Israel India | Business Guibe | 2017

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market asks for strong commercial feasibility
proof before any investment has been done.
2) The need to ‘Indianize’ the ‘Israeli’
product: The Indianmarket has very specific
needs and requirements.It is a HUGE market
that requires imported products to be adapted
local conditions.Quite often,Israeli innovators
find it difficult to simplify and minimize
features in their new innovations, so as to
match Indian prices, characteristics and
field conditions. The gap between ‘startup
nation’ and appealing to rural India has to
be addressed. Especially when looking to
provide innovative technological solutions
to the BoP market sector.
3) The ‘time factor’ in doing business
in India: The natural evolution of Israeli
exporters is to set sales goals for the twomost
addressable markets: Europe and USA. The
default outlook is that the Indianmarket should
be addressed later on,and therefore receives
minimal marketing resources accordingly.
It takes longer to establish market traction
in India, in comparison to other markets,
whereas Israelis expect to see quicker customer
feedback.Another key difference is that Israeli
startups are aiming at making early sales in
key markets, so as to support a later sale of
the company to a big international player,
while the Indian businessman has a longer,
more local outlook, spread out over time.In
general, the time it takes an Israeli startup
to get acquired by a major multi-national,
is equivalent to the time taken to secure a
first pilot installation - in India.
4) Intellectual Property rights: An additional
concern to the Israeli startup is the value placed
on IP.Israelis pride themselves on being top
innovators, therefore when entering a new
market, great value is placed by the Israeli
party on the value of the IP, which is closely
guarded from any foreign hands.Add to that
gap the fact that inmost cases,the negotiations
are done between an Indian conglomerate
and a 10-man Israeli startup.This leads to fear
and suspicion by the Israeli side, basing its
knowledge on past competitive moves by
other large multi-national companies.
5) Cultural gaps and concerns: In follow
up to the previous point,it is Dr.Gideon Snir
from Haifa University who assessed that
Indo-Israeli negotiations take the form of
a confrontational duel rather than create a
win-win environment for both parties.
As a result of points 4 & 5 combining, the
cultural gaps as well as the fear of losing IP
rights,Israeli companies tend to seek distributors
and not partners for the Indian market.This
strategy significantly reduces the chances
of success in entering the Indian market, a
market that requires a substantial involvement
by the company over an extensive period of
time, in order to show positive results.
The authors are partners at PolynationVentures
unchpad for
innovative Israeli companies heading to India.
Drip irrigation process in use in many parts of India today
photo: iCreate
Presenting Israeli technologies to a business audience at iCreate, Ahmedabad