Helicopter operating companies need to be run by real helicopter people, take a long term view and show some leadership.
I never worked with Bristow but, when doing my IR in Norwich in 2002, the dominant sentiment around the company even then was...
"Back in old man Bristow's day, this was a helicopter company that made a profit. Now it's profit-making company that just happens to operate helicopters!"
Alan Bristow, love him or hate him, had his feet on both sides of the table and acted accordingly. But it doesn-t work like that now. The big helicopter companies now have owners/investors and their own boardrooms too. "Leadership" will only surface or show its face if the deal is a sure thing and profits/dividends can be enhanced.
One of the great difficulties in the helicopter world, certainly at the level where large operators are owned by larger corporations which are in turn controlled by even larger investors, is the regulatory "cultural conflict".
On the one hand, everything about the operation of aircraft, from the initial design and certification to the flying and maintenance, is governed by regulations that have been developed over many years and which owe their origins, in very large measure, to the findings of the investigations into accidents and incidents that have claimed many, many lives.
On the other hand, such regulations as govern the running of businesses and accounting practices in general and anything to do with money in the broad sense are basically there to keep order in the books, to ensure that things are done correctly and, where they have been developed or tightened at all, it has been as a result of some impropriety or other.
So, while we wander about the skies according to regulations written in the blood of those who have lost their lives, we are being managed/controlled by others who are operating to regulations designed to stop them from being thieves.
Or is that just too much cynicism....?