Israel India | Business Guide | 2017

031 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 (www.polynationventures.com),a la 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