PGDM 2020-2022

ISRAELI AIRCRAFT
INDUSTRIES
Course: Understanding People in Organization

Submitting to Prof. L. Gandhi

Submitted by: Group 2 Section A
Group members:
AKANKSHA GUPTA 20004
ALEKHYA CHITTURI 20005
BAVITHRA K 20011
SHIVAM AGRAWAL 20012
PRERANA JAIN 20038
HARSHITH S 20057
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to express our gratitude to our Professor L. Gandhi as well as
our Institute Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheswara Institute for Management
Development who has given us this opportunity to do this assignment on the
Case “ISRAELI AIRCRAFT INDUSTRIES”, which has helped us understand
and integrate theoretical knowledge with practical applications.
We would also like to express our gratitude to our parents and classmates who
are an important inspiration.

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Contents
Case Summary:...................................................2
Question 1...........................................................3
Question 2...........................................................4
Question3............................................................5
Question 4...........................................................6
Question 5...........................................................7
Question 6...........................................................7

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Case Summary:
In this case we see, Moshey, a graduate from Tel Aviv University College of Engineering
(TUCE) followed his aim and accepted the offer from Israeli Aircraft Industry (IAI) as a
management trainee, despite getting a much lower salary compared to the other jobs. He was
determined and happy with his job because he wanted to serve his country and this job would
help him achieve his goal. As IAI was one of only aircraft manufacturer who were supplying
to Israeli Air Force (IAF).

Within a few months of joining the factory, Moshey figured that there was mistrust and
negative perception between IAI and IAF and wondered how a firm can have dissatisfied
customer. As much as he wanted to resolve the conflict, he refrained because he was not in
the position to recommend the senior management. He observes that due to this
misconception, IAF rejected the bid offer made by IAI, which was a major loss for the IAI.
This led Moshey to harbour some resentment towards IAF as he felt that they were being
unreasonable. 
Two months later, he got his first opportunity to visit a forward air force base to check the
damage inflicted on an IAI manufactured aircraft due to a bird hit. He was sent along with a
team to assess the damage and give an estimate for repair. After staying there for 3 weeks, he
learnt about the struggles of the air force personnel and the pressure they faced daily. He
came to empathise with them and his perception about them began to change. There he
became friends with Amy Rahal, an IAF Engineer who had also graduated from TUCE. Once
Moshey assessed the damage on the aircraft, he estimated that it would take 4 to 5 months to
fix it.  He took this report to Amy for a counter signature who then made an unusual
proposal. As losing another aircraft for such a long duration would be a difficult situation for
the Airforce, Amy requested that him and his were to be involved in the repair process which
was to be made in the base itself.
Despite knowing that this would anger his boss at ASHDOD as it was against protocol,
Moshey decided to help Amy as he had a strong intuition that this was the right thing to do.
He managed to convince his team and they were able to fix the aircraft in 48 hours. Once he
went back to ASHDOD, he had to face the wrath of his boss as he had expected and was even
moved to the documentation department which was normally given to the unwanted people.
He did not let his team suffer however and took the fall by himself. But his efforts yielded
positive results, when his boss was summoned by the Air Force Maintenance Chief who
expressed his gratitude towards them for helping them out in a difficult situation. He said that
they had decided to give the F-16 overhaul contract to IAI and that they would receive their
full support from then onwards. The boss was extremely pleased after finding out that this
was due to Moshey’s decision and apologised to him immediately. Moshey was made in
charge of overall overhaul operations and was even awarded star of the year award in the
next town hall meeting. 
The relationship between IAI and IAF was beginning to mend. Years passed and Moshey
became a general manager in IAI and Amy became the Maintenance Chief of IAF. They now

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wanted to take measures for bringing in a sustainable positive relationship between IAI and
IAF.

Major Issues
1. Mistrust and negative perception between IAI and IAF – Both IAI and IAF were
having negative perception upon themselves. This resulted in mistrust and low
understanding nature between them.

2. IAF was dissatisfied by IAI on customer satisfaction – IAF being the major customer
to IAI was dissatisfied by the attitude and service shown towards them.

3. IAF showed bad customer behaviour – The bad behaviour was shown by rejecting the
bid by IAI even though the bid was the lowest. IAF perceived that IAI is not
competent enough to stand on that promise and hence rejected their bid.

4. Limited efforts by IAI in understanding IAF – IAI showed no efforts whatsoever in

trying to understand its customer, IAF. This led to IAF believing that IAI have no
interest with working with them.

5. Customer support towards IAF is missing by IAI – IAI did not provide any quick
response when it came towards resolving issues but went on with their procedure. A
clear and better business model keeping customer at its front was missing.

Question 1. What message do you get from this case on the following
aspects of business excellence? Explain with examples from the case.

a.) Customer Perception: Customer perception plays a vital role in a company’s ability
to attract new customers and to retain existing customers. It is a concept that
encompasses a customer’s impression, awareness and/or consciousness about a
company or its offerings. Perception can be both negative and positive. Every
organization’s aim is to build and maintain positive perception.

Here in this case, we can observe both kinds of perception.

 Negative Perception: IAF had a negative perception that IAI always insisted on
too much of bureaucracy and paperwork and it does not support the air force in
the most critical times of operational crisis. On the other hand, IAI was
apprehensive about attitude and unreasonable demands of Air force. This created
mistrust between IAI and IAF which resulted in being a reason for rejecting the
profitable bid of F-16 overhaul.
 Positive Perception: The perception gradually changed when Moshey personally
visited and interacted with the employees at IAF base. His visit was an eyeopener,
where he witnessed their miserable state and decided to go against the protocol
and help them at the time of crisis. Moshey with his team, worked rigorously to
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 fix the damage of aircraft which later helped IAF in successfully completing a
major strike operation against terrorists. 

b.) Customer Centricity: Customer-centric also known as client-centric is a business

strategy that is based on putting your customer first and at the core of your business to
provide a positive experience and build long-term relationships. Companies that put
the customer at the heart of their organization are experiencing an increase in customer
lifetime value and a reduction in churn.
 We observe in this case Moshey placed the customer request first and helped
IAF in repairing their Aircraft in short time by staying in AIF. He persuaded
his entire team to be customer oriented and resolved the query by going
beyond their responsibilities. They took this step despite of knowing the after
consequences back in IAI.
 As a result of this gesture, they got the F-16 deal back to IAI with complete
trust and satisfaction.
 As seen later in the case, IAF team would regularly visit Ashdod IAI complex
with big list of components and spares. IAI gained complete confidence and
satisfaction by maintaining healthy relationship with IAF.

c.) Team spirit: Team Spirit brings the sense of harmony between the group and having
team spirit will boost the productivity among the team. Team spirit is the feeling of
pride and loyalty that exists among the members of a team and that makes them want
their team to do well or to be the best.
 We can see in this case, Moshey convinces his team for repairing the aircraft in the
IAF base itself. He motivated his entire team and imbibed them with positive spirit
to accomplish the task. The Spirit that Moshey’s team possessed made them
workday and night and helped them in fixing the aircraft in 48 hours. This would
not be possible if the team lacked the right spirit and motivation.

d.) Team Motivation and Engagement: Motivation is the reason to why we act, and
Engagement is the emotional commitment to our work. All effective leaders want their
organizations to be filled with people in this state of mind. It is vital as a leader and
manager, keep your team feeling motivated and inspired.
 Moshey developed an emotional commitment towards IAF personnel which
motivated him and his team. This helped in team’s commitment towards the task to
complete it on the scheduled time.
 If the team is not motivated and if they are not engaged in the job that they are
performing, then the productivity would be low, and the results will not be
effective.

e.) Rewards and Recognition: A reward is generally a tangible gift given to an employee
from their manager or the executive team to celebrate something they accomplished
with the context. Recognition is personal praise or gratitude for good work and can be
given by anyone at the company at any time.
 Here in this case, we can observe both in several instances. IAF GM
recognized the hard work and dedication of Moshey and his team and

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 recognized that by giving the contract back to IAI. Whereas Peres recognized
and rewards Moshey for his work with promotion and bonus. Moshey gave all
the credits to his team and made sure their work was also recognized and
appraised.

Question 2. Would you have done anything different from what Moshey
did if you were in his place? Explain your views.
Firstly, as a team we feel what Moshey had done at the time of crisis to help the customer by
going out of the way, to gain the trust and confidence was right and we would do the same if
we were at Moshey’s place. He wanted to resolve conflicts between IAI and IAF. He knew
that if IAF lost another aircraft, they would face a lot of difficulty. This shows the leadership
quality of Moshey to take apt decisions at difficult times and to motivate the team at right
direction.
Having said that, we would also make sure that we keep the management in the loop, during
the entire process. Moshey could avoid getting into conclusion that the management would
never agree to this task but try to persuade them just as the way he persuaded the entire team.
Moshey motive and plan of action was firm that this step will be in benefit of the
organization. It was not an impossible task to convince his manager. Moshey should take all
attempts to make the organization understand the importance of customer satisfaction and
stress on keeping the organization customer oriented. If Moshey would follow this, he would
not have disappointed Peres and would have avoided the shift of his job role.
Going against the Management is not suggested for any employee. In such situation, it is
advised to share all the viewpoints to the management and gain their confidence first.

Question3. What leadership lessons do you get from Mr Peres’s role and
Moshey’s role?
Leadership Lesson from Mr. Peres’s role are as follows:
Peres’s was a leader who followed all the rules and protocols. He pushed his employees to do
the same. He mainly emphasizes on centralized way of decision making and follows
autocratic model. His leadership style reflected as Authoritative, where he used his power to
get the work done. He moved Moshey to another team when lead the task without
managements approval.
Mr. Peres demonstrated the role of resource allocator by assigning jobs and tasks suitable for
therequirement.
At the same time, Peres has leadership quality of recognizing the hard work and rewarding it.
Peres took the blame and apologised Moshey for his actions. Peres took complete
accountability for his actions.
Leadership Lesson from Moshey’s role are as follows:

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Moshey’s personality was molded by his past experiences and from the hardship his family
had gone through. Moshey was very determined and career oriented, he chose to serve his
country by accepting a job from IAI even though the package offered was less than the other
jobs he converted. He had clear vision throughout and always motivated to gain trust the
customer satisfaction.
Leader: Moshey’s personality made him a true leader. Moshey took extraordinary steps to
regain the image of the firm and change the negative perception of IAF towards the
organization. He motivated and directed his entire team and maintained the positive team
spirit. As a true leader, he stood up for the entire team and took the blame on himself. He also
made sure that the recognition was given to every team member.
Negotiator: He had good negotiation skills which was proven by the fact he managed to
convince his team that the damaged aircraft must be repaired with the parts of the existing
aircraft.
Disturbance Handler: He did not lose his calm throughout. In several instances shown in
case, he maintained his calm and worked towards resolving the issue with focus and
dedication. He handled all difficult situation smoothly.
Visionary: Moshey had a clear vision of attaining complete customer oriented/centric
organization. He worked with same vision and reached to the position of General Manager.
Spokesperson: He took the entire blame on himself and faced the consequences alone
without letting that affect the team. At the same time, he ensured the credit was given to
entire team and not just him.

Question 4. What brought out a change in Moshey’s perception? If you face

a similar situation, in your company of serious misconception between your
company and the customer, what steps would you initiate to turn the
situation?
a.) When Moshey was asked to lead a team to the place of incident where an aircraft was hit
by bird and needs to be repaired, he had to visit the forward air base where actual operations
were carried out and he also had to stay there for 3 weeks. So, after experiencing the situation
first-hand about the different problems faced by the air force personnel on daily basis. He
witnessed how air force personnel were handling rigorous training and operations. There was
shortage of manpower and immense pressure due to large volume flying. Also, the air force
personnel relied completely on tinned food. After observing all this he developed a soft
corner for the IAF personnel and felt that IAI has been insensitive to their stressful life. He
started developing a sense of sympathy for them. This started changing his perception of the
IAF.
He also had conversation with IAF Engineer Amy Halal, who also helped him change his
perception towards IAF.
b.) We as a team will take following steps if we face the similar situation:

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First, understand the actual reason behind the misconception. It is essential to get to the root
cause of the problem to fix it. We, being a customer-oriented company, it becomes all the
way more important to understand what has caused the misconception.
Once the issue is recognised, we would work on rectifying it by taking the responsibility. We
would build a communication channel to acknowledge the mistake and giving assurance of
complete satisfaction. An open communication channel should be initiated where the
stakeholders can express their grievances and give feedback to the firm.
Customer misconception and dissatisfaction should be treated with utmost priority as the firm
is running because of the customers and cannot afford to lose them.
The Organization’s culture and goal should be made customer oriented. The Organization
should make sure the employees are happy and satisfied in the firm because happy employees
results in better profits.

Question 5. In your opinion, what action of Moshey has delivered most

effective results and why?
According to us the most effective action taken by Moshey is accepting the unusual request
from Amy Rahal where Moshey and his team was requested to help the IAF in replacing the
parts at the base itself instead of taking them to ASHDOD. Moshey agreed to this request and
put all his efforts to motivate his entire team and get them onboard for the task with his
guidance and plan of action. Because of this decision made by Moshey, the misconception of
IAF towards IAI was cleared and their ties became stronger than ever.
This action of Moshey helped the firm to regain the trust of their loyal customer and got back
the most profitable contract of overhaul F-16 to IAI with the assurance that there will be
healthy relationship between both the parties henceforth.
We can also see in the latter part of the case that Moshey helped IAF during the critical
situations when IAF flight was having a hydraulic failure and was unable to deploy landing
gear Moshey and his team helped them to land the aircraft.

Question 6. What actions can be taken for bringing in a sustainable positive

relationship between IAI and IAF?
IAI after Moshey’s action became a customer centric and customer driven organization with
respect to IAF. With further actions taken by Moshey in helping IAF by guiding in the
emergency landing gear problem cemented a strong relationship between them. Now building
this and maintaining this towards a sustainable positive relationship is the key. The actions
that can be taken for bringing in a sustainable positive relationship between IAI and IAF are
as follows:
a. Building Rapport - IAI and IAF building upon a strong relationship between them
creates a good synergy between them.
b. Customer Appeal – Appealing IAF by IAI in their needs and struggles as earlier
shown by Moshey should be done.

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 c. Feedbacks and customer support – Acknowledging the feedbacks from IAF and
improving upon that with better service and products by creating a well-built
customer support.
d. Open Communication – Regular and open communication should be done with
respect to the business and products between the middle management of both the
companies to ensure a sense of understanding at that level as well and not just the top
management.
e. Frequent Meetings – High end meetings between the top managements of both the
company should take place every quarter to ensure free flow of products to IAF and
no backlogs are left.
f. Customizing the product to the need – IAI can customize the products to the need of
IAF which will help in their operations and create a good bond between them.
g. Adapt IAI’s business model/plan – By keeping IAF in mind, IAI must adapt its
business model/plan towards customers which ensures easy operations inside IAI as
well when it comes to customer support.

Learning from the Case: Major lessons were learnt from Moshey’s role
1.) Decision Making skills: From Moshey’s character we can learn how to make apt
decisions, which is best suitable for the organization and which will meet the desired
customer need. Moshey considered the pro’s and con’s before making any decision.
2.) We also learn how important customer centricity is for any customer-oriented
organization.
3.) How to be a true leader, stand up for the team, taking the blame on self and not
pushing to the team. At the same time, recognizing and rewarding their efforts.
4.) Having fixed vision and clear set of goals
5.) How to persuade and motivate the team, instead of ordering or pushing them to do the
task without the consent.
6.) RECOMMENDATION: Evaluating the situation properly, have a strong plan of
action in place, calculate the risk of failure and chances of success and then make a
decision.