"Hoping to Rise? Master the Elevator Talk" -- Gabe Goldberg, Special to The Washington Post, April 20, 2008
One of the unpleasant things about doing really useful things, such as desulfurization research, is justifying your existence to the people who control your budget. You can make that task more pleasant, or at least more productive, by creating 10-second and 30-second scripts that you can use when you are waiting for the elevator with one of your executives. Think of it as small talk with a purpose.
Unfortunately, most executives have only a vague idea of what you do. So to relate to them, you may have to use some of that creativity you use in your research. That’s where a news aggregator like Al Neft (www.alneft.com) can help.
According to its Web …
“Al Neft or Crude Oil in arabic is the story of modern Middle East and its importance to Global economy and politics. The site aims to provide objective analysis on developments & trends within the Oil & Gas Industry in the Middle East & North Africa and overall macro-economic environment within the region and worldly wisdom.”
There are hundreds of news aggregators on the Web. The interesting thing about Al Neft is that it filters the news from a Middle East perspective. The emphasis is on news about oil related events in the Middle East, and on global oil related events that will affect developments in the Middle East petroleum business.
This can lead to some interesting talking points when you have found yourself next to one of your execs. The executive may not understand the importance of your research, but he or she will understand the implications of …
“Saudi local consumption of Crude Oil continue to climb with current estimate of 2.8 m bpd in 2010 from 2.6 m bpd in 2009. Saudi total production stood at 12.5 m bpd. Heavy subsidies of feedstock to Industrial users and gasoline pump price and lack of sufficient natural gas will pose potential constraints on future exports from the world’s central bank of oil.”
Source: http://alneft.com/?p=46
I don’t care who you are … if you’re in the oil business, an item like this will be food for thought. And a thoughtful executive is just the kind of person you need to cultivate.
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