Israeli start-ups – especially in cyber security: Can a new model enhance their survival rate?

Abstract

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.