Lessons from Israel: Education and Entrepreneurship

I've just finished reading a rather interesting book, tiltled "Start-Up Nation: the story of Israel's economic miracle" by D. Senor and S. Singer. The book centres around how Israel, a country which only came into   existence in 1948 has become a leader in innovation across many fields ranging from medical equipment to information technology. The auhtors illustrate how, due to a thriving culture of innovation in that country, Israel has become a research and development hub for such prominent companies as Intel, eBay and Microsoft, among others. To further emphanzise their message, the authors also point out that after the USA, Israel has the most number of companies listed on the NASDAQ, the securities exchange for Technology-focused companies.  This is a truly mean feat for a country with a population of 7.1 million. Israel's innovation successes have come about despite the country's small polupation and being constantly under a threat of war from its Arab neighbours. What the authors manage to illustrate very well, is that Israel's success is not a miracle but rather a well though-out plan at the centre of which is a culture which places extremely high value on good education and entrepreneurship. Indeed Israel is considered to have the highest number of universiry degrees per capita in the world. Even more interesting is how the military, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), has been set up to attract the best minds and it is the IDF veterans who have gone on to harness the skills they've learnt in the military for commercial use. The result is that many of the hi-tech start-up companies in Israel have been created by individuals with IDF experience. The ultimate measure of the success of Israel's education and entrepreneurship plan is a GDP which has grown exponentially over the past 60 years, with it's GDP per capita of US$ 28,900 putting the country among those with the highest GDP per capita in the world. However, to really appreciate the value of the book, I would highly recommend you take time to read the book.

Education and Entrepreneurship

If South Africa is to ever become a great nation and compete globally on an equal footing with countries such as Israel, the country would need more than the political miracle which begun when Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990. A clear education plan (as I've often said on this blog) coupled with a culture which favours entrepreneurs would have to be put in place. It would also not be enough to enhance the poor quality of our education, government would further need to put measures in place to nurture and sustain a culture of entrepreneurship. For funding organizations such as the IDC to be effective, they need to operate in an environment where entrepreneurship thrives and new ideas are vigorously cultivated. However, without a high standard of education a thriving culture of entrepreneruship will simply remian a pipe-dream.