Dan Avida is the youngest of the Israeli managers of high-tech companies in the USA. Avida is president and CEO of EFI (Electronics for Imaging), which had sales of $298 million and net revenue of $62.2 million in 1996. The company was set up by Efi Arazi, one of the founders of Scitex, and specialises in developing equipment which turns a digital colour photocopier into an extra fine and efficient colour printer, in terms quality and speed of printing. Japanese photocopying giants Canon, Ricoh, and Minolta are among its customers, as are Kodak, Xerox and IBM.
Technion graduate Avida was recruited to the company by Arazi eight years ago, straight after the end of his military service as a student reservist and head of an army technology development team. His promotion at EFI was by stages but rapid, and he has been company president and CEO for two years now, while Efi Arazi has been a non-executive chairman. Arazi sold his shares for $29 million. These days he has his hands full setting up a new company, Imedia, which focuses on methods of compressing information for digital television.
Avida enjoys widespread respect in the industry. Forbes called him "Mr Color" and paid tribute to his young age and the fact that he succeeded as a foreigner. He is one of a pair of extremely young managers mentioned in Forbes’ list of outstanding small companies. EFI’s ranking is certainly a fine compliment to Avida, but his swift promotion to senior management at a young age, relative to his Israeli colleagues in Silicon Valley, did not surprise him: "It was a completely natural process. I started work at the company in charge of product development and gradually received further areas of responsibility until the whole company was reporting to me. I may be young in comparison with the Israelis here, but plenty of young people my age here manage large companies."
Avida is convinced that the Israeli who does his military service as an engineer in the framework of the academic reserve has an advantage over his American counterpart, despite the fact that, all in all, he starts his career later: "I finished military service with five years experience in project management with plenty of economic resources. An American engineer who finishes his studies at 21 sits for a long time in front of a computer before anyone asks for his opinion. It’s not just a matter of managerial and supervisory experience. Israelis are more mature and know how to work under pressure. Israelis also integrate easily here because they speak good English."
"Globes": Why in fact did you come here?
Avida: "I wanted to be involved in setting up a company in Silicon Valley, especially a company which combines hardware and software, and this is exactly what Efi did. Apart from that, my wife was accepted to study at Berkeley and Stanford, which fitted in with my plans."
What is more important for success here, a brilliant product or business talent?
"A combination of the two, and a lot of luck. A brilliant product by itself is not enough, is not even essential. Microsoft’s products aren’t brilliant, but Microsoft has very great ability when it comes to marketing and getting things done."
Forbes flattering ranking also mentioned Avida’s 1996 salary: $435,800, plus stock gain amounting to $2.985 million. Avida also holds 0.09% of the company’s shares. EFI’s market value is $1.8 billion. He himself treats the topic of salary complacently, almost dismissively: "I’m not here for the money," he says, "I live in a modest house and drive a modest car. The monetary reward interests journalists more. Investors are interested in what you do for them and for the company. Efi Arazi argues that you should pay employees according to their contribution to the organisation and I am a big supporter of the idea. Efi is no longer here at the company, he sold his shares, and that’s a pity, because today this shareholding would be worth a billion dollars …"