From the beginning, I knew I needed to do things differently than in the United States. I set up the Arison Foundation, which was later called The Ted Arison Family Foundation. I introduced professional business practices into our philanthropic organization, something that was not mainstream at the time. We focused on donations that would make a major impact on society. These donations, which we now call social investments, were substantial commitments in the fields of health, education, research, and more.
I was able to be totally involved in every detail from the ground up in these large philanthropic projects. Some of the flagship projects included building a brain research center, the primary medical care facility in Tel Aviv, an arts school for grades one through nine, the Arison Business School, an historical museum, and many more.
Even though I was growing personally and professionally, I still wondered what my true calling was. I have always felt a creative force within me and have always cared deeply about the future of humanity. While still searching for my true purpose, I was able to express my creativity and caring in all the projects that I worked on. The spaces were created to be a family-like environment that is respectful, beautiful, and state of the art.
I also spearheaded a movement toward corporate giving in Israel because I firmly believe that the business world has a responsibility to give back to the communities in which they operate. This is a value that I was raised with. I was inspired by a model of giving that I had seen in the United States, so I brought these concepts and practices to Israel, and I created an organization called Matan (the Israeli United Way). Today, virtually all businesses in Israel participate in corporate giving, which proves that with vision and perseverance, you can create a new culture—in this instance, a culture of giving.
Personal and Business Transformation
As a parallel to the philanthropy I was doing, I launched and ran my own business. Then in 1999, after inheriting a huge empire, I was thrown into the next stage of my journey. I found myself with a diverse group of companies that I had to somehow lead and manage, along with my own business, which involved restaurants. Arison Investments at that time owned a newspaper, an electronics and communications company, and a satellite TV provider, along with more than 50 high-tech and bio-tech companies. After a process of learning about the companies and understanding that they were not aligned with my vision and I could not add to their value, I eventually sold all of them. I also sold my own restaurant business in order to concentrate on leading the enterprises where I felt I could truly add value.
The two companies that I kept an interest in and continued to invest in were Bank Hapoalim and an infrastructure and real estate company called Shikun & Binui. Each of these companies had cumbersome internal business structures that were archaic and did not make much sense in the fast-moving business environment that I could foresee.
It was clearly time for transformation, but changing such deeply held structures and corporate cultures was not going to be easy. There seemed to be no vision at all within these companies, short-term or long-term, and I made it my mission to introduce vision and purpose. Little did I know how long and challenging the process of transformation would be—but what incredible successes we are seeing in those businesses now!
Arison Investments continued to expand, buying out Salt Industries, which we later renamed Salt of the Earth. I also founded Miya, based on my vision of abundance, knowing that one of the most important challenges of our future is ensuring clean drinking water for all.
As you will see in the coming chapters, our group of companies and organizations has expanded and transformed itself in a remarkable way. And out of this process has emerged a unique and comprehensive values-based business model that is applicable and practical for any businessperson who wants to contribute to the growth of themselves, their organization, and the world.
Early Lessons from the Banking World
Very unexpectedly, at a time when I took my first steps in the banking world, I was appointed to the board of Bank Hapoalim. I did however come onto the board with extensive hands-on experience gained by working in virtually every department within a large international corporation, so I knew how organizations and corporate structures really work. I had years of experience with both for-profits and non-profits, so I came in with that perspective too.
As it turned out, I didn’t need to be so nervous about my own financial management savvy, because once I started attending meetings for the bank, I soon discovered—to my surprise—that there were quite a few board members who also came from different business backgrounds.
However, this did not seem to keep them from commenting, objecting, and agreeing about things that they did not specialize in! I can only imagine how management felt when they had to take direction from people on the board who were not from their industry, compared to the management teams who had been working for the bank for ten, twenty, and some thirty years. I wanted to have a dialog based on shared knowledge and productive understanding.
I felt that I couldn’t express myself until I learned the material. I took private lessons with people I trusted, and I went to each of the departments to meet with managers and employees to learn the true nature of the business. I constantly referred to a financial lexicon and materials until I became comfortable with all of the terms, and only after a year did I begin to speak my mind at board meetings.
I spent years bringing to the board my own unique way of thinking, being involved with branding, caring for the customer, vision, and giving to the community. Looking back on those early years in my career, I can see how it has contributed tremendously to my understanding of the process it takes to create real transformation in a large organization. The good thing about gaining experience in the banking field is that it gives you an overall view of the economy.
Today I am no longer on any of the subsidiary boards. Although as owner of the Arison Group, I sit on the boards of our privately held entities both in business and philanthropy: in other words, Arison Investments and The Ted Arison Family Foundation.
A Passion for Our Collective Future
I am a lifelong learner and I learn by experience. It is my nature to always strive for improvement, personally and professionally, and to seek ways to contribute to the world around me. I believe that when a company or organization is driven only by financial results, it cannot fulfill its highest potential. There is a bigger picture, and I believe we need to take personal responsibility for the betterment of our collective future, and so do our companies and organizations.
That’s why, for as long as I can remember, I have been creating vision after vision for both my personal life and each and every entity in all of my holdings. I instilled these visions in all of my philanthropic organizations, and on the business side, I chose directors to sit on the different boards who care just as much as I do about vision and values while still making a profit. With the leadership of my team, we were able to inspire the different business units to adopt the visions I created. Of course, this was a much easier process with our private companies than with the public companies, where the understanding and the process took many, many years.
One day, after years of vision work, I woke up and realized that all of these separate visions formed sort of a model. As I saw it, each value is a building block, but together they formed a building. Understanding that each of these entities now had a vision, and each vision translated into a value, that’s how we came up with ten of the thirteen values comprising the Doing Good Model.
For instance, one of the values is Financial Freedom, which came from the vision for the bank. The value of Sustainability