Israel is a startup nation that turns ideas into ventures. Korea is a scale-up nation that grows ventures into global corporations. This leads to technological synergies that can redefine whole industries, especially MedTech and HealthTech.

There's a lack plaguing our world that if consumers haven't heard of it yet - they will soon because it's affecting them in almost every way possible. So much so, that governments are considering building local capacity and scaling back international trade.

What does the next year bode for us? Business is recovering, people are recovering - only this time it’s different. Read to find out why.

Last week we announced the ramp-up of the Nano semiconductor fabrication plant we are building in Korea, using Korean technological know-how and near the SK hynix semiconductor cluster in Yongin. Why are we building in Korea? Because Korea is a world leader in semiconductor fabrication, and because of the terrific synergies we are experiencing working with Korean manufacturers.

“Killing your darlings” is a term Susan Bier, the famous movie director, coined for what makes a good film director. When I look back, I realize I killed my entrepreneurial darlings – ventures or initiatives I poured myself into yet had to let go - more than a few times. We’ve all been there, I surmise, yet we never thought about it as a good thing. In fact, this is exactly what turns our overall entrepreneurial story into a success.

Art is an important part of my life and if there is anything I would recommend to an aspiring innovator, is to bring more art into their lives and try to look at problems from an artist’s point of view

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I would like to take this opportunity to ask each one of us to support the women in our lives by encouraging them to get tested.

Coronavirus has spurred the development of assistive robots for the elderly. Robots can and could do a lot to help older people, but there is one crucial thing they cannot do.

Coronavirus marks a seismic shift in the robotics industry, from greater emphasis on healthcare to macro-level policy to new sales models.

With Coronavirus, governments across the world have swiftly moved to erase boundaries to using telehealth. “We’re witnessing 10 years of change in one week”, with some hospitals and practitioners reporting a 20-fold rise in telemedicine since Coronavirus erupted. After years of languishing in the outskirts of healthcare, telemedicine has reached the mainstream of medical care and will stay there. The revolution is here and there is no going back.

Coronavirus is a catalyst for a change that has been at our doorstep. Undoubtedly, the current crisis will ultimately result in many manufacturing leaders taking a much closer look at how they are leveraging technology going forward – not just for efficiency, but also for sustainability: a world in which AI can provide intelligent solutions for some of our most essential needs.

We are at the beginning of 2020. As a husband and a father, I think it is time that 50 percent of our population finally receive the high-quality care they deserve.

When we established Nanox, it was with the aim of democratizing medical imaging, bringing preventive healthcare to everyone regardless of their economic capability or location. We did not in our wildest dreams foresee that Nanox would be in the frontline of the fight against a global epidemic.

In Israel, we have been exceedingly fortunate to have had more than our share of great leaders. But what of Shimon Peres? Truly, Israel has lost a giant among giants.

Tonight marks the first night of Passover. Those of you who know the origins of the holiday will recall that it commemorates the departure of the Jewish people, en masse, from Egypt after 400 years of being enslaved there. This year my attention turns to what is perhaps the seminal moment in the entire story; the granting of The Ten Commandments. Rules to live by. I doubt I am alone in thinking that maybe they need to be expanded a little. So, with no disrespect intended towards the original version, I offer my updated version of the Ten Commandments for the year 2016.

There’s something in the air of the wireless charging world and no, it’s not RF waves. It’s excitement. Ever since Apple stepped into the game by joining the Wireless Power Consortium back in March, the entire industry has been at the ready.

Think about it: one out of every eight human beings around the globe don’t have access to clean water. 3.5 million will die this year from a water-related disease, 98% of those deaths will occur in the developing third world. 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.

The Powermat Wireless World is the next phase in the evolution of the history of the story of power. It is a platform that brings the Powermat concept to life by enabling the entire home and office environment to benefit from an environmentally friendly, safe and efficient wireless power. The Wireless World represents our future and the next step for the wireless power industry as a whole. Welcome to the future!

A deadly earthquake struck central Nepal earlier this week. This is a true tragedy and the rescue and relief effort have only begun. Now is the time to act – the earthquake victims are in need of food, water, clothing, and medicine. I ask you to please also join me in donating directly to established charities who are actively working to help.

Musashi is rolling out AI-controlled robots that companies can hire by the hour. It's a joint venture between Israeli robotics company SixAI and Japanese Honda motor affiliate Musashi Seimitsu.

Walt Disney dreamed of using his parks as incubators of technology. EPCOT, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow that was opened 16 years after his death was originally conceived as a showcase for futuristic urban planning and technology. Disney died before his EPCOT dream could be realized. But his wish to nurture our future lives on. Nowhere is that more evident than in his company’s Disney MagicBand, a $1 billion technological marvel that children and their parents wear while navigating their way in Disney World.

While major multinational companies and venture capitalists have put their faith in Israel’s much-heralded start-up economy for decades, American institutional investors and well-heeled individual investors have been slower to take advantage of the opportunities that Israel represents. That is beginning to change.

Like watching for a shooting star or bolt of lightning, we may not know exactly when and where the next technological innovations will strike, but we can focus our attention on quadrants of research and development that are exhibiting great promise. Keep an eye open for what’s to come in the areas of synthetic biology, water reclamation, replacement body parts, self-driving vehicles, and more. In the weeks and months to come, I hope you will visit here often as I explore and evaluate all of these exciting disciplines.

People like products that are efficient and sensible. What’s not to like? But they love products – they buy products – that offer them a beautiful design and great user experience. They buy products that make them feel good. And if they make them feel good enough, they just might start a revolution.

Waze is, without a doubt, the crown jewel of our development community. And “jewel” isn’t too far off the mark: Google recently purchased Waze for over a billion dollars. What I find most exciting about this app, is that it represents a power that has only begun to be tapped – the immensely useful things we can make thanks to our sheer numbers and the ingenious engineering that can put those numbers to good use.

In a car, the world may as well be flat. On a bike, we realize it’s rarely ever truly so. But the greater the effort it takes to propel ourselves up a hill, the more fun the ride down the other side usually is.

Technology overload is a very real phenomenon and that the negative effects that arise from it, particularly to our children, are deeply concerning. So what’s the solution? I will leave you with a very simple prescription.

Think about it: in the year 2013 one billion people, roughly one out of every eight human beings, don’t have access to clean water. In this post, I outline a system we developed to kill bacteria and other impurities by means of a hand-operated UV water purification system for home use.

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 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.

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. Read on to learn about the project and its outcome.

I can remember a time when CEOs came in a “one size fits all” model: male, Caucasian, somewhere beginning in his mid-50’s, married, and church-going. So it was a VERY big deal when in 1999 Carly Fiorina was appointed CEO of HP, becoming the first woman ever to lead a Fortune 20 Company. Fast forward and the story of the day is the appointment of Marissa Mayer as the CEO of Yahoo while she is pregnant with her first child! The debate now shifts from whether a woman is as capable as a man of leading a company to whether women can truly have it all.

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.

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 Hesseldahl in a hotel room in New York City with the first generation of Powermat products. Five years later – almost to the day – we launched our wireless charging line yesterday as Duracell Powermat. Part of the Procter & Gamble family. How’s that for hitting the partner lottery?!

This week marks the 64th Anniversary of the State of Israel. I would like to 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 its life.

For the first time since I have been visiting China, 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: the perceived advantage of low production costs has started to disappear in certain areas because of the rising cost of Chinese labor.

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.

One of the most surprising announcements that I have heard recently is the demise of a 131-year-old institution, Eastman Kodak. An industry giant, Kodak had long ago become synonymous with the notion of capturing those special times in people’s lives (“the Kodak moment”) but, in the end, like many giants it just couldn’t keep up. I am glad that the story of Duracell, our new partner, is different.

Just back from CES, where we made our debut for the first time under the Duracell Powermat banner. The response from partners, potential customers, members of the media and visitors to our booth was overwhelmingly positive.

Ever since it began, I have been mesmerized by what seems to be the current global revolution being played out at the hands of the “under-represented” masses; the disenfranchised 99% who have taken to the streets to demand social and economic equality.

“What’s in a name?” asked Shakespeare. The answer, as I see it, is everything…especially in the consumer electronics industry.

The resilience of the Japanese people following the devastating earthquake is nothing short of AMAZING! Their collective commitment and motivation toward getting the country back on track are evident at every turn.

An innovator in the true sense of the word, Steve Jobs paved the way for countless technologies that, at their core, had one overriding goal: to delight the consumer.

We announced the union of the renowned global consumer products titan, P&G, with the industry pioneering wireless technology leader, Powermat.

If you look past the surface you’ll see that every generation since the beginning of time has had their own set of trials and tribulations to deal with.

I would like to focus more on what brought me into my current line of business; the cohesive thread that runs through all of the work I do, and the vision that propels me to look beyond the surface of things and see the potential for innovation.

Welcome to the first installment of my “official” blog! I’m Ran Poliakine, CEO of Powermat, and this is my sounding board.

I would inspire a clean drinking water movement across the globe. About eight years after that trip to Mexico that I mentioned previously, ...

When you’re an entrepreneur, creating companies that deliver financial returns is great. But far greater is creating companies that solve real problems...

Life is an evolutionary process. We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. And we owe those past ...

nanoX is leveraging nanotechnology to disrupt the traditional X-ray industry, making it affordable, accessible, and applicable to a broad range of indications. The ...

As an entrepreneur, I love to see sales and profits soar just as much as the next guy. But I believe it’s critically important to understand that profits are always ...

Entrepreneur Ran Poliakine teams up with Honda unit to help usher in Industry 4.0, the digitalization of the manufacturing proces ...

(Reuters) – One of the owners of Honda Motor Co is partnering with an Israeli tech pioneer ...

Musashi AI consortium is a direct result of this need and is focused on enabling the manufacturing industry to take massive leaps forward to reach the full potential that AI and the smart factory will bring to bear. ...

The International Auto Show is underway in New York City today, and technology is in the spotlight. Much as the auto industry paved the way for industrial automation, carmakers have started ...