Spring Break
Immersion Experience - 2009 HBS Israel IXP
The Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Miracle
Kay Fukunaga (NJ), Contributing Writer
Issue date: 1/26/09 Section: Features
With the current conflict looming as a backdrop, a lesson about Israel's compulsory military service program follows. In Israel, every man is required to serve for 3 years and every woman for 2 years following the completion of the 12th grade.
We visit the elite 8200 unit (Shmone Matayim). This top-secret, high-tech intelligence unit is thought of as a pipeline for the country's flourishing entrepreneurship industry - the country as a whole is estimated to have between 2,000 and 3,000 start-ups. Numerous alumni have gone on to generate breakthrough technology in the IT arena. Today, the 8200 unit continues to be responsible for providing the early warning capabilities that safeguard the country from enemy aggression.
Ophir Kra-Oz, Co-Founder of IT Structures, explains that individuals are given an extraordinary amount of responsibility in 8200. "You might get a $2 million budget at 25 years old and be supervising 20 people." In addition, people band together and work very hard in accomplishing something for the good of the nation, rather than for financial reasons; this contributes greatly to solidarity, and the alignment of efforts.
Our own military training is administered by Yuval Eilam, who trains high school students that are hoping to get a head start on their training regime or earn admittance into an elite unit. Decked out in matching gray t-shirts that read Discover Yourself, we are assigned to 6-man teams (3 HBS students, 3 Israeli students). Our first activity - led by high schoolers - is a camouflage exercise in which we must hide a single team member somewhere on a steep, sandy hillside dotted with sparse vegetation. The other teams will be given three minutes to comb the hillside - the objective is for our man to remain undiscovered. I note that if a few days earlier someone had told me I would find myself curled up in the fetal position at the bottom of a three-foot-deep sandy hole covered with rocks and shrubbery atop an Israeli hillside, I might have had some second thoughts about going on the IXP.
We visit the elite 8200 unit (Shmone Matayim). This top-secret, high-tech intelligence unit is thought of as a pipeline for the country's flourishing entrepreneurship industry - the country as a whole is estimated to have between 2,000 and 3,000 start-ups. Numerous alumni have gone on to generate breakthrough technology in the IT arena. Today, the 8200 unit continues to be responsible for providing the early warning capabilities that safeguard the country from enemy aggression.
Ophir Kra-Oz, Co-Founder of IT Structures, explains that individuals are given an extraordinary amount of responsibility in 8200. "You might get a $2 million budget at 25 years old and be supervising 20 people." In addition, people band together and work very hard in accomplishing something for the good of the nation, rather than for financial reasons; this contributes greatly to solidarity, and the alignment of efforts.
Our own military training is administered by Yuval Eilam, who trains high school students that are hoping to get a head start on their training regime or earn admittance into an elite unit. Decked out in matching gray t-shirts that read Discover Yourself, we are assigned to 6-man teams (3 HBS students, 3 Israeli students). Our first activity - led by high schoolers - is a camouflage exercise in which we must hide a single team member somewhere on a steep, sandy hillside dotted with sparse vegetation. The other teams will be given three minutes to comb the hillside - the objective is for our man to remain undiscovered. I note that if a few days earlier someone had told me I would find myself curled up in the fetal position at the bottom of a three-foot-deep sandy hole covered with rocks and shrubbery atop an Israeli hillside, I might have had some second thoughts about going on the IXP.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Vaibhav Shah
posted 8/26/09 @ 9:31 AM EST
This article is very well written. It actually excited me about applying to HBS and being part of an immersion trip! And also maybe plan a trip to Isreal before that MBA. (Continued…)
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