If you mention a successful startup called Ness Technologies, there is a goodchance that a US listener will assume it is one of those high-technology SiliconValley companies. That listener would be mistaken. Ness Technologies is amultinational information technology (IT) services corporation, created inIsrael in 1999. It is also the first company in this book that does not have itsheadquarters in the US.

This chapter will examine how the Israeli entrepreneurs who founded Ness dealtwith the challenges of a global marketplace. Within five years of its founding,this Israeli startup became a leading company in its field with operations inAsia, Europe, and the Americas. Its rapid rise to prominence has fully justifiedits name, which means “miracle” in Hebrew. It did so by meldingsubsidiaries in countries with cultures as diverse as Bulgaria and Thailand intoa global corporate culture, with a common set of goals and expectations that washeld across national boundaries.

DEMAND FOR IT SERVICES RESHAPES THE WORLD

Ness Technologies is a provider of IT services to other companies. As such itdidn’t “invent” any basic technology. Like Ronald Stanton’sTransammonia, its innovations took the form of a new business model and newapproaches to international service. Unlike Transammonia, however, Ness operatedin an industry characterized by the most rapidly advancing technology inhistory. Even those who lived through the rise of the computer can hardlybelieve how quickly and profoundly digital data processing has changed the waythe world does business.