I remember it well even though it occurred about 10 years ago. An oil and gas industry manager from West Africa said to me at the conclusion of our four-week petroleum industry management program, “Please find a way to help us keep up with what is going on in our industry. We have learned so much in this program. Now, we need a way to remain current.”
The idea has been in the back of my mind for a long time. Then, with the rise of social media, a way to meet my friend’s suggestion began to materialize. Beginning about three years ago a group of our younger employees began a concerted effort to convince me and others that we should become active in social media, especially with the issuance of a corporate blog. They also told me that if we published a blog, we needed to publish a new post every other week or so.
“Wow!” I said, “That’s a lot of work. Who is going to write them? Who will read them? What will be our main focus?” After some considerable discussion the answers began to evolve. The focus of the blog would be broad and responsive to the expressed need of my West African friend. We have named it “Perspectives on the Oil and Gas Business,” and it will focus on petroleum industry developments.
Next, we needed to identify those who would write the blog posts. Certainly our readers would like to hear a broad cross-section of views and opinions. Who would be better to submit contributions related to the full oil and gas value chain than our instructors, employees, past participants in our management programs, client companies and, you, our blog readers? The invitations went out, and I am delighted to say that our IHRDC Blog Writing Team is now at 30 and growing.
Finally, we needed someone keenly interested in managing the publishing process and Ariel Rapoport, our IHRDC Communicator editor and a recent “Highest Honors” graduate in Economics from Tufts University, stepped forward with a nice smile and said she was ready to go.
So we welcome you to the IHRDC blog and this inaugural blog post. Please share with us your comments and blog topic suggestions below. If you are interested in becoming a contributor or have topic suggestions, please fill out the Contact Us form here. In the meantime, continue to read our blogs and share the site with your friends.