Are you an O+G industry leader?
It’s possible that you’re a significant shareholder, or are a top executive of one of the industries supermajors. However you got there, you’ll appreciate the honor. You’re likely to be in the enviable position of making a difference. Perhaps you can help to make the world a better place.
It’s more likely that you’re an employed oil worker, or perhaps a self-employed consultant or entrepreneur building an SME.
Wherever you are in the oil and gas food chain, you’ll realize that the industry is large, but networking effects make it small. Especially when many of us are internationally mobile, and inhabit an industry sub-niche.
Every new assignment reminds us how close we all are to each other. How many times have you met the same person in a new company or country? How many times do you meet people who know some of the people that you know? That happens all the time.
Degrees of separation…
LinkedIn reminds us of how small the industry is by telling us about mutual connections. We meet a new person and see that they’re connected to 10 or 20 people that we’re connected to, sometimes more.
So, the industry is one of the biggest, but due to networking and degrees of separation, it’s also small. Because of this, it’s vital to always behave with integrity. That’s even more valid if you’re in the ‘middle’ that we just mentioned — the section in-between employed workers, and executives.
You don’t need a fancy sales pitch if you do good work and have a stellar reputation. Plenty of work opportunities are likely to follow you over time.
We all live and work in different places, with day to day contacts, but are all connected at the same time. We might impress our co-workers with our knowledge and resolve under pressure. We can establish respect from those who we’ve never met. We can do this through our reputation.
We act professionally, whether we’re dealing with a CEO or a cleaner. News of our ongoing good work and integrity will get spread by networking effects. Sometimes degrees of separation take us outside of our niche, or even our industry, and serendipity can follow.
For example:
While I have interests in different areas, my primary job role is in marketing, copywriting and web design. Most of my clients are in the upstream oil and gas business, although some are midstream. Through an online marketing trade mastermind group, I got asked if I could help with some PR work. The person who asked me is in the mainstream retail business. We’re only connected through our passion for marketing.
Inside this mastermind group, people are selling every product you can think of, but we all learn from each other. Sometimes the best ideas come from different industries and can be adapted to our own.
So, I helped with some PR strategy and consulting. Then my new business associate referred a friend, who happens to be involved in the oil business! He owns FROutlet.com and retails FR clothing (and other types of PPE) from companies like Ariat and Wrangler.
FROutlet ships internationally, but sells most of its products to oilfield workers in the USA where they’ve seen steady growth throughout the downturn. They’ve benefited from the onshore shale boom where Ariat products, in particular, are bestsellers, and turnover just for that brand has almost doubled in the last 12 months.
Now, the owner of senergyconsultants.com is allowing me to post this blog post on his website as a guest. I write on other peoples websites because they have different visitors and associates. Rather than only communicating with my network, I interact with other peoples networks too.
As long as you’re providing some value, and thought-provoking points, most platform owners welcome new content. In FR clothing, PR for e-commerce, or any other niche or sector, the same principles apply.
What I’m doing, is putting my collaboration and synergy efforts on steroids, as I understand the network effect. I know that my work will be read by people that are far more successful than I, as well as people fresh from college.
My message will leave my network, go to other networks in the energy industry, and leave the industry altogether. It might go from manpower, to marketing, to e-commerce, back to oil and gas because of some FR clothing!
Collaboration, synergy & degrees of separation, with a focus on integrity…
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