Greece, Portugal, Italy and even France own economies that have been in the headlines for the wrong reasons over the past two years. The Arab Spring has obliterated tourism in Egypt, Syria and elsewhere. Read More »

Ma’an is a Palestinian news agency, based in Ramallah. Today, Thursday, it carries two seemingly contradictory headlines. On the one hand, Gaza could “fall into darkness” in 72 hours if it does not receive fuel. Conversely, it notes that Israel has just delivered yet another 200 truck loads of supplies to the area. Read More »

Time management is one of those subjects were few of us like to admit that we ain’t that good at it. You have survived school. Advanced education has come and gone. Work experience has been accumulated. Read More »

First Quality is not a well known company like Boeing or Siemens. That said, since its establishment 21 years ago, it has become a manufacturing giant on the American (and now Chinese) scene, whose private labels can be found in homes in over 50 countries around the world. Read More »

The latest posting from Dr Robert Brooks was again littered with excellent thought-provoking pointers about how we run our lives. Looking back on his work, he surmised that: ….I learned that there were some relationships that in actuality were beyond repair and/or destructive to at least one of the family members. Read More »

Israeli society is full of tensions. Never mind the Palestinian issue. You have religious divides. You have divides within the various religions. The role of women is under constant challenge. Two dominant sectors of the population, Arab and Haredi, are known for their large families and thus the problems that they incur. And so the list goes on. Read More »

Is there another Israel? As befits its knickname, is there an Israel full of promising ideas and hopes? Mid January 2012, and the news out of the Holy Land may read like the normal cheerless doom in the international media; Iran’s nuclear threat, the Read More »

I have written here on several occasions about procrastination – how professional managers simply put off decisions. Why? Well cometh the person, so cometh the silly excuse. And when the task is finally tackled, guess what? It turns out to be the simplest and easiest exercise on earth. Read More »

Jerusalem in 2012 is associated with many themes – religious conundrums, geopolitical tribulations and even the wonders of hightech. Locked away, out of the sight of the reach of global or social media is a wonderful story waiting to be told – the success of local artists. Read More »

We all believe that we know better than the guys at the top. Last year, it emerged that US Presidential candidate, Mick Romeny, and Israeli Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu, had been colleagues three decades back at the Boston Consulting Group. Read More »

What’s the reward for financial prudence? As Israel’s financial planners are finding out; just because you look after yourself according to the textbooks, it does not mean that you will secure the benefits. Let’s look at the boring stats. Israel’s economy grew by 4.8% in 2011. Unemployment sunk to a record low of 5% in December. Read More »

Richard Salt has just finished a 5-year stint as Director of UK Trade and Investment at Britain’s embassy in Tel-Aviv. Richard is not just your ideal friendly economic diplomatic. As his ambassador described, he has been the perfect Father Christmas at staff parties in recent years. Read More »

This time last week, I started up a new mentoring contract with a small family manufacturing enterprise. The owner has a decade of experience, knows what he wants to do next, but is majorly lacking in sales. How can I help? “So what do you do,” I asked. And his response can best be described as a confused silence. Read More »

Less than two weeks ago, the OECD commented about the Israeli economy: Israel’s economy passed through the 2008-09 global downturn in relatively good shape but is now suffering alongside others from the continuing effects of the renewed global crisis, and geopolitical tensions have increased. Annualised quarter-on-quarter real GDP growth was 4. Read More »

The British Parliament never ceases to amaze me. As the country sinks into a recession with gaping unemployment figures, its legislature continues to spend an inordinate amount of time on debates concerning Israel – usually in a derogatory manner. Read More »

You see them all the time – plenty of articles stating “5 ways Facebook can help your biz”. Zuckerberg himself is very big these days on getting his idea into commercial and advertising space. The only problem is that these so-called help blogs are either technical or time-consuming and only work if you implement them fully. Read More »

Jerusalem is known for all sorts of things – the centre of three great religions, geopolitical conflicts, the host of ancient civilisations and more. This past few months have seen some additional titles enter the list. Take Alberto Contador, who is known as a great champion cyclist, having won the Tour De France three times. Read More »

Type “Jerusalem” into google and you will end up with a million and one news items, which together seem to indicate that the holy city is burning all over; ultra-orthodox Jews bashing up each other, a new light rail system that has suffered delays and strikes, and the usual geopolitical turmoil. Read More »

It is just over a year since Israel became the 33rd member of the OECD. Some of the comparative stats look very impressive. The country may spend less on health than others, but Israel is fifth on the ladder of life expectancy . Read More »

Here’s simple question for Western economists to consider. Aside from Israel, how many other countries have continuously reported 4% economic growth since 2003, including this current year? Apart from China, not too many. Read More »