Challenges in Approaching Corporate Players

The Ministry of Economy of the Israeli government has commercial attachés stationed around the world, whose job, among other things, is to support Israeli exporters. I recently approached a number of these attachés to support my outreach to potential customers in the United States. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a call from an independent third party conducting a poll about if, and how this mechanism worked for me and our discussion made me think of a few factors that I believe are important for Israeli hi-tech Start-Ups to understand when approaching large, particularly US-based companies.

Each of us operates under a certain set of personal and organizational goals, constraints, and driving forces. The larger the company we work for, the more profound the organizational constraints become, and the more risk-averse each individual is, particularly if that individual’s future is heavily invested in the company. In simpler terms, people who work for large companies usually have an incentive to take fewer risks that could potentially affect their standing with the company, including their reputation, position, salary, and benefits.

Almost all Israeli hi-tech Start-Ups pursue contact with larger US companies. Besides not always being the best strategy in the earlier stages of market expansion, it also entails a great deal of complexity because it is people who drive these processes, with all the internal and external factors that affect them. Let’s take this scenario for example: Haim, CEO of an Israeli Start-Up developing B2B software that most profoundly improves processes within larger companies, reaches out to Jenny, Corporate Development Manager at a multi-billion dollar U.S corporation. Jenny’s job is to review innovative solutions, and to incorporate those that could positively affect her employer’s bottom line in the near and long-run. She is constrained, however, by a number of factors:

1) Time: does Jenny have the time to seriously review Haim’s technology?

2) Focus: is this the type of solution that Jenny is most interested in pursuing at this point in time?

3) Risk: does Jenny consider this opportunity attractive enough for her to risk promoting internally?

4) Attitude: are there other, personal issues or biases that could influence Jenny?

It would be very difficult for Haim to know the answers to all of the above questions, which is why a careful and methodical approach is necessary, accounting for: cultural characteristics (how, and how often to communicate with Jenny), organizational characteristics (how influential is Jenny within her organization, and how accommodating are the organization’s processes), and personal characteristics (understanding the personal driving forces and factors that affect Jenny).

Given the geographic and cultural distances between Haim and Jenny, one approach should involve such entities as the commercial attachés mentioned above, as well as American-Israel Chambers of Commerce, or individual “insiders” who might be in mutual networks of both Haim and Jenny. Employing these “middlemen” could potentially “smooth” the process by creating warm introductions, ensuring a higher level of attention on Jenny’s part, and overall increasing the chances of generating effective communications that could potentially lead to a business relationship.

Ilan

Ilan Friedman

ilan@ncompas.net