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Why Do Business in the United States?

As I thought about what to write about this month, I realized that in the two years or so I've been writing this column, I have never discussed the issue of why an Israeli company should attempt to do business in the States.

See the View from the States archive for Mark Dollinger's view on aspects of doing business in the United States.

For many of you it may be intuitively obvious why you would want to do business in the world's largest economy. But the issues go beyond economics (after all, the U.S. economy has already been the world's largest for several generations).

Keep in mind that for many Israelis, Europe is a likely commercial choice, and not just because of geography. The reasons are clear.

		Time and distance. There is neither the Atlantic Ocean nor a minimum of seven times zones.
		Modern history. The modern State of Israel was built to a large extent from the influx of the Jews from the Diaspora throughout Europe and other parts of the Middle East.
		Similar standards. Israel incorporated European standards of business, measurement, and government. (Efforts to "go metric" in America have failed dismally. In government, Americans tend to be rather chauvinistic about their form of democracy. Many Americans don't realize that countries with prime ministers can still be democracies.)
		A different business style. The inability of the American businesspeople to say what they mean, their lack of directness and seeming inability to come to a decision, and their extreme concern about liability and litigation is often a source of frustration.

Set Your Sites on the Red, Blue, and White

So what has changed to recommend that Israelis look beyond Frankfurt, Paris, and London, and set their sites on Philadelphia, Portland, and Los Angeles?

		Instant communication. The advent of electronic communications has made communications between Israel and the United States much easier and much more affordable, even for small companies. While the number of time zones has not changed, a very comfortable pattern of communication has developed with e-mails from Israel being answered the same business day from the States.
		Language. Almost every Israeli I know speaks English at a respectable level (and understands much more). This is not necessarily the case for German or French or Spanish, especially for those 50 and under.
		9/11. This watershed event changed the way that Americans view terrorism and by extension the way they view Israel.
		Politics. It's a reality of doing business in today's global village that world politics affect business and trade. Over the years, there has been some fallout in the European business community over Israeli government policies. This is less the case in America at this juncture with the Bush administration, federal lawmakers, and selected religious leaders who stand firm in their commitment to Israel.

I want to make it clear that I am in no way suggesting that the European market is not viable or approachable. Indeed my colleague Michael Pfeiffer (senior consultant, Trendlines Europe) actively pursues coordinating strong business relationships between European and Israel-based businesses.

What I am saying, however, is that Israeli companies would do well these days to look "across the pond" to identify and exploit the opportunities of doing business with the world's dominant economy. Opportunities for Israeli companies to do business in the United States have never been more favorable.