quantmleap

Some of you might have noticed that I’ve been ‘off air’ for some time now. Well, I have just returned from a long overseas trip where I spend most of my time in Israel.

 As a Israeli born who now lives overseas (Australia), visiting Israel has a number of complimentary goals. First and foremost on my list is visiting my family and meeting with childhood friends. I then make a point to catch up with colleagues and friends with a similar professional affiliation where we exchange news and ideas in the general area of project management and reflect on our experiences and observations in that field.

Having started my professional career in Israel I am always positively surprised at how much of the success of technology companies in Israel is due to the prevailing ‘can-do’ attitude. If I had to pinpoint the differentiating factor characterising project management on the one hand and general business initiatives on the other I would have to say that they both reflect high tolerance for risk taking coupled with a ‘can-do’ mentality.

One person I met has resigned from his role as a successful marketing VP in a large technology company and has started his own ‘start-up’ company. His company, which he started from an absolute nothing just few years back, is now an international player in a unique niche environment and utilises latest web technologies to integrate a set of globally used services.

In meetings with project managers and business executives a picture emerged, depicting an approach that encourages aggressive risk management. Not ignoring or dismissing risks but rather adopting an aggressive risk mitigation strategy coupled with a determined attitude to do what ever it takes to make sure the outcome is successful.

 The results are spectacular and in future posts I will elaborate on the Israeli technological success story and attempt to elaborate on the reasons for this phenomena.