Tag: TEVA

Today was a long but very interesting and productive day. It was our first day of business meetings and tours. We had the opportunity to meet with four notable companies.

We began the morning at Teva Pharmaceuticals where we learned more about the current issues facing the industry as well as learn more about the specific company. Teva is the largest private employer in Israel and employees over 46,000 people globally. We learned that they are really a global company with less than 5% of their sales in Israel. They also focus on long term planning, which was mentioned as being a weakness for many Israeli companies.

We learned about their new strategy called New Therapeutic Entry, which combines innovation with generic drugs both Teva does well. This is the delivery of old drugs; more common drugs in new ways that benefit people in different ways.

After our visit to Teva, we went to Google. The building was absolutely amazing with a lot of creative interior designs. We got a tour, which made several people decide they wanted a future career with Google. We learned about the search tools that were developed at Google Israel. These include the knowledge card, which shows up in on the right hand side of a search and compiles basic information about your search whether it is a person or a city among many others.

They have this rule where twenty percent of an employee’s time is spent on projects of their own choosing whether it is a personal idea or a part of Google they really enjoy. I think it’s really cool and allows for a lot of innovation to give employees such freedom.

We then went to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, which was nothing like I was expecting since it has all long since been computerized. It was silent in there unlike the crazy commotion I was expecting. I guess I’m thinking about Gordon Gecko from the 1980s. We learned a lot about the statistics of the stock exchange. It was an interesting visit.

Next, we had time on Rothschild’s street where we ate the most amazing chocolate deserts at Dean Malter’s favorite place.

Finally, we went to Wibbitz and talked to the founders about their company. This company takes text, summarizes it and creates a video about it. They use natural language programing and target many publishers and bloggers. Their technology has made over seventeen million videos.

We talked about entrepreneurship in general and the program that these guys had participated in at the IDC where the company started. In addition, We talked about their military experience and their backgrounds and interests. Also, we discussed their funding and how they went about getting it. Though the meeting was short, it was very educational and in my opinion, the most interesting meeting of the day.

We had dinner with IDC students; I talked to this woman about her start-up, which had to do with apps and customer reviews. The dinner was very interesting as were all the people I interacted with. Overall, throughout the day I learned a lot about several industries and had a lot of fun even though it was a very long and busy day. I’m really enjoying this trip.

Kelsey
Class of 2016
Nashville

Our trip certainly kicked off with a bang today! It was a jam-packed day full of a range of speakers, each more interesting than the last.

We began bright and early at TEVA, a large pharmaceutical company and Israel’s largest company. Yehuda Livaneh spoke to our group on the history of TEVA and its strengths and weaknesses in the years to come. It was fascinating to have an inside look at one of the most iconic Israeli companies and delve into the strategies TEVA employs to become such an icon. Dr. Livaneh’s presentation felt like a case study we would analyze in class brought to life in that conference room.

We hopped onto the bus and traveled over to the Tel Aviv Israel R&D center, a behemoth that requires no introduction. We were briefed on the incredible products coming out the center and received a tour of the office. The research and development center is a direct product of the Israeli culture to push the norm and challenge standards to create revolutionary products.

Google Instant, Google Suggest, YouTube Annotations and the Dead Sea Scroll Project can all be attributed to this tiny office’s work. The office itself epitomizes the “modern office.” Spacious offices complemented by comfortable conference rooms and themed floors  reinforced Google’s reputation as an incredible place to work.
We headed off to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and received a complete overview of how TASE functions, the problems and successes it has had in establishing itself as a modern economy and the state of the Israeli economy.

Next we visited my personal favorite destination thus far, a startup called Wibbitz. They transform text articles into summarized videos automatically, theoretically revolutionizing the way we consume media. The culture and values that we had read about and studied in startups truly came to life in that small office.

The two entrepreneurs we spoke to were the spitting image of the StartUp Nation spirit of Israel; ten employees in a plain office worked toward a mutual goal simply because they believed in the idea, ($3 million venture capital dollars believed in them as well.)

At the end of the night we had a lovely reception where we spoke with Interdisciplinary Center students in the Zell Entrepreneurship program. All the students in the program pair up and create a startup during the program. Speaking with these brilliant students, we were able to see the inspiration, creativity and general entrepreneurial spirit in their eyes.

From small startups to multinationals and billion dollar companies, today’s first day of business touring is truly going to be hard to top tomorrow, but looking at the agenda, I don’t think we’ll ever be disappointed.

Ross, Olin Business School, Class of 2017, Chicago

This morning was an early one as we woke up just before seven in order to leave for TEVA Pharmaceuticals. TEVA is located in Petah Tikva, Israel which is about a 25 minutes from our hotel.

At TEVA, we heard from Yehuda who was born in the United States but moved to Israel when he was 18 because of Zionism. We learned much about TEVA and it became especially apparent how different TEVA is from other companies in Israel because so many are high tech start ups.

We have been learning about how there are no “giants” in Israel. Because TEVA emphasizes long term planning it has been able to grow its company globally and obtain more than 40,000 employees. This idea of long term planning is foreign to many Israeli companies and is the cause for the large amount of short exits.
We then drove on to the Google Israel R&D center to hear from Hadas Igras. One of the most important developments for Google that has come out of Israel is Google Autocomplete which we all use every time we search the internet. Israel R&D has also developed a system for live results which can be used for weather, stocks, sports updates, etc. Google also developed Google Trends which analyzes what is most heavily searched or trending on Google Search.

Google has a 20% rule which means that Google employees get 20% of their time per week to pursue any project they feel passionate about. One of these 20% projects spurred the Google Cultural Institute which archives many cultural documents and information about them. We also heard from Yossi who is the director of the R&D center who answered questions for us.

After being mesmerized by Google, we went to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange where we were very surprised by the calm and quiet of the headquarters for all of Israel’s stock exchange.
Before our last visit we stopped at Max Brenner’s to drown ourselves in chocolate and get a little sugar spike to make it through the last company tour. We really didn’t need much energy though, because the Wibbitz company of twelve employees was very energetic and extremely interesting. Their technology to convert text into video is incredible and I believe it will be utilized in countless ways in the future.

Later this evening we will be venturing to Herzliya for yet another stuffing dinner and we will be joined by fifteen or so IDC students.

Chandler,
Class of 2016
Minneapolis