Business

SEASONS,,c_,AKAH

HAPPY cHANNAKAH

FIREPLACE & BARBECUE

Peterson's best
ceramic gas log sets

NECHEMIA MEYERS
Special to The Jewish News

Charred Oak Real-Fyre Gas Logs

includes: logs, burner, pan, glowing embers
cinders, grate, &

$ 34999

24" reg. $465.

$36999

66

30" reg. $510. $411 99

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SAVE AN ADDITIONAL $5 ON
ALL FIREPLACE TOOLS, LOG
BASKETS & GRATES

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BARBECUES

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SAVE ON ALL BBQS AND BARBECUE
GADGETS & FREE ASSEMBLY FREE
DELIVERY MOST AREAS ON ALL GAS

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SAVE 25% ON ALL SUPERIOR &
MAJESTIC VENTED &
LNVENTED FIREPLACES

SAVE ON AN ADDITIONAL $25
ALL IN STOCK FIREPLACE
GLASS DOORS

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SALE ENDS
12/24/98

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(248) 855-03 03 Please bring in your fireplace measurements height & width
30903 Orchard Lake Rd in Hunter Square between 13 & 14 Mile
by

THE GAP & TJ MAX CLOSED SATURDAY Open Sunday 10 am-6m
pm —on—ay to

Thursday 10 am-9 pm, Friday 10 am-4 pm

•

12/18
1998

64 Detroit Jewish News

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T

Rehovot, Israel

SAFETY PILOT CONTROL.

1 8nreg. S 435.

Israel's High-Tech
Traveling Salesmen

OPEN CHANNAKAH NORMAL HOURS

he success of Israeli
high-tech enterprises
depends not only on our
brains, but also on our
salesmanship," says Shlomo Dovrat, one
of those responsible for the fact that
Israel's high-tech business expanded by
25 percent during 1997, a year during
which economic output as a whole
went up by only 1.9 percent.
Dovrat, who presides over a network
of firms that supply enterprise software
solutions to industrial giants around the
world, says, "There is no shortage of
innovative ideas for new products. But,"
he adds, "turning ideas into dollars and
cents depends on whether there is a
market for those products and salesmen
capable of reaching potential cus-
tomers."
Israeli inventors and entrepreneurs
are at a distinct disadvantage when it
comes to identifying market niches and
"romancing" customers because markets
and customers are a long way away.
That is why Dovrat, early in his
business career, spent nine years in
Brussels before finally coming back to
live in Israel. "There," he says, "I could
go to Germany or France in the morn-
ing and return home in the evening.
Here, every trip involves hours of fly-
ing, and I must think twice about
where to go and when, particularly
because I want to be with my family as
much as possible.
"Moreover, it isn't only my problem,
but one I discuss with my fellow Israeli
entrepreneurs when we meet in airport
lounges all over the world."
Like a large percentage of Israelis in
high-tech, Dovrat ' s career stemmed
directly from his period of service in a
technologically advanced military unit.
He not only acquired a grounding in
sophisticated instrumentation and
techniques, but also linked up with
some of the people who would join
him in a new enterprise, established in
1983, just one year after his discharge.
Moreover, displaying an unusual
degree of chutzpah, Dovrat arranged to
have the shares of that company,
Oshop, listed on NASDAQ in 1985,
much earlier than they should have
been, he says today
While proud of his Israeli roots,
Dovrat believes that his success depends
on "speaking the language, in more
ways than one," of the countries in
which he operates.
Thus in Japan, where it took him