I recently read an article in The Economist – Israel‘s technology industry – Punching above its weight (November 12th-18th, 2005). The article begins by making the statement that “… Israel is second only to Canada in the number of companies listed on the NASDAQ, and (that) the country attracts twice the number of venture-capital investments as the whole of Europe, …”. Several reasons are given for the development of their technology industries, the most intriguing is the army. According to the article, universal conscription has allowed the army to select those individuals that “… have a glimmer of potential, catalyses(ing) their transformation into engineers or scientists”. After their service in the army, these individuals arrive at university with “… practical experience and a problem-solving mentality.”

“Israel has 135 engineers per 10,000 employees, compared to 70 in America, 65 in Japan, and 28 in Britain.” “Tech giants such as IBM, Motorola and Cisco have research centers in Israel, which is also where Intel developed its Centrino chip.”

New competitor!? Apparently not … apparently they have been there for some time.

I was struck with a “wow” moment the other day when my wife got on the Internet to listen to a “real time” pod cast of a public radio program she likes from Houston, Texas (we live in the northwest of the United States). I realized that the Houston radio station has essentially expanded their radio audience beyond the reach of their physical radio signal, essentially to anywhere accessible through the Internet. Since their market has expanded, what is/ will be the potential impact to their approach to fund raising, advertisements, programming, etc.

This is an example of how technology has eliminated a limitation to their business market. Formerly in order to expand, a radio station business would have had to purchase another radio station in a different geographical area and/or their radio frequency license. This process is an expensive and time consuming effort.

Certainly, I have used the Internet as a marketing/ sales tool. However, since our firm markets and sells physical product, we are unable to deliver our product through the relatively inexpensive Internet medium as the radio station has accomplished. Is there more that can be accomplished that I have failed to see?? Where is that Star Trek “transporter technology”??