Israel Aerospace Industries' new chairman, Dov Baharav, is determined to change the state-run company's organisational culture and continue to develop its activities in the emerging markets of Asia and Latin America.

Baharav is attending his first Farnborough after joining from telecoms management software supplier Amdocs Management, where he was chief executive of the £3.2 billion turnover business. The two technology companies are similar in terms of revenue and the fact that they have a global footprint. After that, the similarities stop. "IAI is government-owned and unionised," he says. "I will enjoy the differences."

Baharav - who says his chief executive will do the "heavy lifting" of running the company, while he will provide a more supervisory, strategic and ambassadorial role - brings to his new job a "vast experience of managing in the global arena and in the private sector, competing in a cut-throat environment where you simply have to be the best".

The new IAI strategy, he says, will "have an impact on our organisational structure and culture - how we operate, cultivate our management and embrace changes in the world". However, IAI's long-mooted privatisation is still some way off. "I am not holding my breath," says Baharav.

IAI has been hit by the changing geopolitics of the Middle East, losing its biggest export customer in the region - Turkey - after the Israeli Navy attacked a Turkish aid ship en route to Gaza in 2010. However, despite the added challenge of squeezed defence budgets in Israel and Europe, IAI's business has remained strong, with a record backlog of almost $10 billion announced in the second quarter, says Baharav.

"I have been positively surprised to see IAI doing so well, despite overall negative conditions," he adds. Asia now represents 35% of the company's turnover, and although Latin America remains a niche market, prospects in Brazil are healthy and IAI is "determined to grow there beyond 10% of our revenues", says Baharav.

IAI CEO

 

Source: Flight Daily News