The focus at this year’s Israel Venture Association annual conference, which opened in Tel Aviv yesterday, is how to build a large company. This year’s conference is more modest than usual, and the prime minister will not make the traditional appearance at the closing plenum. The conference was opened by two Israeli stars: former Teva CEO Israel Makov and former SAP Labs Israel general manager Shai Agassi. They were not alone.
Makov cited examples from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) on how to become what he called “a market leader”. He said, “Globalization has resulted in many mergers and acquisitions. Under these circumstances, it is very hard for a company to differentiate itself from competitors, and it’s very hard to grow solely through organic activity. Many companies differentiate themselves through their ability to carry out acquisitions.
“Imagine that someone during the mid-1990s had offered Teva 16% annual growth from organic growth. That would have led to $2 billion in sales by 2008, compared with $8 billion we expect through our deals. The ability to develop M&A capability is critical for big companies, and I don’t mean that you should sell your companies, but for you to buy others in order to grow.”
Agassi again spoke about green energy and how he sees the Israeli economy participating in his vision. “My idea is for Israel to become the first country that works without oil, and to export the solution. We must be the first economy to do this, and to do it by 2015, in order to present a green energy solution to the world by 2020,” he said. He added that green energy ought to involve every Israeli and not only “a few people in Herzliya Pituah.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on June 11, 2007
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