As I am flying from Tel Aviv to Bucharest, I am about to give you an account of my third trip to Israel in ten months. Before presenting my actions in detail and trying to sum them up, I realize that I can’t talk about this country without mentioning once again the extraordinary and somewhat paradoxical faith in the future that I feel this country possesses. I am just coming back from a visit to Bar Ilan University, whose strategic committee I recently joined in France and I have nothing but admiration for the willpower that drives any manager in this country. Bar Ilan, like Technion, shows extraordinary ambition in practically all its disciplines. Thus, the university has a building for nanotechnologies which is almost unique in its kind, practically isolating it from all vibrations and rendering it a premium research institution in this truly specialized subject.
I don’t want to dedicate this text entirely to Bar Ilan, but the exemplarity of this global-scale public-private financing, added to an obligation of budgetary excellence towards donors, can’t leave insensitive the supporter of the university model that I am in France. Ultra-exclusive French-type schools and universities in decline aren’t inevitable… if we can break the left-wing or right-wing doctrinaire deadlocks. University must stand for humanism, universalism, excellence and not elite, and should serve society and individuals.
I also spent my first weekend in Israel and I am extremely grateful to Lina and Eli for their great welcome. I had the chance to appreciate unique sites at the Dead Sea, such as the Masada citadel and the extraordinary feeling of freshness that one may find in the oases of the Negev desert. Even if only for these sites… you should visit Israel.
The business part is expanding. The proposition portfolio is becoming larger. And let’s say, without mentioning too many names, that Pentalog is carrying out negotiations with one of the country’s top software editors, with one of the most important telecommunication equipment manufacturers and that it should soon announce, thanks to Pentalog Israel’s contribution, an extension of its range of services for electronic system design… a few more days of patience.
I also answered the questions of an extraordinary reporter from Globe, the local equivalent of “Les Echos”. I will provide the article (undoubtedly in Hebrew for those who can read it) in the following days. She perfectly understood the strategic stakes of outsourcing in the following 20 years and I think that could be one of the main ideas of her article. This is opposed to the plaintive tone of the French professional press which, for good measure, interviews an average IT business owner, then an employees’ union representative, then an employers’ union representative. As all three have the same interest, no original and diverging opinion is ever expressed: “no experienced managers”, “oh, gosh, the turnover”, “not the same work culture” etc.
We talked about the real stakes in this field, the real risks the IT industry and the companies that won’t be able to use the offshore/nearshore sector are facing.
This trip has lived up to my expectations and today I am confident in Pentalog’s future in this country.
























