Meet Eli Tidhar

Industry know-how is a key competitive advantage in our market.

Given the relatively small market in Israel compared, for example, with Europe and the US, Eli Tidhar regularly reaches out to the Deloitte network to bring global industry perspective and insights to his clients. “Industry know-how is a key competitive advantage in our market,” he says, so information is always flowing openly and there’s always cooperation at the highest level. He emphasises that bringing global industry expertise to clients is a two-way street. “It’s not just that we’re bringing advice from outside Israel into our market,” he observes, “but as they engage with the client, these partners also learn about unique industry situations and disruptive technology areas that can be used to talk with their other clients.” Moreover, with every collaboration each person involved builds their own network. This increases efficiency, since the next time one of them needs to bring a global approach they know immediately who they can go to.

Eli points out that collaboration isn’t simply cross-border, but cross-industry, a prospect he finds particularly exciting. He relates a recent success when a defence industry client in Israel reached out for help understanding where the sophisticated technologies they’d developed in their own sector, such as AI, visualisation and robotics, might be applied within the healthcare and medical markets. They were looking to Deloitte to expedite their understanding of a completely different market–what was the landscape? How were decisions made?–and they needed a fast response. Eli was delighted at how quickly his team was able to draw on Life Sciences & Health Care experts in the US, bringing global industry knowledge to the client and helping Deloitte stand out dramatically from the competition.

Eli’s personal journey is to address the issue of water scarcity and he sees great potential for Deloitte to make a difference there. Given Israel’s arid climate, the country already has significant know-how in water technology–indeed, it boasts more than 200 startups in that sector! And because water scarcity will only worsen, Eli sees that technology as the only way humanity will be able to cope in the future. “The severity of the crisis we’re facing never ceases to amaze me,” he admits. “Deloitte can really create an impact here,” he says, “both in terms of protecting our clients’ business and helping humanity as a whole.” And he’s confident that can happen. “Deloitte never stops surprising me in its ability to cover so many aspects and areas in our life,” he says, likening the industry collaboration to almost a family connection. “When I call someone, they may not even receive a direct benefit from my request, but they’re always happy to put their arms around a stranger.”

Why Industry?

For Eli Tidhar, who leads Deloitte Monitor in Israel, industry collaboration is a key to success. The nexus where innovation and collaboration meet is often driven by industry, believes Eli, who feels that the culture of Deloitte encourages that approach. “I’ve never reached out to anyone at Deloitte who didn’t want to speak,” he says. While Eli is focussed on the consumer and industrial sector, his diverse industry experience at Deloitte also includes water technologies and clean tech. No matter how busy they are, he says, Deloitte practitioners always find time to get on a call or exchange emails to help. “It’s industry, not geography that determines collaboration,” he observes. “That open flow of information brings down all geographical walls.”