Israeli start-ups – especially in cyber security: Can a new model enhance their survival rate?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37380/jisib.v8i1.304Keywords:
Adaptability, competition, competitive review model, competitive intelligence, four corners model, Israel, lean start-up, strategic planning, start-upsAbstract
Start-up companies are the fastest growing business in Israel. However, half of them do not last through their fourth year. This paper looks into the issue of the power of Israeli start-ups to survive and to become successful companies. The challenge is to seek new directions, which will help this sector to change this disappointing course. The start-up sector has a significant contribution to the strength of the Israeli economy which leans on its intellectual resources. Based on my continuing consulting in implementing competitive intelligence to local Israeli start-ups and further research that I have done by following closely the added value of developing capabilities, which enable better understanding of the external environment, I have found that one of the main causes of the high percentage of failures of Israeli start-ups is the difficulties in comprehending the competitive landscape, which has a significant contribution to making them less competitive. By using a new model, the competitive review model, which considers the special attributes of start-ups, especially in cyber security, this kind of small company can be better prepared for intense competition. This is in addition to the Lean start-up model, which is not executed in this segment in Israel and faces serious resistance based mainly on opposition to unfamiliar input. Based on combining the new competitive review model with existing analytical models, a few local start-ups' executives have already matured by awareness about the value of sensing the external environment, which have the potential to change the course of at least some of the Israeli start-ups and increase the success rate for this sector.
References
Barnea, A. (2006). "Why Start-up Companies Fail to Adopt CI", Competitive Intelligence Magazine, Vol. 9, No. 1, January/February.
Barnea, A. (2009). "Intelligence Solutions through the Use of Expert Tools". Competitive Intelligence Magazine, Vol. 12, No. 3, May –June, 2009.
Barnea, A. (2014). "Looking Outward: the Start-up Industry: A View from Israel", Competitive Intelligence Magazine, Vol. 17, No. 2 April /June.
Barnea, A. (2016). "Study on Competitive intelligence in Israel: 2016 update", Journal of Intelligence Studies in Business, 6, (2) 5-16.
Blank, S. (2013). "Why lean start- up Changes Everything, Harvard Business Review, May.
Blenkhorn, D. L., & Fleisher, C. S. (2005). Competitive intelligence and global business.
Westport, CT: Praeger.
Business dictionary, 2017, definition of gap analysis, http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/gap-analysis.html
Bulger, N. (2016). "The Evolving Role of Intelligence: Migrating from
Traditional Competitive Intelligence to Integrated Intelligence", the International Journal of Intelligence, Security and Public Affairs, 18:1, 57-84.
Bulley, C., Baku, K. and Allan, M. (2014). "Competitive Intelligence Information: A Key Business Success Factor", Journal of Management and Sustainability; Vol. 4, No. 2.
Calof, J., & Fox, B. (2003). "Trade Show Intelligence", Competitive Intelligence Magazine, Vol 6, No. 6, November - December.
Central Bureau of Statistics, State of Israel (2014). http://www.cbs.gov.il/www/hodaot2014n/16_14_170e.pdf
Denison, D. R., & Mishra, A. K. (1995). "Toward a theory of organizational culture and effectiveness". Organization Science, 6 (2).
Gilad, B. and Fuld, L. (2016). "Only Half of Companies Actually Use the Competitive Intelligence they Collect", Harvard Business Review, Jan. 26, https://hbr.org/2016/01/only-half-of-companies-actually-use-the-competitive-intelligence-they-collect
Gilad, Benjamin (2009). Business War Games. NJ, Career Press.
Global Intelligence Alliance (2009). "Competitive intelligence: A Global Study on Large Companies", http://www.globalintelligence.com/insights-analysis/white-papers/best-practices/
Global Intelligence Alliance (2011). "Market Intelligence in Global Organizations: Survey Findings in 2011", https://www.m-brain.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/10852.pdf
Grant Thornton, (2015). "Cyber attacks cost global business $300bn+", at https://www.grantthornton.global/en/insights/articles/cyber-attacks-cost-global-business-over-$300bn-a-year/
Garcia-Salmones, L., & Yin, J. (2014). "Developing Adaptability for New Competitive
Advantage", Asian Journal of Management and Innovation, June-December.
Griffith, E. (2014) "Why startups fail, according to their founders", Fortune, Sep 25, at http://fortune.com/2014/09/25/why-startups-fail-according-to-their-founders/
Hawley, M., & Marden, B. (2006). “FIM: A Business Information System for Intelligence”, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, Vol. 19, No. 3.
Hoppe, M. (2015). "Intelligence as a discipline not just a practice", Journal of Intelligence
Studies in Business, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 47-56.
IVC Research Center. (2016)."Israel Startup Success Report 1999-2014", at http://www.ivc-online.com/Research-Center/IVC-Publications/IVC-Surveys/Startup-Report
IVC Research Center & KPMG. (2013). "Summary of Israeli High-Tech Company Capital Raising 2012, IVC and KPMG Report", at http://www.ivc-online.com/Portals/0/RC/Survey/IVC_Q4-12_Survey_PR-Eng-Final.pdf
Le Bon, J. (2014). "Use your Sales Force's Competitive Intelligence Wisely", From Data to Action, Harvard Business Publishing, HBR. Org. Insight Center.
Markovich, A. (2015). "The Impact of Perceived Quality of Web Information Sources on the Use of Competitive Information by Decision-Makers and on Firm's Performance", MA Dissertation, The University of Haifa, School of Management, the Department of Information and Knowledge Management.
McGonagle, J. and Misner-Elias, M. (2016). "The Changing Landscape of Competitive Intelligence: The Critical Issues Investigated", Salus Journal, Issue 4 No. 1.
Orpaz, E. (2013), "The Brutal Survival Laws of the Start – Up Industry", The Marker (Hebrew), July 1st, at http://www.themarker.com/technation/1.2059828
Orpaz, E. (2017), "Come on – this is a start-up", The Marker (Hebrew), May 30, at https://www.themarker.com/technation/startup/1.4137625
Patel, N. (2015). "90% Of Startups Fail: Here's What You Need to Know About The 10%", Forbes, Jan. 16, https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilpatel/2015/01/16/90-of-startups-will-fail-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-the 10/#21d37bd66792
Porter, M. E. (1980). Competitive Strategy. New York: Free Press.
Prescott, J. (1999). "The Evolution of Competitive Intelligence, Designing a Process for Action", APMP, Spring.
Reeves, M., & Deimler, M. (2011). "Adaptability: The New Competitive Advantage", Harvard Business Review, July-August.
Senor, D., & Singer, S. (2009). Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle, Twelve, Hachette Book Group, NY.
Solomon, S. (2017). "Israel tech raised record $4.8b in 2016, up 11% from last year – report", Times of Israel, January 10, at http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-tech-raised-record-4-8b-in-2016-up-11-from-last-year-report/
Tsitoura, N. & Stephens, D. (2012). "Development and evaluation of a framework to explain causes of competitive intelligence failures" Information Research, 17 (2), paper 521.
Vilenski, O. (2017). "We invested four years in a product that did not interest anyone", Themarker (in Hebrew), May 30, at http://www.themarker.com/technation/startup/1.4137788
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
