OHI Perspectives

Discovering new places for any reason can be exciting on many levels. But heading out to set up a new business, in a new environment, with new regulatory demands, bespoke customer requirements, a firm deadline and the absolute need for safety without compromise, requires a special skill set. Duncan Moore, OHI Group COO and Executive Vice President International Offshore and Onshore, explains. 

 

“It probably goes without saying that a successful mobilisation of a new operation in the aviation sector starts long before the day you set foot in the new country, and the Omni team has an established and proven methodology.

So, let’s start with planning.

We learned it’s imperative that you have a well thought out and detailed plan before you set off. Every aspect of the mobilisation must be considered in detail. To ensure that every aspect of the plan is subject to the right level of scrutiny by all stakeholders, the very first section of any Omni mobilisation plan is always “management of change”.

Here we set out the objectives of the mobilisation, detail who is involved, their roles and accountabilities, and most importantly we establish the framework to identify, treat and manage risks to ALARP, laying the foundations for a safe mobilization and operation.

The change management aspect of any mobilisation is absolutely key. We seek to involve a wide stakeholder group, always including our customers, to ensure that everybody has the latest information concerning the project status, expected delivery dates of key milestones, and any challenges that have arisen. This transparent dialogue enables collective problem solving and ensures the best possible solutions are identified, should challenges arise. Updating and publishing the plan frequently to all stakeholders is the cornerstone of open communication, allowing stakeholders to ask frequent questions and stay appraised of progress.

Of course, the project plan has to include other aspects too. We usually detail all other tasks under the main headings of “People”, “Places”, wherein we consider the business environment and facilities, “Platforms”, aspects relating to the helicopters or UAVs, and “Procedures”, covering regulatory aspects and customer interfacing, amongst other things.

Finally, an Omni mobilisation plan ends with checks, balances & feedback. Are all risks managed to ALARP? Do we have all the required approvals? Is all the training complete? Are the facilities ready? Etcetera. We always plan for a “go / no go” meeting with our customer as well, to make sure everyone is aligned and ready to start operations.

Whilst experience is helpful, of course, anyone can draw up a project plan. You need simply exceptional people to make it all happen on time. In this respect, Omni is blessed.

The next essential element is exceptional people.

One of the most unique things about Omni is the team that comes together around a mobilization.

Our leadership team is notably smaller than many of our peers, however almost all of us are aviation people with significant and long-standing frontline experience – over 400 years of it in total. This means there is a tremendous amount of knowledge to draw from – both practical and cultural. Within the group, I cannot think of a frontline function that someone on the team has not done in the past. Moreover, the team has been at the frontline in over 40 countries around the world, including the most challenging the energy sector has to offer.

This experience brings with it a “lead by example” mindset. When the challenge is greatest, you’ll find the Omni leadership right at the front line. In the days before we started our Guyana Operation in December 2022, our CEO was intimately involved in the passenger briefing and boarding process, our Group Chief Safety Officer was pushing a pallet truck to help organize stores and myself and the Country Manager were inspecting lifejackets. Rolling our sleeves up is something the Omni team just enjoys.

Of course, seeing leadership this actively involved, is infectious within the team. All of a sudden, everyone is energized and rapid progress results.

This experience & energy at the front line makes problem solving and decision making easy as the mobilization progresses. There’s no waiting for the next meeting to decide, everyone knows what to do and is empowered to make a decision and move forward.

Finally, and perhaps Omni’s most “secret sauce”, is lateral thinking.

Knowing the art of the possible, what your alternatives are, and precisely how much execution risk to take, requires experience. Fortunately, Omni has that, and a mindset to challenge convention, in abundance.

It’s a personal belief of mine that, to some extent, our industry has become just a little bit lazy when it comes to creating solutions to problems. It seems that if the OEM or lessors can’t deliver an aircraft or piece of equipment, it “can’t be done”. Things we did “day in, day out” 25 years ago, we no longer routinely do. Maybe that’s why a COO of a lessor laughed out loud on a call with Omni when I said we were going to “make a SAR helicopter for Guyana”. I honestly didn’t see what was so crazy, significant re-rolling of helicopters was something we used to do all the time when I joined the sector nearly 30 years ago, it was just a matter of finding the right aircraft and the right MRO partner, which we quickly did.

Being able to say to a customer, with confidence, “Omni can do that”, is a major differentiator for us I believe.

When people do things because they enjoy them, you usually get a great result. This was the case in 2022 in Guyana. Basically, the Omni team had 22, then suddenly 16, weeks, to mobilize 6 helicopters into a new country and set up a search and rescue unit. I don’t think many operators would have committed to that.

Not only did the Omni team do it safely and on time, in the year that followed they achieved more than 50% national content at the operation, sponsored 10 engineering students at the local training school, commenced training of Guyana’s first ever helicopter SAR technical crew, selected Guyana’s first two ab-initio helicopter pilots and delivered a remarkable efficiency gain for our customer, winning their supplier of the year award in their first year in country.

Planning, exceptional people doing what they enjoy and lateral thinking. They are the keys to Omni’s ability to deliver exceptional operations in the most challenging of circumstances.

We call it “the Omni way”.