Nathan’s June 2021 Newsletter
Shaking hands once again.
What has changed this year? Communication. The way we connect.
For the last 18 months or so, our relationships were formed mostly via zoom or some other form of video conferencing. While it was strange meeting people for the first time online, you adapt based on the current circumstances. Now that Israel is pretty much fully open, it is about time to leave the computer screen and get back to creating in-person relationships.
I had a conversation with Yaal Loven, the CEO of Nortech Network, who grew up in the North of Israel. He had some beneficial advice for me. He said something to the tune of, “Nathan, Northern Israel is not Tel Aviv. If someone in the North learns about the Culinary Institute from the media, they will immediately write you off.”
I was a little taken aback by his comment, but as we spoke more, it started to make sense to me. The North is known for being neglected in Israel. There is an ancient feel to the North of Israel, where relationships are mostly built in person. Many companies have come and gone (or have never even started) due to the complex nature of forming relationships (not to mention bureaucracy in business) in Northern Israel. If the locals have not met you or learned about a business coming into a town from a friend before seeing it on TV or in the newspaper, it most likely will not make it.
The community wants to be a part of creating any new entity and know about it before reading about it. They want to feel like their opinions, ideas, and concerns are taken into consideration. This is also a reason why Starbucks failed in Israel. No community wants a business joining their community without first understanding their needs. No one likes when a company comes into a neighborhood like a big shot, without previous buy-in from the people that live in the community. This rings even more true in remote areas. Hence, the reason that the movement of Local First is a popular choice.
Yaal tested his point while we were on the GCI campus. A college student walked by and Yaal asked him what he thought about the GCI. The student replied, “ it sounds cool, but I don’t really know what they are doing.” He also said he was not sure if it will be successful or not as many companies come and go, but he would be willing to take a class to try things out. At that moment, I understood what Yaal meant in our earlier conversation.
From that point on, I decided to meet as many people as I could from the Kibbutz and the local region, and so far, I have met some amazing people looking to help us out. There is a lot more work to do, but it’s a great start.
On the GCI by JNF business front, we are pretty much done with our flagship program’s curriculum outline and working on the final touches. We are really focused on launching our pre-application towards the later part of this summer and our marketing strategy, social media updates, and new content. Demolition on site is about to commence, and I am looking forward to greeting JNF missions in July and August. We have many great things happening here to set us up for a successful launch.
I hope everyone has a great start to their summer and I cannot wait to see more friends and family soon.
L’chaim (To life)
Nathan