Many very astute points and it again highlights the disconnect between management and their customers. When an owner sees the business purely as an investment venture and not as a provider of a service, they inevitably employ a very accountant heavy management. No matter how good and capable they are at business theoretics, the aviation industry is quite different to an average business model. There is far more more emotion involved and customers require confidence in those providing the service. In my opinion the centralisation of large portions of decision making away from the business units to a central operation in the USA further isolates and alienates the customer from who they see as should be providing the service. The local business units are the ones dealing with the customers on a daily basis and are in the best position to develop an effective working relationship with them. The customers value this immensely and it allows for far greater flexibility and more effective decision making. In short, to use an old military term, mission command. The commander on the ground, given the proper support and backup is often the best man with the most up to date situational awareness to make a decision. Whilst the centralisation of all decision making and removal of control from individual business units may appear on the surface to be the most cost effective approach, it ends up being far too restrictive and ill informed to cope with the demand of customers in the complex and dynamic environment we live in. Further to that it removes the all important personal contact with the customer. This in the end will prove to be vastly more expensive as results are showing. Contracts are lost or run inefficiently, with the business units unable to react quickly, resulting often in unnecessary financial penalties and inefficient running of individual contracts and very frustrated customers. Flexibility is the key to aviation.