PRINT THIS PAGE The art of communication part II23/01/2007. Source: IVCJ. Isabel Maxwell 
In this IVCJ article, high-tech entrepreneur Isabel Maxwell continues to discuss the principles of good communications. Part I can be summed up in the acronym LLCC, which stands for Language, Listening, Consideration and Clarity. The combination of strong [English] Language speaking, writing and reading skills; the ability to listen; the capacity to be considerate - of another person and his/her country/culture whether communicating by phone, email or in person; and conducting oneself with clarity of thought and purpose, whether for a company or personal project.
Part II
The capacity to be Considerate:
This is one of the mantras I find helpful to give to customer-facing personnel - Be Considerate - Think about the effect you may have on people before you act. What is it that you actually want to achieve? Asaf Mohr, serial entrepreneur and chairman of BladeFusion, has often worked both sides of 'the pond' - He advises Israeli managers who needs to instruct American subordinates to change priorities quickly, "to be very careful and considerate in introducing such news, because
Israelis," he says, "are so much more used to multi-tasking and shifting priorities on the fly, but not so their US counterparts, who require notice and a more structured environment." Turning to daily meetings that one has, if someone has sent you a document to read prior to a meeting, READ IT, even if it takes a long time because your English is not so good. That person spent hours creating that document and sent it to you in advance so that your planned time together would be less a rehash of what was written in the document, and more of a discussion of future actions.
Email communications are a classic culprit of poor communications. One of the cardinal rules for email exchanges, for anyone, should be: "Don't put your emotions into email." If you have to scream at someone, it is best to do so in person behind a closed door, but if you are oceans away, don't cc the whole company (including the person's boss and your own). Instead, pick up the phone. I have found that many people forget that the cc line is only for information, not for jumping into the fray!
Here is a typical three-way email exchange between a successful Israeli start-up, one of its large customers, and its integrator over a software installation that ran into difficulty recently. Only the customer was actually a native English speaker, and there were nine people on the cc list -you can feel the steam rising off the page. Luckily the Israeli co-founder VP was able to calm things down by a series of unemotional and professional emails to all sides. The migration in question was completed, and customer relations improved. Of course all names have been changed to protect the identity of the senders!
From the Integrator:
Nitsan,
I found very annoying to hear from you that you are not able to carry out the migration in Israel and sent it us because you are not confident enough, as agreed last week. I cannot understand fully the reasons why you are rejecting now what we agreed upon. In addition I find it annoying that I was updated about it only today. In addition you told that we are able to perform the migration by ourselves because we already done it with Chemi. I want to remember you that migration is not so easy and we find a lot issues to manage last time…
Currently I do not regards this behavior as being very professional, hope that in the future I will not encounter such attitude.
Regards
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From the Start-up Engineer:
Hi All
I don't have much to add, just few facts, when I arrived to site on Monday I was almost alone there only day after between Tuesday night and Wednesday they made a dump file from production, and freeze all data. In Wednesday they had allot of problem to give me this file so I can work on it, and we stay until after midnight with dba guy just working on some thing that supposed to be done before I came. Yes I fix some configuration files, but I also spent half day trying to understand we they cannot download, and that was urgent issue as they claim, at that night I work until midnight alone on site.
I don't want to get into this mess but I know that few times I spoke with Kai trying to understand his priority. And in the bottom line there was no chance I could run the migration on site not because I wasn't ready two. "
Avner
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From the Start-up Project Manager:
Avner was also helping them [the integrator] - during the night - to install the system as a courtesy; and he had done as much work as possible to promote the DB migration task which suffered directly from lack of readiness on behalf of the customer. So to claim he came over to fix bugs is utterly rude, incorrect and quite frankly, insulting! I think they got from us a most professional approach. Their conduct right now is to the contrary!
Nitsan
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From the Customer to the Start-up:
I am concerned about the tone that communications have taken over the past two weeks. …..It seems to me that the tone you have adopted both in mails and on conference calls has taken on a defensive edge…..These recent comments questions the professionalism of everyone involved in the project and this hampers the level of cooperation I expected to see between a customer and a vendor. In getting to where we all want to go, it may well happen that there will be some confused emails, phone calls and documents, we're all human after all and we all have different working practices within our organizations. Everyone on the project had a responsibility to do their best and get on well with each other, otherwise the working environment is just too hard. Constructive criticisms need to be made through the appropriate channels with well-chosen, neutral words and a clear objective in mind to improve the working relationship not to undermine it…..
I would hope that all the goodwill built up over the past 16 months is not lost now, due to careless words….
Regards,
The Customer
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Just as customer-facing managers have their foibles, Israeli engineers are notorious for the kind of attitude that says, "Don't bother me, I'm busy [creating the new master code], I don't have time to write stupid emails". Nahum Sharfman, co-founder of Commtouch and Shopping.com, comes down hard on this kind of attitude. He says to them, "Listen, you may be Einstein but if you can't communicate as to why your project is so brilliant, it's useless! If you are going to write a technical manual, make it idiot-proof. Don't write it so that only PhDs can make head or tail of it!" He is a huge proponent of "Educate, educate, educate, all the time" on how to do business with the States, and judging by his record, he's clearly got it right!
Accomplishing your goals with Clarity
And finally, let's look at Clarity. Make sure, for instance, that you know why you are sending your best engineer 8,000 miles on short notice, because a customer is screaming. What exactly are your customer's expectations when your man is on site? This is where clear communications are vital. Israelis tend to be allergic to procedure and think it is bureaucratic and a waste of time. Dan Dolberger wryly observed, "In Israel, work seems to be performed as on a battlefield, with no time for forms, and goals are defined as you achieve them. In the Silicon Valley culture, everybody seems to have clear goals, and time is managed down to the minute. There are also clear standard ways to measure progress.
Jeff Saper, Vice Chair of the premier law firm Wilson Sonsini, et al, in the Valley, and long-time admirer of Israeli entrepreneurs for "their unique blend of intellectual horsepower, creativity and determination", demonstrates the goals for moving towards larger and more complex organizations- "the critical next step is to build a global enterprise with a world-class board and the corporate governance infrastructure that today's regulatory environment requires." This comment was expanded upon by someone I spoked to the very next day - "Coping with different values and business practices as they must, when Israeli corporations mature from straight technology plays to professional services companies, process, clear goals and measurements of success (other than straight revenues), are more necessary than ever", says Sarah Matson Fishman, VC Partner at Partech International. She is a recent example of top American venture capitalists expanding into Israel and setting up local offices.
"Intel", says Dan Star back at the Intel Israel Innovation Center, "understood early on that there is a strong overlap of values [between Intel USA and Israel] and uses that knowledge to advantage. "Cultural relations classes are a must for new Intel recruits, and the Israel-USA ones are the most heavily attended". Perhaps we should all be
attending such classes, or recreating them in our own companies. And then it won't be long before the country's communication and management skills catch up with its talent for invention. Or as one of my favorite authors, Al Seckel, puts it pithily, "In today's world, with excellent communication skills and no content, one can go really far. You might even end up running a powerful country. Imagine how far you can go with excellent communication skills and actual content. You might end up running a powerful company!"
Language is really part of a way of life, as Wittgenstein said (one of the great 20th-century philosophers), so not to know English means to be ignorant not just of business matters but of the context in which they are embedded. As in writing a good plan or paper, invention is essential but by itself, without style, development, argumentation etc., it is insufficient and will not lead anywhere. In short, to be interested in doing business with Silicon Valley means to develop a wider interest in
English and American culture, politics, history, and literature. A good businessman should have broad horizons. And actually, if the new Middle East is ever to become a reality, Israeli entrepreneurs should start thinking tri-lingually, i.e., they should start learning Arabic and fast. Thriving business spells peace, which, I believe, is also based on LLCC.
I'll finish up with a lovely personal quote from Yair Goldfinger, co-founder of Mirabilis ICQ and founder-CEO of Dotomi, which sums up this wonderful overlap of cultures and how to make the best of it - "Israeli Entrepreneurs are like commando fighters. We usually try to conquer the hill fast, and by diversion. We think less of how to keep the hill in our hands after its capture. US entrepreneurs are like big ships. They plan more, take the heavy armory and attack. It takes them more time to conquer the hill, but they have the plan on how to keep it afterwards. So, when combining the two powers, we can win the war faster and sustain the winery!" Amen - Let us all communicate and drink to that!
Isabel Maxwell of ISM & Associates is International Chair,The Social Entrepreneur Fellowship Program for the IsraelVenture Network, and was formerly president of Commtouch Software and CEO of iCognito Ltd. A French-born UKcitizen, Ms. Maxwell is a California resident doing business in Israel. The author invites IVCJ readers to share their comments or experiences of LLCC and can be contacted at isabel.maxwell@gmail.com.
This article first appeared in the Israel Venture Capital & Private Equity Journal (IVCJ). IVC Research Center publishes the Israel Venture Capital & Private Equity Journal, a quarterly review of trends and developments in the Israeli-related venture capital industry. IVCJ, distributed worldwide, is dedicated to provide wide-range coverage of Israel's venture capital industry. For more information please visit www.ivc-online.com
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