"It can not be that a company that does not make money calls itself Unicorn"

Doron Gerstel knows how to reach out to organizations, identify problems - among other things by talking to employees who have left, become more efficient and take the company on a new path.

About the childhood in Haifa, the love for the sea and football, and also: what does he think of the startup bubble

Liat Ron

26/05/2022

Thursday, 26 May 2022, 10:01 Updated: 15:52

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Who I am

: A competitive person, loves extremes and needs thrills.

I like being in the company of people, feeling comfortable in their company and leading them.

Motivation is a critical part of my being.

: On my mother's side, I am the eighth generation in Israel, from Jerusalem and Safed.

Grandpa and Grandma were looking for a place in the middle and built their house in Haifa.

Grandpa was a very picturesque man and had a recurring line.

He would show us where he was wounded in the War of Independence and then he would wait for the question, why did you not receive Social Security?

And he would answer, that the country is not in good shape.

He had an ice cream truck, with big wooden crates with ice and one of the games was to get in the truck with the smell of ice cream and hide in it.

Mother's side, Gerstel, from Poland and Russia's border.

Grandpa was a carpenter and they immigrated to Haifa before the war and lived in Kiryat Eliezer near the stadium, and the whole ritual was around Maccabi Haifa, like me to this day.

He was a carpenter's activist.

The parents met at Shomer Hatzair in Haifa.

They started dating at a young age and got married.

Mom went to a nursing school in Jerusalem and Dad was an Egged member, what was then considered high-tech today, you wanted to marry an Egged member.

To get friendships he had to move to Kiryat Shmona and five of my childhood years I did there.

The motif of "no free meals" will accompany us all our lives.

Mother started working as a public medicine nurse there and when we returned to Haifa she moved to Rothschild Hospital (today Bnei Zion, L.R.).

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"Grandpa was a carpenter and they immigrated to Haifa before the war and lived in Kiryat Eliezer near the stadium, and the whole ritual was around Maccabi Haifa, like me to this day" (Photo: Reuven Castro)

My childhood

: Haifa.

I was a classic key kid, Dad drove, Mom works nights, the whole house revolves around shifts, we're two, I'm the big one.

It was a building with 220 apartments, like a kibbutz, we called it "Hotel California."

It's hard to talk about a wealthy home.

I remember Dad marking another month and another in the desperation table for liquidating the mortgage.

In high school I went to school at the West Point High School, because Dad thought that in ninth grade everyone should have a profession, otherwise their future would be in a fog

. Creativity and execution, art and soul. I did matriculation in all professions and also in architectural design and statistical calculation. I have always had a huge love for the sea, which started with sea scouts and to this day, when I sail in sailboats as part of the Catamarans Association.

On the one hand it's a job and on the other hand, it's the mother of the pan.

When I was 17, I was on the big holiday boy on board a ship.

I had a few sailors in the family and as far as the parents were concerned it was assigned, so Mom got me off of it quickly.

: I read the book 'Goat 77' by Avigdor Kahalani and I was the only soldier in the BKOM who said he wanted to enlist in the Armored Forces. Later my son was also in the 7th Brigade. I went on a trip to the US And a businessman and I interrupted it to fight the first Lebanon war as a tank commander.

"I entered the preparatory school at the Technion to be accepted into economics and business administration and interrupted it to fight the first Lebanon war as a tank commander" (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Career

: When I finished my degree I had no idea what I was going to be and my first job was abroad, as part of a student exchange program. I worked for an insurance company as an information systems engineer. I started my career, it helped me get into high-tech, because many of the Technion graduates went to the traditional industry.

When we returned to Israel, to the Krayot, my second job was at Matam, which is at the entrance to Haifa, when the business was in diapers.

From there I was lucky enough to get into Fibronics, which put out a lot of engineers.

We dealt with communication between computers, in the Information Systems Division.

In 1993 the company was bought by Elbit and I entered its civilian part.

Once thought there would be no wars, so Elbit developed the civilian part.

She had a television factory, a video venture in China and she participated in the third mobile operator tender.

I was there until 1996. Then I moved as VP of Operations to ESC Medical.

"When I finished my degree, I had no idea what I was going to be and my first job was abroad, as part of a student exchange program" (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Silicon Valley

: In 1999, I co-founded the open source software "Zand" with two partners, and then, in 2001, the bubble bursts.

I managed to raise money in Japan, the only place where they paid in advance, I signed the deal when the twins fell and in 2002 we moved to

the US. I opened the office close to where we lived. This time in Silicon Valley was amazing, amusement park.

Syneron, a year in the US and another two years in the country and then I became a start-up CEO who was sold to CA. I got an offer to do a 'Turn Around' in Panaya, I sold it to Indian Infosys. I continued there for two years, during which I flew to India quite a bit and in 2017 I got The proposal to manage

: My wife, a journalist who worked for a local newspaper in the north, raised four children and today is involved in hobbies and volunteering.

We had a family discussion following Shay Lee Schindler's film about her partnership in my success.

My wife is part of my exits, it's support at the conceptual level and not just the one who takes the kids out of kindergarten.

CEO This is a very lonely position that needs support from those close to you, because without it you can not stand it.

style: My style fits the task I am doing for the fourth time, which is defined as 'turn around'. I come to a company that is in clear and usually not easy circumstances , And do not tell me, let's enjoy, because if the situation was good they would not call me.When

I stand in front of boards in interviews, they are always ambivalent, zigzagging between 'our terrible situation' and 'our lovely future' and here you have to bring your personality and start working.

"When I stand before boards in interviews, they are always ambivalent, zigzagging between 'our terrible situation' and 'our charming future'" (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Turn Around

: Aside from reading and understanding the company, the biggest challenge is understanding its problem, because when you identify it, you are already halfway there.

The first thing I ask of any company I join is the list of people who have left in the past year.

When you talk to employees within the company, you get a distorted picture that they are biased.

It is possible to spend a lot of precious time like this, to find the wrong problem and a solution that will lead nowhere.

I look at the list and ask to meet the people.

You will be amazed at how much they are committed to helping you in Turn Around.

So what if they have a full stomach?

These are good people and when you ask them to give their time you get an accurate characterization because they have no personal interest, even though they may have quarreled with one manager or another.

From the moment I learned the problem, openness and transparency are very important.

I want everyone in the company to understand it just as much as I do, even if it involves not-so-simple arguments with management and the board.

This is the only way to gain trust.

The company loses altitude, then comes a new pilot, the skepticism exists and you need people to believe that you are direct, yes and transparent, otherwise you will not be able to take off.

"Apart from reading and understanding the company, the biggest challenge is to understand its problem, because when you identify it, you are already halfway there" (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Productivity

: A dual public company that has been around for 20 years and deals with digital advertising.

We specialize in the technological aspect and help the advertiser achieve the best performance and bring about a return on investment in advertising.

Digital advertising is very measurable and gives the possibility to link the user to his response.

My assumption was that productivity technology would win and not be brought to an end, with the focus on financial performance thanks to investment in technology.

Then I reached a stage of manpower.

One has to identify those who are engaged in well poisoning and send them out, no matter how genius they are.

You need people with faith in you.

Before the experience, I look at the employee's passion.

How do you identify passion?

Those who see an opportunity for success and with them make the change.

: This is the fifth company I run and I do not think there is more than one person who will say bad things about me.

When you are transparent and bring someone into the difficult conversation of 'Where are we going?', He is never really surprised.

At the same time I am preparing a reasonable plan.

The company is in a difficult situation, with large debt and declining profitability.

Stopping bleeding and correcting a financial situation is the first thing to do, because that way it is impossible to launch an attack.

This is a difficult action that leads to layoffs and streamlining.

This part is committed to reality because it is impossible to think about growth when there are debts.

When the situation calms down a bit you start thinking about how to raise revenue and profits.

When I arrived we were in the red of one hundred million dollars, and today we are in the plus of 340 million.

"When I reached productivity, we were in the red of one hundred million dollars, and today we are in the red of 340 million" (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Corona

: My sector enjoys the fact that people spent more time in front of screens, bought online and did not go abroad. The big strategic decision we made back in 2017 was to create business diversity, that not everything will be in one basket of digital advertising. We have five different baskets that we have educated

synergy

: When you run 500 people you wonder how to maintain a sense of intimacy. We divided the company into self-managed and linked business units, search-oriented advertising, video advertising, TV advertising and advertising.

:

I believe that in the end the company should not be in debt. On the day the debt was reduced the goal was to maintain stability and not celebrate a good quarter or a good year. Consistency gives a sense of security in what employees do, and

: There's something wrong and bad in the attitude of the employees to the workplace, with Tesla of the morning, Company Concierge, and if you do not give an amusement park atmosphere you can not recruit employees.

I hope there will be a realization where the CEOs are the ones who will set the tone. When I had

startups, I said we would not put in a coffee machine until we made money.

Money at an exorbitant price. It will be a big landing. Everyone will get confused and sober up and I hope without a hangover. Anyone who has a business with strong legs will rake in more

money

Nature and the spirit. Besides, I'm a grandfather to one grandson. In the meantime, I

A: My average in each company is five years and I have been in productivity for five years.

We are blessed because we work with technology and have the ability to think of an idea in the morning and realize it at noon.

• Of money

Tags

• Management

• productivity

• Hi-Tech

• start up

• Unicorn