Responsibility, sense of worth – it’s all personal

The following text was delivered as a speech by Yoel Esteron, the founder and publisher of business daily Calcalist, to the graduates of the Recanati Executive MBA program at Tel Aviv University.

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Over the next few years you will find yourselves in key positions where you will bear the responsibility for the fate of you company, but not only. You will bear responsibility also – or mainly –to the society in which you live.

To make the point clear, I’d like to talk about relationships, namely your relationship with government, economy and the press and your place in this trinity.

One of the most famous quotes from the mythological Godfather trilogy is: "It’s all personal". By the time I'm through speaking here, I hope to have convinced you of the benefits of the marriage between business and personal.

Of course this is my personal life experience, so take from it what you will. At the end of the day, it is you who will to create your own stories.

The Polish codex arrives to Holon

My story begins with my father, may he rest in peace. My father, Kople, studied law in Poland. For a young Jew in the 1930s to get accepted to a prestigious academic faculty was no mean feat. But Kople endured whatever hardships came his way, until WW2 crushed his dreams.

He escaped the Nazi slaughter machine and found himself in Holon's Shikun Olim; however, there was little demand for his knowledge in Polish codex and Kople, who in the meantime became Yaakov, had to support a wife and children. He installed electricity poles in the roads of the budding state until he found a modest position as the general manager of the local Kupat Holim. By the way, in those days, the manager was referred to as "secretary".

My mother, Zhenia who prior to the war studied mathematics, was virtually the only lucky member of the family, somehow she survived the Holocaust but when she came to Israel in the 50s, she had to leave mathematics behind and work in temporary jobs.

One of my first memories of my mother is of a little woman hauling big baskets of laundry from door to door in Holon. Yet, despite the hard work, she managed to learn enough Hebrew and earn a diploma in education which enabled her to reinvent herself as Miss Zehava. Until this day, the petit teacher from the Jessie Cohen School in Holon has a special place in the hearts of thousands of former students.

Occasionally people stop me on the street to tell me how they owe their success in their final exams to Miss Zehava. Indeed my mother left her mark.

So Kople and Zhenia – or Yakkov and Zehava – worked hard for their entire lives yet had little to show for it – what they had managed to save up they invested in their children. When they retired, they lived off a modest pension. As far as this son of theirs can see looking back in time, they were content. After all, they beat Hitler and the statistics and they never regretted coming to Israel. It took me years to realize they lived a fulfilling and an even a pretty good life without having to become versed in the ins and outs of Israeli economics.

In that sense they were no different than most of the middle class Israelis through the generations. They didn’t feel like dupes. They were not aware that pugnacious and uncontrolled racketeers – Haredim, settlers, the powers that be in Israel's harbors and electricity company – milked the public coffer and practically lived at the expense of the public under the auspices of cynical politicians or in a pretext of ideology.

Fast forward to 2007. My parents are no longer alive at this point and I find myself at a crossroads in my life. After 25 years with the press, I sought a new path and undertook business endeavors such as entrepreneurship. I took up sugarcane methanol production in Peru at a time when oil was selling at $150 a barrel. Occasionally I taught academic courses in communications, and I even wrote a screenplay that has since been resting in the dark recesses of my desk drawer.

One day, however, I got an offer to start a new financial newspaper. At the time the proposal seemed odd – Israel already had two large financial papers and it seemed redundant to have a third in such a limited market. After all, larger countries have one or two financial papers, surely not three.

Prospects were grim. I immediate agreed to do it.

A middle age bungee jumping

It's hard to tell what drives a middle aged man to bungee jump into such an adventure. Perhaps I was thinking about my parents or my girls or maybe I was just seeking a sense of self worth. When I was very young, a wise man once told me: “Whatever you do – seek the value of your actions".

So in 2007, I put together a small and ambitious team and we set up shop – startup style – in a shabby attic in the car-shop area of southern Tel Aviv. The elevator didn't reach our floor and the air conditioner was good for nothing.

The truth of the matter is that we were not unfortunate. We had a strong media group at our back, but I was looking for that hunger typical of startup founders.

On that rooftop in Choma U'migdal street (how symbolic) – we forged our vision – we would connect Israel to its economy.

We decided to plough forward and give it our all. We didn’t want to end up just another financial daily – we wanted to be THE financial daily. We wanted to be number one in distribution, readership, everything. Our personal drive perfectly complemented our clear business goal.

Over the past six years I have asked myself many a time whether Calcalist lives up to its vision. Does it correspond with the life of Israelis the likes of my parents and their friends? I think it’s safe to establish that the economy has become a central topic in public debate. Although the credit of course does not go entirely to Calcalist, there is no doubt that the financial papers have been a core element in this shift.

Young people are discussing their pensions, an increasing number are keeping track of their pension fund management costs. More and more Israelis are beginning to realize that they are supporting the Haredi population which does not work, serve in the army or even pay taxes. We are also beginning to realize the price we are paying for the settlements in the occupied territories.

The financial papers are not necessary on the same page with each other. One of them has shifted its focus to an issue on all of our minds – the concentration of wealth in Israel’s economy. Whether this comes from ideology or is a Messianic zeal stemming from the pathological contempt of one specific tycoon is a discussion for another time. Each newspaper paves its path and I can only speak for Calcalist when I say that we believe that Israel's economy is plagued by more than one malady and we strive to bring to our readers factual and unbiased reporting and analysis of what we see with our own eyes, not on behalf of any political party but as a professional newspaper.

Here is what I view as the stumbling blocks of our economy. Naturally you don’t have to agree on every item on the list, however, I do suggest you make a list yourself and consider it from a view point of a business executive as well as that of the man in the street.

1. The settlements are exacting a much too heavy toll on the economy and the middle class. Unless we resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we will be a two-nation state bogged down to its neck in ethnic discord and in debt.

2. The distorted fund allocation which favors the Haredim over the rest of society in whole has been weighing down on those among us who work, serve in the army and pay taxes.

3. The education system’s colossal failure to instill appropriate skills in the young generation is pushing Israel to the brink of third-world illiterateness and ignorance.

4. The degradation of a culture that strives for excellence and the decimation of investments in higher education undermine Israel's global competitiveness.

5. Growing inequality fragments society and crushes the Israeli ethos of camaraderie, or Arvut Hadadit.

6. The prevalence of structural problems such as the concentration of wealth, monopolies, over regulation to name a few.

Each item on my list reflects the quality of our leadership or the grave deterioration thereof in the government and the Knesset, as well as among policymakers and high ranks of civil service. This leads to an ill advised economic regime. Why intelligent and creative Israelis in high-tech, science, elite unites and global business allow these mediocre, and often cynical or corrupt, individuals to hold the reigns of the country is a riddle wrapped in a mystery.

Don’t sit on the fence

There are those in business who go about their day as if this has no bearing on them. I suggest you regard the malady of our leadership with all due seriousness. If the hands holding the steering wheel are incompetent, unskillful, and unstable – it will reflect on your society.

If education is inadequate – YOU will be short of engineers; if the Haredim remain outside the workforce, YOU will face high taxes and will be in want of working hands; if missile rain on Israel – YOUR factories will be hit as well; if Israeli products are boycotted because of the settlements – YOU will find that you cannot export your products.

We are at a war of attrition in which we must decide which kind of State we want and what are we willing to do for it.

This takes me back to the trinity I opened with: government-press-business.

Although the press was not elected by general elections, when the government is inadequate, it behooves us to wave a red flag. Our readers choose which papers to buy and which websites to visit. Their choice lays a responsibility at our doorstep. The way I see it – you, the future leaders of business in Israel must forge an alliance with the “powers of light” which are trying to make our country a better place. You must not sit on the fence. Create value for your companies but at the same time foster a sense of responsibility for Israeli's society.

What does that mean? It means to get involved politically and socially, more than which is prevalent in the business community today. Unfortunately, entrepreneurs, businessmen and executives tend to run from anything that reeks of politics like from a plague.

Each and every one of you honorably received this degree due to your hard work. And no doubt each of you will better your position – and you deserve to. You’ve earned the right to regard yourselves as part of Israel's business elite. It is flattering but it also comes with a measure of responsibility.

Don’t ask what you can do for your firm – ask what you can do for society.