Startup Nation

At a recent event Robert Litan of Brookings and the Kauffman Foundation strongly recommended Dan Senor and Saul Singer's Startup Nation. I haven't read it, but it seems promising. If you have an interest though, Dan Senor is speaking next week as part of Politics and Prose speaker series at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC. Note that there is a fee associated with the event ($6). Some details about the book from P&P:

Senor, a business analyst, wanted to know how it is that Israel—a country of just over 7 million, only 60 years old, with no natural resources—produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan or the UK. He and Saul Singer, editorial editor of The Jerusalem Post, attribute Israel’s success to the social networks and leadership training afforded by the nation’s mandatory military service, and to an open immigration policy that continually restocks Israel’s population from people around the world. They note that the Jewish tradition of questioning also fosters openness and self-criticism. Publishers Weekly says this is a book “not just for business leaders and policy makers, but for anyone curious about contemporary Israeli culture.”

Interested readers may also find Innovation and the State: Political Choice and Strategies for Growth in Israel, Taiwan, and Ireland, by Dan Breznitz to be rewarding as well, if a bit more academic.