Israeli firms need to stay in US market during COVID-19, MIDC shows how
The US government often prefers to do business with larger Israelis companies.
By HAGAY HACOHEN‘THE BIGGEST risk for a company heading to Wall Street (pictured) with an IPO is that it will enter the market when it is underfunded.’(photo credit: ANDREW KELLY / REUTERS)
COVID-19 shut down the skies, grounding companies that work internationally.“You can’t go hide in a cave and wait for this to blow over,” Maryland/Israel Development Center executive director Barry Bogage told The Jerusalem Post. “You need to remain visible.”To help, MIDC will hold a webinar on September 15 targeted specifically at Israeli businesses that are looking for tactics to stay in touch with their corporate partners abroad or to expand overseas despite the pandemic. The webinar, “How to Stay in Touch with Your Customers During the Coronavirus Pandemic,” is expected to feature a team of diverse professionals in the defense, medical device and artificial intelligence arenas.Bogage said that companies that stay in touch with the federal government and other big players now will eventually score a major deal later.Bogage has been helping Americans and Israelis do business together for more than 20 years. He helped found MIDC under former Maryland governor William Donald Schaefer. He said that for Israelis, Baltimore and Rockville, Maryland, are soft landing spots.Baltimore has a large Orthodox Jewish community, and Rockville has so many Israelis living in it, he said, that some joke they are living in a kibbutz.From a business standpoint, Bogage said, Maryland is also a good fit. He said the residents are some of the most educated in the country, due to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the FDA offices and the National Institute of Health being there.“Many scientists create their own companies,” he said.The area is also home to Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland.“The US federal government is the largest buyer of hi-tech solutions in the world,” he told the Post, and as Maryland is close to Washington, DC, but less expensive, the location allows businessmen to be in touch with what’s going on and “know what’s coming down the line,” he said.
The US government, he said, often prefers to do business with larger Israelis companies, such as Elbit or Lockheed Martin. However, these companies often set up teams and work with smaller companies to help them get the job done, and Israel’s innovative companies can often do business on this front.One of the services MIDC offers is BizRep USA, a free service designed to help Israeli companies gain a better understanding of how to work in the US now that COVID-19 has disrupted many of the previously held practices and norms.The upcoming webinar will include talks by marketing expert David Warshawski, Textron vice-president Steve Mensh, sales director Tim West, and will be led by MIDC board member Gail Javitt, herself an expert on law and medical devices.“Americans want to learn about Israel, and Israelis want to do business in the US,” Bogage concluded.
