“The OR Movement’s mission ultimately focuses on what Israel will look like in 2048, when it celebrates 100 years of statehood. But we’ve always said that in every crisis the country will experience before then, we’ll have to leverage the opportunities which arise.
At the peak of the first COVID-19 wave, our partner Michael Eisenberg asked to meet urgently. ‘Roni, I get it now,’ he said. ‘The pandemic has made me realize that however important our vision for 2048 is, we also need immediate solutions.‘
I left the meeting knowing that it was time to get to work. So I did the only logical thing: I gathered the best minds in the country and brought them to the table (well, to the Zoom screen). We managed to recruit 200 partners on a fully volunteer basis. Everyone who cared was invited to join. We recruited experienced and prominent figures, among them Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, former CEO of Leumi Bank and Adi Soffer Teeni, Head of Facebook in Israel. Even Prof. Dan Ariely volunteered with us.
The teams began working in groups to address the challenges, and they submitted a large number of proposal outlines. We started working with the policymakers who would adopt the models, but I felt it simply wasn’t enough. If someone wouldn’t take it upon themselves to implement the recommendations, they might forever remain computer files.
And that someone? That’s us. This is how our new initiative, Exemplary Nation, was born. Its goal is to lead the Israeli labor market forward. Together with a team of 60 partners, we created a vision for the future, identified the challenges in getting there, and issued a call: ‘If you have an initiative that will change the Israeli labor market, then we at Exemplary Nation want you.’
We had hoped to reach at least 50 initiatives; we were amazed to receive 302 extremely varied proposals. One dealt with the question of how to produce a resume that includes information beyond dry biographical facts. Another suggested creating employment communities which would bring together employers, job seekers, and even academia. And there were hundreds more diverse and remarkable initiatives.
35 proposals were selected to advance to the final stages of the competition, from which two to four winning initiatives will be selected. The winners will receive a large sum of money to jumpstart their project, a team of mentors to accompany them along the way, and assistance in making connections on the ground as quickly as possible.
Our job is to make sure the chosen initiatives do not remain on paper, but actually change the employment market on the ground. And one of the happiest surprises was discovering that participating in the competition advanced even those who didn’t win. We’re in contact with projects that didn’t make it to the final stages, but tell us that through the process of the competition, they’ve fine-tuned their plan and are moving forward with it themselves.
We will announce the winning initiatives at the end of December and start working hard to help them take off. I think we’ve hit on a winning formula here, a sprint: moving within a few months from a global picture of the future to a localized vision, to a public appeal calling for entrepreneurship and implementation in the field. And we will also apply this format to the fields of health, tourism, and education.
We at the OR Movement also received a great opportunity with the arrival of the pandemic. We’re not just thinking slowly and far ahead, toward 2048. We’re continuing to run, sprinting ahead.”