequisites) to “pick a partner who will support you in that endeavor.” Very wise, Ms. Sandberg.

From where I stand, our changing CEO landscape makes perfect sense. It is a microcosm that accurately reflects where we are as a society. In an era that has hotly debated the issue of “gay marriage” it makes perfect sense that we will have seen the appointment of the first openly gay CEO, Apple’s Tim Cook, now arguably the most powerful gay man in the world.

Similarly, in an era where the United States has its first black chief executive it makes sense that Don Thompson, a black man, was appointed as the CEO of a Fortune 500 American institution like McDonald’s on July 1. As Bob Dylan pointed out, The Times they are a-Changin’. I add one caveat to that which is the fact that the times are indeed changing but we still have a long way to go.

Of all the parliaments around the world, only 13 percent of those seats are held by women. With regard to Corporate America’s top jobs, 15 percent are held by women, and only 13 black executives have ever made it to the Chairman or CEO position of a “Fortune 500″ company. Still, for minorities and those who fall outside the typically “acceptable” mold, the future is brighter than it’s ever been.

With regard to Ms. Mayer, the new CEO of Yahoo, I have the following to offer: I, myself, albeit a man, am also a CEO with 5 young children at home. I can tell you that it’s a challenging endeavor to try and do your job well both on the workfront and on the homefront. But from where I stand it’s not so much an issue of gender as it is one of time. We are all so time crunched these days that it’s hard to find the time to devote to everything to the extent needed. That’s why I wholeheartedly endorse the advice of Ms. Sandberg. You can’t do it alone but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.

The old saying used to be that “behind every great man there’s a great woman.” It may just be that the time has come to modify that saying so that it reads “behind every great person there’s a great partner.”

Warm Regards,
Ran

The following article was guest authored by me and appears in this week’s edition of Power Pulse (www.powerpulse.net). Hope you enjoy reading it! – Ran

The “electrical” revolution that began in the 18th century with the storied escapades of Benjamin Franklin and his opportunistic kite flying and eventually carried through to Nikola Tesla who sought to perfect the ability to efficiently transfer energy over long distances using thin conductive wires, gave rise to a new dawn in the era of technology.

The myriad devices and inventions made possible by the commercialization of electrical energy conductivity made our lives infinitely easier, more comfortable, and safer. For instance, we now light and warm our homes without needing to lug wood or coal, without unpleasant odors or dangerous gas leaks, and without cleaning soot stains out from a chimney or from our clothing. Washing machines, vacuum cleaners, fans, and many other devices based on gears or pumps, are activated by electrical current.

And, of course all electronic devices, such as CD players, TV’s and radios, computers, communications networks, medical equipment, measuring and monitoring devices and a countless other inventions, could not have been invented without the ability to supply power from electrical outlets or batteries.

Yet the same technology that has served us so well and brought us this far, is now teetering on the brink of obsolescence. If you think about it, our devices and inventions are increasingly trending toward becoming wireless. Why then are we are still tethered to the outlet for charging those same devices? It’s because the last time that power delivery was actually contemplated by anyone in any meaningful way was way back in the 18th century! Not since Tesla has any meaningful thought been given to the current or future state of our plans for energy distribution.

More than ever before, we are a population reliant on our mobile devices to get us through the day. We depend on our smartphones for everything from waking us in the morning, to charting our daily schedules, keeping us entertained and of course, making sure that we can always be reached. Yet, while we rely on our devices so much more than ever before, battery power has failed to keep pace with our needs.

Ultimately we must face the fact that our current technology as it relates to the use and transfer of power is fast becoming outdated. After all, if our devices can operate wirelessly then it’s only a matter of time until we demand that our charging practices follow suit. Our current method for transferring electricity is limited by the very properties of electricity itself. Electricity must be controlled to be utilized effectively and, at the same time, it goes against the fundamental nature of electricity to be controlled. Will we forever be tied to wires when transferring electrical waves? The answer is clearly no.

Industrial science (and scientific ‘know-how’ in general) continues to evolve and mature as the need arises. Consider the field of communications, for example — which has always been a step ahead of the field of energy transfer. Communications technologies have developed from the days of runners and messengers, to smoke signals and flags for conveying information. We have progressed to the use of electrical current and light, to the advent of radio waves. Cellular phones have replaced landline phones, Bluetooth headsets can be tossed in our briefcase, laptops with wireless modems enable us to surf the Internet from any office or café. Why not transfer energy in a different form that will truly allow us to cut the last cord?

Electromagnetic waves can travel and propagate energy from one place to another without any physical impediment (even through a vacuum). For example, solar energy is emitted from the sun, providing light energy on earth. Heat emitted from a fireplace heats our homes, and microwave emitted in an oven cooks food. Why not use electromagnetic waves as a “carrier” to transmit energy and thereby activate the entire range of electrical devices in our lives?

This idea is not original. Nikola Tesla demonstrated this over 100 years ago, when he turned on fluorescent bulbs by holding them at a distance of tens of meters from a strong radio transmitter. At Powermat, we stand on the shoulders of giants like Tesla. Not only have we perfected a solution for charging devices through the use of an electromagnetic field, but no longer having to rely on electricity has opened a world of new possibilities. And, while electricity has become pervasive in our lives and we have grown to rely on it – almost as a helpful “friend” — we must never forget that it is also an inherently dangerous property.

Electrical fires, whenever and wherever they occur, are devastating. Throughout the United States, electrical fires cause untold injury on a daily basis, claiming both lives and property. Many electrical fires are rooted in faulty electrical systems and even more result from inappropriate wiring installations, overloading of circuits, and improper use of extension cords. Moreover, dollar loss per fire for residential building electrical fires is more than double that for nonelectrical fires.

Powermat technology provides wire-free power to electronic devices so that they can be used in nearly any venue without the need for socket-based or battery-based power. As a result, lighting fixtures, kitchen appliances, computers, TVs, and children’s toys receive power directly through the wall, the countertop or any other surface that has been Powermat-enabled. And since Powermat transfers energy by means of magnetic induction, rather than electrical current, it negates the potential for electrical sparking while at the same time eliminating the potential for overloading sockets and extension cords.

In fact, in the not-too-distant future Powermat envisions a world where wireless power delivery is as prevalent as WiFi availability. By eliminating the transfer of electricity in favor or magnetic energy we open ourselves to an entirely new world where wireless power distribution is accomplished directly through surfaces like walls and tabletops. Where there is no potential for smoke (i.e. the elimination of electrical conductivity) there is also no potential for fire.

It is entirely safe to embed Powermat technology into surfaces (walls, ceilings, tabletops, countertops, dashboards, etc.) since there is no potential for electrical sparking.

As part of New York launch of Duracell Powermat (the joint venture formed between Procter & Gamble’s Duracell brand and Powermat Technologies) we recently announced the ‘Wireless Power Nation’ initiative, an ambitious undertaking to provide access to wireless power is places and settings frequented by consumers throughout their day. Our initial list of partners includes:

• Barclays Center
• Madison Square Garden
• The 40/40 Club
• Delta Airlines
• Westfield Garden State Plaza; and
• General Motors

Each of these partners will have a dedicated built-in wireless charging solution that will enable Duracell Powermat users to simply ‘drop and charge’ their iPhone and other smartphones on a wireless charging ‘hotspot’ in order to power up. It’s a reality whose time has come and a science that has evolved to the next level…by necessity. We need our smartphones to be powered and ready to go all day and battery power simply isn’t keeping up with the functionality of our devices.

In the short term, we are solving for a real need but the long-term implications for power delivery are far greater.

In just a few short years from now, I believe that you can realistically expect to live in a ‘house without wires’ where traditional electrical cords are eliminated by introducing an alternative, wireless power distribution system based on magnetic energy in key environments, including:

• Bathrooms: Lighting fixtures, heaters, and countertops will incorporate device-charging capabilities to power hair dryers, electric tooth brushes, etc. An entire “wet” environment will exist and it will be free of the current dangers associated with the hazardous combination of wet environments and electricity.
• Kitchens: We will facilitate the easy and safe use of kitchen appliances on wet countertop spaces.
• Home office: Traditionally these are small spaces but with the elimination of “spaghetti wires” – which keeps the room uncluttered – there can be enormous space-related gains to more easily accommodate multiple office appliances such as computers, printers/fax machines, cell phones, and desk lamps among other appliances.
• Living/Entertainment rooms: Allowing for flexible and cost-effective positioning and repositioning of home theatres and entertainment elements (no sockets!)
• Child/Playrooms: Socket-free equals child-friendly!
• Outdoor areas: Weather-sensitive recreation areas such as rooftops, pools, balconies, and BBQ pits can get a steady and safe power supply regardless of inclement weather.
• Multi-purpose areas: Unique areas like garages, storage rooms and other non-traditional spaces will now have a solution for adjusting and retrofitting their specific power-related needs.

The future of power delivery is here and now. And, as is the case with all technologies, evolution is inevitable.

Dear Friends,
Please excuse my inattentiveness for the past few weeks. My failure to post has not been for lack of things to share. In fact, it’s just the opposite. I have been so busy that I haven’t had the time to sit down and put my thoughts to paper. But, in light of yesterday’s events, I am finding the time to ‘stop and smell the roses’, so to speak.
My day started yesterday as it does most days, by surfing my favorite news sites to find out what’s trending in the world. No sooner did I log on to ‘AllThingsD’ (most of you will know that AllThingsD is part of Wall Street Journal’s Digital Network) and come across Arik Hasseldahl’s blog when it hit me:
Today is a day to take stock. Today is a day to step back and recognize the enormity of all things coming full circle. Today is the culmination of a 5 year dream.
Five years ago, when we were still debating whether to even call the company “Powermat,” I met with Arik Hasseldahl in a hotel room in New York City with the first generation of Powermat product (which bears little resemblance to today’s sleek, hi-tech, no bulk design). At the time, I outlined our vision for wireless power and for bringing Powermat to market. I explained to Arik how it worked; utilizing the same basic physics of the copper coil that Tesla experimented with so many years ago. Finally, I demonstrated our proprietary “tweaks” to the Tesla model which allowed us to control and monitor the power flow so that it was more efficient and effective than Tesla could ever have dreamed.
Bloomberg Business Week- Powermat Cuts the Cord

I also told Arik that our plan would necessitate finding the right partners.

Five years later – almost to the day – we launched our wireless charging line yesterday in New York City as Duracell Powermat. Part of the Procter & Gamble family. How’s that for hitting the partner lottery?! I say that for more than just the obvious reasons: that no company on Earth has more expertise in building a brand than P&G and that there is perhaps no brand in existence more trusted than Duracell. I say that because what is really at the core of our successful ‘marriage’ is a common set of values and a belief in the future of what a wireless world looks like.
As part of yesterday’s launch, we announced an initial list of partners that have signed on to our ‘Wireless Power Nation;’ a plan to enable public spaces with built-in charging locations so you can charge anywhere, anytime. The list included premiere partners like Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center, The 40/40 Club, The Garden State Plaza Mall, Delta Airlines, General Motors cars and so many more! The point is that I could hardly have known when I told Arik 5 years ago that we were in the market for a shidduch that we would be where we are now.

I like to tell people we got here by mistake. In fact, we got here with the help of our friends!

When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now
Will you still be sending me a valentine, birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
If I’d been out ’til quarter to three, would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I’m sixty-four
-The Beatles

Dear Friends,

This week marks the 64th Anniversary of the State of Israel. Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) comes immediately on the heels of Yom Hazikaron (Israeli Memorial Day) whereby we commemorate the lives lost in order to fulfill the mission of Statehood. The reality of so closely tying the good with the bad is thematic in Israeli culture, as in life, where joy and pain are often two sides of the same coin. Therefore, it’s particularly appropriate on this Yom Ha’atzmaut that I share my reflections with you on the State of Israel at 64 and my recommendations (if I may so bold) for taking Israel into the next phase of life.

In order to understand where we are headed, we must first look to where we have been. As with any new enterprise; a newborn baby, a newborn state, or a newborn company, the first years are critical in setting both the tone and the foundation for future health and prosperity. “Raising” Israel has been no exception. The State has literally been transformed since its inception in 1948 from a Middle Eastern dustbin into a modern day Metropolis that in 2010, was ranked 17th among of the world’s most economically developed nations and ranked first as the world’s most durable economy in the face of crises. (IMD’s World Competitiveness Yearbook.)

As one might imagine, the climate in Israel has also been transformed along with the country’s physicality. Israel is no longer at the precipice of modernization. In fact, we now find ourselves fully immersed (and in many cases leading) in all facets of 21st century life and wide open to scrutiny on the world stage (something we have never lacked) as well as intense scrutiny from within. The divide between the “haves” and “have-nots” (in the US, it’s between the 99% and the 1%) has gotten even wider with a return to the “tent city” protests that began in July 2011, threatening to make a comeback. (NOTE: beginning in July 2011 hundreds of thousands of protesters from a variety of socio-economic and religious backgrounds openly pitched tents along Rothschild Boulevard to demonstrate against the continuing rise in the cost of living – particularly housing – sparking copycat protests throughout Israel and beyond, as well as mass rallying.)

In many ways, the dangers we face now are even more dire than before because after so many years of surviving hostile neighbors, the tendency to settle in to an illusion of comfortability on that front is enticing. After all, no one wants to live in a perpetual state of readiness for war. (Of course, somewhere in back of our collective minds we are always cognizant of the fact that our borders include Lebanon in the North, Syria in the Northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the East, and Egypt and the Gaza Strip on the Southwest

And while I don’t pretend to be an expert in all facets of economic, social and political life, I do know something about life in general. More specifically, about ensuring that one reaps the best possible rewards from what one has sown (loyal readers will remember that I have 5 children of my own and at least as many companies…also my “children,” in a very real way.)

So, how should we proceed? I propose that the time come has come for us to view the State of Israel as we would any personal business endeavor. To begin with, we need to take a step back and dispassionately identify our successes and failures and own them. We need to understand what we are good at and where we are lacking. And we need to do this with an eye toward the future and an idea of where we want to be twenty, thirty, and even fifty years from now.
Our politicians need to view themselves as CEOs and begin assessing market opportunities for growth in conjunction with our resources. Then we need to create a national agenda based on our findings and chart an appropriate course for moving forward.

How to Succeed in Business 101.

For instance, despite limited natural resources, intensive development of the agricultural technologies and industrial sectors over the past decades has made Israel largely self-sufficient in food production. We have also become leading exporters of electronics, software, computerized systems, communications technology, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and military technology. In 2010 it was estimated that our export revenue was $80.5 billion for the year and largely based on our prowess for technology.

Each one of these technologies represents a huge opportunity to answer real needs that the world will be facing in the next 50 years. A smart CEO both sees and seizes these opportunities to his company’s benefit. However, a smart CEO also recognizes that a country roughly the size of New Jersey cannot possibly be all things to all people.
Therefore, we need to take a laser-focused rifle-shot approach (spoken like a former Israeli soldier) and pinpoint those exportable technologies that will best yield “profit” with an eye toward reinvesting in our own future in areas that include education and social programs. I believe that the best way to bridge the chasm between those of us who have and those of us who are lacking, is to create a climate of opportunity with incentives, grants, entrepreneurial rewards and investment vehicles that will help kick start growth for the underserved.

And what technologies would I export? 1) Technologies to help in the fight against world hunger; 2) Technologies related to Energy Savings; and 3) Cyber Security technologies.

According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, twenty-nine countries currently have levels of hunger that are either “extremely alarming” or “alarming” and many more are barely above that level. Most of those countries are located in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. That makes them our neighbors. And it further compels us to bring the world’s attention to their plight. By bringing agricultural technology to this part of the World we can make a real difference in both their countries and our own.

The same is true for sustainable energy. Just today Bloomberg News reported that five trillion dollars of investment is needed worldwide by 2020 in renewable power, energy efficiency and cleaner transportation to contain rising global temperatures (according to a study by the International Energy Agency.) As the only Middle Eastern country not situated on a natural oil reserve, Israel has had no choice but to become a world leader in alternative energy, with the government throwing massive support behind cutting-edge technologies. As a result, the number of private entrepreneurs entering the “clean-tech” sector has continued to rise steadily and successfully.

Then, of course, there is the issue of security. Who knows better than we about the need for security and the ways to ensure it? In fact, isn’t that what both Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’Atzmaut are all about.

Warm Regards,

Ran

Dear Friends,

I’m sure it will come as no surprise to most of you when I tell you that we, along with the vast majority of CE retailers, have looked to China for the last twenty years for our manufacturing needs. There are many reasons that China has become the ‘mecca for manufacturing,’ and they are generally well known. They include: high-quality low-cost goods, increased savings, and an established infrastructure that is already well-equipped with large scale manufacturing equipment and facilities. In fact, China has long been regarded for its impactful result on the global economy because of its ability to produce goods at a strikingly reduced rate as compared with the rest of the world.

However, for the first time since I have been visiting China (over the span of many years), I have begun to see a surprising change that could, in the long run, cause companies to reconsider the benefits of producing goods in China. I’ve begun to notice that the perceived advantage of low production costs in China has started to disappear in certain areas because of the reality of the rising cost of labor!

Consider, for instance, a conversation I had with the owner of one of the larger factories in China. In our conversation about the future of manufacturing in The Country, the factory owner told me that China is currently in the midst of shifting its work paradigm from a low-cost labor model to one fueled by high-tech automation. The reasoning, he explained, is that workers need to fed, and they need breaks, and they need to sleep. Machines need no such amenities.

For the first time in the history of the average factory laborer, outside factors that were never before relevant have come into play. The demand for higher wages as well as the call for employers to take responsibility for the role that work related issues play in promoting an employees’ overall well being has led to an increase in the general standard of living. The down side of this is the justification by the employer for the use of the machine over man.

While the notion of automatons filling in for humans on the assembly line might bring to mind visions of an Isaac Asimov-like I, Robot world — where super computers have wrested control of humankind from our own ineptitude — the reality is a potential double-edged sword for the factory worker.

In the past, laborers in China were given next to no consideration at all. If you can understand that The Chinese People make up almost 20% of the world’s population (the US represents not even 5% by comparison) you will also understand that resources in that country are scarce and that most of the population has known only poverty as a way of life. Now, for the first time, their needs are at least being considered.

There can be no doubt that Western influence is largely responsible for China’s new found appreciation for “the working man.” In fact, in his first trip to China since being appointed CEO of Apple, Tim Cook made it a point in his meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang to address the issue of workers’ rights. The result was the extraction of a promise to “pay more attention to caring for workers.” (as reported by Xinhua, the country’s official press agency.)

But for a country that has a long history of valuing the needs of the collective over the needs of the individual, where children are considered both financial and practical burdens (and consider themselves to be of no significance) the battle is clearly uphill.

By any account, the progression to the kind of work environment that we enjoy will be slow and painful. What does it say about us, as a society, that we are content in continuing to support the Chinese economy despite the country’s record on human rights? How will the Chinese working class fare in the long run? Will the Chinese factory worker continue to demand the kind of consideration that we, in the West, have come to take for granted or are the recent demands and concessions just a pretense to help us in assuaging our own guilt?

Time will tell. But there is one theme that seems to be recurring and it’s a lesson that industry leaders should strain to hear: if you are investing in China for the long haul, your business strategy needs to driven by factors other than low costs.

Warm Regards,
Ran

Dear Friends,

As many of you know, I am always in search of the next BIG thing. Throughout my career, I have taken many diverse technologies from inception to construction to promotion and ultimately to dissemination. Some were more successful than others, but there has always been a common thread that I look for in any technology that I choose to bring to market: the spark. The spark is that element of inspiration that can neither be manufactured nor replicated and it’s what sets a winning idea apart from one that’s simply run-of-the-mill. In short, I am fascinated by that “Eureka!” moment of inspiration; what precedes it? why some people are more prone to channeling the spark than others and where that gift originates?

It’s been said that necessity is the mother of inspiration and invention. To some degree that’s entirely true. For instance, would the ice cube have ever been invented if we were satisfied with a room temperature drink on a hot day? Or would email have ever made its way from our computers to our smartphones if there wasn’t a real need to be on and connected 24/7? Probably not.

Recently, I began working with the famed industrial designer, architect and artist, Ron Arad to develop the world’s first customized color changing tile that allows walls and floors to be changed remotely with the touch of a button. The benefits of Versatile (as my genius PR director named it) are in fact many. The tiles provide unprecedented design freedom to architects and designers within the growing tile industry (a market currently estimated at $54 billion with an estimated 6% yearly growth rate.) And while we are clearly meeting a very real need, what fascinates me more than anything else is the incredible inspiration that Ron Arad brings to the table at every turn.

His incredible body of work now even includes the Design Museum Holon, the first museum in Israel dedicated to design. For anyone who is unfamiliar with it, it is nothing short of inspired. In the past, Ron has described himself as unmethodical and even undisciplined. He has said that “ideas are always all around but that the trick is in knowing which ideas to invest in.” In fact, I get the sense when talking to him that his brain is simply wired differently than most. When I ask him from where his inspiration comes, he maintains that his mind has trouble sorting through things that are simple to most and that his unique way of looking at design is, in fact, a coping mechanism.

Whatever the origin of his gift, there is no doubt that he is indeed supremely gifted.

And it makes me wonder even more where that spark is born? Are we all gifted, in one way or another, just as I believe we are all surely handicapped in some way? Does it simply require digging by each of us, like an excavation of sorts, to find our gift…with some lucky “archeologists” among us finding theirs at the top of the pit and others among us never reaching sufficient depth to unearth our own?

I wish I knew.

Warm Regards,
Ran