The Crude Life

Media personality Sean Hannity (left) and MBI Energy Services president Jim Arthaud (right). Photo by Paul Flessland.

Interviews: Jim Arthaud, president, MBI; Sean Hannity, media

Building the Bakken Radio Episode 45 Segment 2:  Bakken Events, Rail and Natural Gas

Lynn Helms, director, North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, at the Williston Basin Petroleum Council Conference in Bismarck, ND. Photo by Paul Flessland.

Hannity talks about getting your hands dirty with no money in the bank.  Hannity also shares his views on whether today’s high school graduates should skip the military or a 4-year degree for the oil patch in western North Dakota.

Helms gives a halftime update of the “state of the Bakken.”

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Harold Hamm, CEO Continental Resources, addresses the crowd at the Williston Basin Petroleum Council meeting in Bismarck, ND. Photo by Paul Flessland.

Segment 1 – Energy Current Events

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Harold Hamm, CEO Continental Resources, addresses the crowd at the Williston Basin Petroleum Council meeting in Bismarck, ND. Photo by Paul Flessland.

Interviews:  Ron Ness, president, NDPC; Harold Hamm, CEO, Continental Resources; Jeff Hume, Vice Chairman of Strategic Growth Initiatives, Continental Resources

Building the Bakken Radio Episode 45 Segment 1: Energy Current Events

Hamm addresses the crowd at the 2014 Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck, ND.  Hume talks about the crude oil volatility study.

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Tech billionaire Rob Ryan (left) answers a question for Building the Bakken host Jason Spiess. Photo by Kevin Tobosa

Interviews: Billionaire Rob Ryan, Montana

Building the Bakken Episode 44 Segment 4:  One on One Interview

Through a variety of serendipitous events, I became one of a handful of people who had the opportunity to interview the billion-dollar-man while covering the 5th Annual Global Economic Summit in beautiful Jackson Hole, WY.  This prestigious annual event happens in July and is attended by the globes’ top economic minds, venture capitalists and media organizations.  A rare white elk sighting is more common than spotting many of the people who attend this economic conference.

Ryan is considered on the same technological and entrepreneurial level as Steve Jobs and Gates.  Ryan’s 1989 start-up company, Ascend Communications, Inc., generated more than $2 billion in sales. In 1999, Lucent Technologies acquired Ascend for $24 billion in what was considered “the largest technology merger” at the time.  Since then Ryan has gone on to create six more companies that sold for over a billion dollars.

An investor in “about a half a dozen companies in the Bakken” Ryan is looking at investing more into this energy tech revolution through start ups and business acceleration. Ryan is the founder, chairman and CEO of Entrepreneur America and currently runs the Roaring Lions Ranch in Montana, where he lives.

“I raise entrepreneurs,” Ryan said. “We’ve been doing it for about 17 years now. Recently we have joined forces with HERO Partners and are trying to establish HERO Companies.”

Ryan says HERO companies are ones that can adapt and transform their environment and produce multiple streams of revenue, almost perpetually.  These companies are not common and the people who posses the HERO qualities do not grow on trees.

“We are very selective with the companies we work with,” Ryan said. “But then we go in and try to accelerate their growth. In fact dramatically accelerate their growth.”

Ryan says his dream, and drive, in this endeavor is to change the cultural paradigm of the United States through entrepreneurship.

“So the dream I have is to impact the United States through entrepreneurship with millions of entrepreneurs spread throughout the United States,” Ryan said. “But not in places where they already have entrepreneurs like Silicon Valley and Boston, those places already have engines of entrepreneurship.  I’m looking at doing it in the rest of the country.”

According to Ryan, most of the people he works with do not have “fancy degrees” or diplomas, rather an honest work ethic with an ability to build businesses. Ryan’s educational background is math, physics and science, but believes his billion dollar process speaks to the core of an individual.

“I’ve developed a process on how to grow a company from scratch to billions of dollars, and I’ve done it four, five, times now,” Ryan said. “You can call the first one perhaps an accident, but it’s hard to call them all an accident.”

Ryan believes by empowering an individual’s special skills, or core competencies, one can develop a process to build a successful organization.  These interpersonal core competencies take precedent over the product in the marketplace.

“I compete through competencies not products,” Ryan said. “Once I figure out what you are good at, then I can dream up with you, in fact, I can probably dream it up better than you, a million products we can do.”

Ryan calls each one of those product ideas a pedal on a sunflower, anchored by a seed disk of core competencies.  He said the process he has developed with focusing on the talents and strengths of the person have seen successful transcendence into multiple industries.  Ryan believes whether it is the media, energy, technology or any other industry, his process can work in any industry.

Ryan said often times uncovering the inner talents is difficult, bordering on soul searching for some.  Then there are those who just don’t have what it takes.

“Sometimes people just realize there isn’t much inside of them,” Ryan said. “You’ve heard of Gertrude Stein’s ‘there is no there there’, well, sometimes there isn’t much inside.  You open the wrapper and there’s not enough in there.”

Ryan said when that happens, he looks at it as a very fortunate time in the process.

“It’s good for the entrepreneur to discover this, because imagine if you spent your life savings and all your effort and there is no there there,”  Ryan said.

Complimenting yourself with talented people, having a small ego and having a solid family foundation are additional keys to success, according to Ryan.

In fact, Ryan says having a successful professional life is dependent on a good marriage.  His wife, Terry, an attorney, is “involved with every aspect of his life” and “reads every document” in his business.

“In 45 years I don’t think I have actually ever read a legal agreement,” Ryan said. “I always tell people if Terry’s name isn’t on it don’t bother giving it to me because I am not going to read it or consider signing it in a million years.”

Ryan said institutional studies have been performed indicating successful world leaders and entrepreneurs throughout history have one common thread – a long term marriage.  He said a good marriage offers stability at home and the ability to communicate with someone outside the workplace.

“If you’re the CEO who do you bounce ideas off?”  Ryan asks. “You can’t go down and show your vulnerabilities to the people who work for you. So it’s a very lonely position and your wife becomes your partner on that.”

On the flip side, Ryan said the worst thing you can do if you want to be successful is divorce often.

“If you divorce a lot, two things happen,” Ryan said. “You loose stability and your fortune keeps getting divided in half.”

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Tech billionaire Rob Ryan (left) answers a question for Building the Bakken host Jason Spiess. Photo by Kevin Tobosa

Segment 4:  One on One – Billionaire Rob Ryan, Montana

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Segment 3:  Bakken Government – Shawn Kessel, city administrator, Dickinson

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Interview:  Shawn Kessel, city administrator, Dickinson

Building the Bakken Episode 44 Segment 3:  Bakken Government

Kessel talks about their issues with water and how the city is managing it.  Kessel also talks about how the city is handling the growth and mentions a few new businesses in town.

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Kerry Frank, CEO Comply365. Photo by Kevin Tobosa

Interview: Kerry Frank, CEO, Comply365, Wisc

Building the Bakken Episode 44 Segment 2: Big Data in the Bakken

Comply365′s innovative mobile software solutions has 75% market share within the aviation industry and is now bringing their solutions to the oil & gas industry.

Technology and innovation doesn’t necessarily need to happen on the drill site to effectively impact the bottom line.

That’s the approach one software company is bringing over to oil & gas industry from aviation industry.

At the surface, Comply365 is a software company that provides solutions for managing business operations and processes. But that is sort of like saying Apple is a company that provides solutions for managing music and apps.

This is a company that seemingly swooped in out of nowhere to solve many of the paperwork problems plaguing the airline industry.

The transition to oil & gas was natural to Frank, “Both industries are dealing with a mobile workforce with high turnover and limited connectivity. Both industries are regulated and need to monitor compliance.”

Frank and her team have already begun doing for the gas industry what they did for the airlines.

The Comply365 platform is truly industry agnostic but it certainly shows its strength in regulated industries.

“Any operation that is regulated is run by forms, policies, procedures, and communication. Without those, your business is dead in the water” says Frank.

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Kerry Frank, CEO Comply365. Photo by Kevin Tobosa

Segment 2: Big Data in the Bakken – Kerry Frank, CEO, Comply365, Wisc

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Jeff Hume, Continental Resources (left) and Kari Cutting, North Dakota Petroleum Council address the media regarding the Bakken Crude Study.

Interview: Brian Straessle, American Petroleum Institute, Washington DC

Building the Bakken Episode 44  Segment 1: Bakken Crude Study Results

Straessle talks about the study on Bakken crude oil and its comparison to other crudes.  Straessle also discusses how this study impacts distribution, specifically by rail.

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