Book Review: Start-Up Nation

Title: Start-Up Nation
Author: Dan Senor and Saul Singer
Year Published: 2009

This book chronicles the story of Israel's economic miracle. It describes in detail how a little-known country once ravaged by war came to embody innovation and entrepreneurship and how this culture long ingrained in the people and their systems came to drive the wheel of economic prosperity.

The book was written by Dan Senor who once studied in Isreal, lived, worked and travelled in many countries in the Arab World and Saul Singer, an American who lives in Jerusalem.

The book delved into the history of Israel, how it fought an existential war for independence which led to the founding of the State of Israel despite absorbing a plethora of fleeing refugees from post-war Europe and the Arab world.

It soon became apparent the nation had to develop its own military if it would survive post-independence. But how did a country with such minuscule population build a formidable army?

The nation resorted to conscription - making it mandatory for most citizens, men and woman to serve in the military for two years before moving on to college or building their own start-ups. It also drafted into elite units the best brains from high-school. The young Israelis upon entering the army were saddled with responsibilities far beyond  what their peers grappled with in the military of other nations.

This idea did not only strengthen the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) but created a hub and breeding ground for young men and women who will later leverage their connections - since everybody knows everybody - in the army and apply the invaluable experiences from the war front to build businesses later bought by Fortune 500 companies. Young men responsible for tracking the online transactions of terrorists for example, founded a company later acquired by Paypal.

A culture marked by distaste for bereaucracy, a penchant for innovation, open-arms to immigrants and a resolve to challenge the status-quo led by the early founders of the nation quickly caught the attention of some of the world's most successful businesses - Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Google - who quickly set up shop in Israel to harness the technological talent.

Israel ultimately developed clusters. What are clusters? What other nations have successfully developed clusters?

This book is a must-read for political leaders, policy makers, government officials and business leaders who are passionate about turning the tide in their communities, organizations and nations by building a culture of independence, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The experiences of the Israelis will inspire you, as you will see how challenges were quickly turned to opportunities for innovation. You will see how a nation once described by Mark Twain as a large barren wasteland rose to become one of the most entrepreneurial economies in the world.