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26-08-2008, 23:24
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חבר מתאריך: 01.08.05
הודעות: 12,641
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עוד על 8200
חז"ל אמרו: "יהללך זר ולא פיך"...
http://www.forbes.com/2007/02/07/is...rael_print.html
[התמונה הבאה מגיעה מקישור שלא מתחיל ב https ולכן לא הוטמעה בדף כדי לשמור על https תקין: http://images.forbes.com/media/assets/forbes_logo_blue.gif]
Technology
The Unit
Gil Kerbs 02.08.07, 6:00 AM ETTEL AVIV - Harvard, Wharton and Stanford alumni consistently head the charts of executive leaders, though, on a purely academic basis, others like the University of Chicago's business school rank as high or higher. Not only are elite university graduates better paid--they'll usually have an easier time finding a job and are by and large recruited by alumni of their own alma mater.
In Israel, on the other hand, one's academic past is somehow less important than the military past. One of the questions asked in every job interview is: Where did you serve in the army?
Israeli "networks" are often based on relationships from the army service ("he and I ate from the same mess tin ... " or "you can count on me brother, after all, we slept in the same boot camp tent ... "). In Israel, graduates of elite units are held at higher esteem and gain preferred terms in the business world. But when it comes to high-tech jobs, nothing can help you more than the sentence, "I'm an 8200 alumnus."
Unit 8200 is the technology intel unit of the Israeli Defense Forces' Intelligence Corps. And one thing about it is clear to all--Israel's high-tech world is "flooded" with Unit alumni, as entrepreneurs and company founders or junior and senior executives. For full disclosure, I served as an officer in the Unit and today I work as an adviser in the venture capital industry, specializing in penetrating China and in high technology.
But Unit members can be found in a host of top Israeli businesses. Check Point, ICQ, Nice, AudioCodes and Gilat are just a handful of the companies founded by those who came from the Unit. Gil Shwed, Yoel Gat and Shlomo Dovrat are but a few famous alumni. And 8200 alumni, like American university alumni, are interested in co-workers who resemble themselves.
Retired Brig. Gen. Hanan Gefen, a former commander of Unit 8200 and current consultant to high-tech companies, explains that many areas of Israeli high tech would have been fundamentally weaker were it not for technologies that came from 8200.
"Take Nice, Comverse and Check Point for example, three of the largest high-tech companies, which were all directly influenced by 8200 technology," says Gefen. "Check Point was founded by Unit alumni. Comverse's main product, the Logger, is based on the Unit's technology. Look at Metacafe, one of the hottest companies today. Eyal Herzog, one of the founders, is also an 8200 alumnus and he accumulated a huge amount of relevant experience in the Unit."
"I think there's an axiomatic assumption that Unit alumni are people who bring with them very high personal and intellectual ability," says retired Brig. Gen. Yair Cohen, the previous Unit commander and current vice president of Elron, who believes that Unit alumni prefer that other Unit alumni work under them. "They have a common background, and they know that 8200 has the privilege of sorting, choosing and selecting the best group so that you don’t have to invest so much in the selection yourself. I myself, after I came to Elron, brought five additional alumni with me."
Cohen can also explain why this recruiting tactic works so well. "Just genius isn't enough," he says. "The Unit understood it needed people who are also human beings: on the one hand, capable of working in a team, and on the other hand, won't loose the sparkle or the ability to be outstanding--and that's what we began searching for and bringing in. This combination of personality, behavior and values along with high intellectual ability is critical in the industry, and that, I think, is the secret of the Unit alumni's success."
"There are job offers on the Internet and wanted ads that specifically say 'meant for 8200 alumni,' says Ziv, a Unit alumnus. "So it doesn't really matter what you did in the unit--you've already benefited. It simply raises your shares in the civilian market."
The Alumni Association of Unit 8200 decided recently to take the integration of its alumni into high tech one step further. Last month, an alumni conference was held at the Unit's headquarters located in the center of the country. The goal was to strengthen the social network among the Unit alumni.
In Israel, there has been an abundance of alumni organizations of military units for years. The novelty for the 8200 was the decision not to focus on perpetuating the memory of the fallen, or on nostalgia for past glory, but to leverage the group for business development including an Internet site, similar to linkedin.com, for networking.
At the January gathering, one Unit alumnus who now works at Check Point looked around him. "It looks like there are many lieutenant colonels here from the Unit who came mainly to find work after their discharge," he grinned.
Retired Col. Nir Lampert, chairman of the 8200 Alumni Association, former Unit deputy commander and current CEO of Dapei Zahav group, explained that "we've decided to update the objectives of the Alumni Association." Now, the Unit's alumni network will help graduates find a job, investment capital or recruit new talent for a corporation.
"I see the acceptance into the Unit as a changing point in my life, an opportunity I feel has been given to me," says Tal, who was a technician in the Unit and today studies electrical engineering at the Technion--the MIT of Israel. "When someone puts it into your head that you can do anything and that everything is just a matter of time, you begin to believe it."
Tal offered to compare engineering teams in the U.S. and Israel: "In the U.S., they have several times more budget and manpower. The average engineer there is much older, with many years of experience and lots of advanced degrees. Theoretically, it sounds like we have no chance to compete and be relevant. How can a bunch of children with no degree and several soldier-students with a degree but no experience succeed in accomplishing anything?
"Turns out we are successful. Flexible thinking is our advantage. For some positions, there's a huge advantage to 18-year-old children who think they know everything--or, more precisely, who have been told time and again that no mission is too difficult for them. Take 10 of the smartest academics and they won't be able to do half the work my team does."
Unit members are taught that there's no such thing as "impossible," while "no" is something temporary that can change by persistence and insistence, even if it's the Unit commander himself who said "no."
"I think the uniqueness of Unit alumni is that if you are a small screw or have just arrived at a company two weeks ago, you still behave as if you're management. Unit alumni aren’t afraid to contribute ideas and make suggestions--they're always 'big heads' even if it's their first day on the job," sums it up an alumnus who serves today as CEO of a large Israeli investment fund.
"The Unit was a home for me. In addition, it's an amazing hotbed for the best brains in the state of Israel," says another conference attendee, Minister of Tourism Issac (Buji) Herzog, a Unit alumnus. "And the truth is that's also where I met my wife."
In the past, the Ministry of Defense did try to check the drain of top engineers from the Unit to the private sector, taking with them to companies like ICQ or Check Point concepts that may have begun in the military. "In my opinion, the only criteria should be whether or not it exposes the Units' capabilities or is a threat to national security," says Gefen, a former Unit commander. "As for exposing capabilities, the Unit's people have been commendably responsible. People worked on sensitive projects and knew to identify the boundaries."
"Moreover," says Yair Cohen, another former unit commander, "there's a decisive contribution here to the economy of the State of Israel. Although 8200 doesn't directly enjoy the fruits, the State of Israel does, and in my opinion that's a complementary part of the Unit's task."
Originally published in the February issue of Forbes Israel.
ועל גבר שבגברים, הוקם אתר וגם "פרש" מצוטטים שם.
http://www.tooktook.com/a.asp?b=2672
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"בניתי לי בית ונטעתי לי גן במקום זה שביקש האויב לגרשנו ממנו בניתי את ביתי, כנגד מקום המקדש בניתיו. כדי להעלות על ליבי תמיד את בית מחמדנו החרב...."
(ש"י עגנון - חתן פרס נובל)
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נערך לאחרונה ע"י האזרח בתאריך 26-08-2008 בשעה 23:39.
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