Analysis
Gantz and Ashkenazi: Failed Businessmen?
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Some 560 onshore and offshore exploration drillings have been conducted since 1948, but only 15 have yielded commercial quantities of natural gas. The failure rate is 97.3%. In high-tech, the failure rate for startups is 90% or more.
Fifth Dimension (whose other top executives included Ram Ben-Barak, a former Mossad deputy head who is also a Kahol Lavan candidate) was formed in 2014 and closed at the end of last year. Between 2012 and 2017, a total of 3,307 Israeli startups burned through $3.8 billion and closed, according to IVC Research.
Was it a coincidence that Gantz and Ashkenazi chose high-risk businesses? Almost certainly not. They both left the army with generous pensions, but they both wanted to make a bundle, and that requires taking risks. If Fifth Dimension had ended in a giant exit and Shemen with commercial amounts of gas, they would have made millions and been free to enter politics with a clear mind.
They were chosen as chairman of their respective companies for their military backgrounds, their image and their connections in Israel and abroad. They brought charisma that could open doors. Many entrepreneurs looks at appointments like these as practical business, not as needless window-dressing.
But their army careers didn’t set them up to be businessmen. As chiefs of staff they knew how to spend money, not how to earn it. Neither had a head for finance, marketing or technology. Gantz knew nothing about Fifth Dimension’s artificial intelligence technology and Ashkenazi knew nothing about the geology behind petroleum exploration.
The failure of Shemen and Fifth Dimension are now inescapable items on the two men’s CVs, but it tells us nothing about their political capabilities. What can be said is that it’s impossible to become chief of staff without good political horse sense.
They may never have held elected office, but they aren’t newbies. They’ve waged political battles over the defense budget and know how to deal with the media. The jury is still out over whether they will indeed be successful political leaders, but there’s nothing in their career path, including each one’s brief foray into business, that says they can’t be.
To read the complete article in Haaretz, click here.
LOSTMESSIAH 