Q2 2021

Do you miss the office? Does the office miss you? Unpredictable change on a global scale as a result of COVID and the disruption to all segments of business and personal life made clear how powerful coming together as a global community can be to stop the spread of a deadly disease that took so many lives. At the same time, we have seen how powerful human-to-human interaction is to our overall health, well-being, and the ability to effectively perform our work. In-person work in the office ensures so many things are done well and many of these key elements of human nature cannot be fully duplicated on a Zoom or TEAMS, etc. and can only be best achieved in person. Clearly, safety measures have to be in place to ensure a safe work environment such as basic sanitation and modest social distancing, among others, but The Office Simply Cannot Go Away! It is up to us to carefully consider and resolve this gripping dichotomy. Our Q2 newsletter presents several ideas regarding the rapidly evolving Hybrid Work Solution and one exciting technology company's plan for The Digitalization Revolution Using Smart Contracts and how this coming wave of innovation and disruption will impact how organizations, large and small, local and international, conduct their business. It's coming - get ready! The Digitalization Revolution "Data Gumbo's Perspective" Realizing Transactional Certainty Powering Commercial Transactions – Global enterprises waste billions of dollars executing commercial transactions due to a lack of trust, accuracy, transparency and efficiency. Across industries, it is imperative that companies free up working capital and reduce inefficiencies for tremendous cost savings. Smart contracts, powered by blockchain, are pioneering a new approach to commercial relationships—one that reduces friction to deliver streamlined operations and transactional certainty.  Smart Contracts for Industry – GumboNet™ is a massively interconnected industrial smart contract network secured and powered by blockchain. Data Gumbo's smart contracts offer a new approach to commercial relationships — where every transaction is accurate and certain, touchless and automated. Fast Time to Value – Available as a usage-based subscription service, customers can experience value quickly with internal- or single-sided smart contracts to get started and gain internal momentum. Rolling out GumboNet to your supply chain and/or other customers delivers cost-savings within six months of receiving company data and implementing a smart contract between counterparties. GumboNet™ ESG – Data Gumbo also offers GumboNet™ ESG, the first and only automated smart contract powered and secured by blockchain for sustainability measurement, setting the new gold standard for environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting. Many companies are setting lofty green goals but current ESG strategies consume extensive human capital, time and financial resources without the guarantee of accuracy, timeliness or repeatability. The same data — 95% overlap — used by companies to automate invoicing and payments with GumboNet™ is the data needed to automate sustainability measurements daily, monthly or quarterly with GumboNet™ ESG. As part of a customer's subscription with Data Gumbo, companies can tie quantifiable, real-time operational data to smart contracts to produce fast and trustworthy ESG reports. The Power of the Network – With GumboNet™,companies don’t need to design, stand up and sustain an implementation of a blockchain and then persuade counterparties to use that blockchain. This approach is akin to deciding to ship products by rail, then attempting to persuade all entities across business operations to use the same railroad system, rather than a competitor’s. Pulling specific data into an encrypted distributed ledger creates a verifiable third-party record that any transaction is accurate and certain. The end result is an innovative and modern process that creates touchless transactions and crushes waste in the process. GumboNet™ can upgrade legacy processes and deliver a modern approach that ensures transactional certainty to drive millions of dollars of improved performance. Key Benefits: 90 days or less to financial returns Streamlines business processes; reduces 14+ step processes to 2-steps Provides an immutable record of truth Available as a subscription service; zero additional investment or installation costs Decreases informational and transactional waste resulting in significant cost savings Reduces days sales outstanding (DSO); lessens dispute and reconciliation events and lightens administrative drag  Enables companies to pay for only what is actually delivered or for services performed Integrates with leading ERP systems including SAP, Oracle and QuickBooks; improves audit and risk profiles Offers visibility into real-time spend and revenue data; eliminates need for estimates and accruals

"Why The Office Simply Cannot Go Away:The Compelling Case For The Workplace"

The below summary is taken from Tracy Brower's excellent article published in www.forbes.com last June, during the depths of the COVID pandemic and indeed most of her observations and predictions proved shockingly accurate.

We’re in the midst of the most significant reinvention of work in our time. We’ve proven people can work anywhere and the greatest social experiment—sending everyone home to do their work—has decimated barriers to working away from the office. We can work from home with some level of effectiveness. We can meet using all kinds of technology platforms. We can stay connected to colleagues. We can perform our tasks. We can manage our work. We can, but it’s just not the best idea. It’s tempting for companies to conclude the office is irrelevant. Perhaps commutes, conference rooms and coffee bars aren’t really that necessary after all. With billions invested in real estate and maintenance of the workplace, companies would be missing something if they weren’t at least asking questions about its necessity. But not so fast. The office simply cannot go away. It is necessary on multiple levels—for our effectiveness, for our sanity and for our humanity. It is unlikely work will ever go back to the way it was. In addition, many companies had productive approaches to remote work pre-pandemic, and global work has always required working together from a distance. Working from home offers some wonderful benefits—avoidance of a commute, positive impacts on the environment, more time with family and greater work-life fulfillment. Partly based on these benefits, it is likely companies will continue to encourage some level of work from home, but the best strategies combine working in an office and working from home. It is not an all-or-nothing. It is not an either-or. Deleting the office altogether is not the best option. The workplace offers all kinds of critical value—and it simply cannot—must not—go away. Here are five reasons why: Humanity And Innovation - The office is critical to our humanity. We are social creatures and we crave connections with other people—even at socially-distanced lengths. People may have different preferences for how much they work alone or with others based on their personality, but everyone needs some level of connection.  Purpose And Energy - The office also provides a critical sense of common ground. Any company knows that to deliver powerful results, they must ensure people have a sense of shared purpose and aligned objectives. Employees must be rowing in the same direction. The physical experience of place helps foster this sense of being in it together. Health And Wellbeing - We crave variety and the workplace provides it. We’ve proven to ourselves we can do everything from home. We can shop, eat, exercise, socialize and yes, we can work. But we want the variety that comes from getting out—to browse, enjoy a restaurant, go to the fitness club, gather with friends and go to our workplace. Talent And Engagement - The office attracts talent. Much of company culture is intangible. It is norms and values and assumptions, and it is “the way things get done around here.” But the workplace is a powerful way to demonstrate culture in a more tangible way. Place is the most visible artifact of culture. Empathy And Culture - Empathy and trust are enhanced with physical presence. Team members who are regularly together can more easily stay attuned to each other —to share in positive events, offer support during struggles or learn from each other. Trust is built through proximity, and according to MIT, “physical distance can turn into psychological distance.” 

Floating Wind Solutions Conference & Exhibition -In-Person Event- “Leveraging the Established Global Offshore Supply Chain” www.floatingwindsolutions.com Floating Wind Solutions Conference & Exhibition 2021, June 28 - 29, to be held at The Westin, Memorial City, will be an platform to understand the energy transition strategies of major energy companies and their important commitment to achieve “net zero” by 2050 or sooner. Floating Wind Solutions will showcase the many capabilities of the established Global Offshore Supply Chain and create a strategic platform for technical solutions and knowledge sharing while facilitating the development of this emerging industry. The goal of FWS is to create a strategically significant forum bringing together key players from the Offshore Wind and Offshore Supply Chain to share lessons learned, strategies, technologies and opportunities in order to influence the market towards delivering competitive, commercially scaled Floating Wind developments on an accelerated basis.    Floating Wind Solutions will be a "let’s take inventory" of proven and readily available solutions, services and technologies sourced from an experienced supply chain that took costs from $80/bbl. to $35/bbl. FWS will bring together supply and demand under one roof in Houston to discuss technical solutions for two days and evenings of networking opportunities.    The FWS Conference is led by an esteemed Advisory Board of industry experts, each a specialist in her/his field of expertise from these leading industry key players. Ensearch are a proud sponsor of this compelling event and look forward to a well attended, safe gathering.

Quotes and Mantras “The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay.” Henry Ford "I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious." Albert Einstein Become "Legendary" by positively impacting people every day with random acts of kindness

Ensearch specializes in recruiting Brainpower for C-Level, V.P., G.M., Engineering, Project Execution and Finance & Accounting positions in the Offshore Renewables and Offshore Oil & Gas Space. We bring 25 years of proven, hands-on experience in helping leading technology driven companies like Shell, Siemens, Aker Solutions, and KBR hire the best talent the market has to offer. We actively participate in conferences, technical forums, professional society luncheons and other activities necessary to keep abreast of industry trends, learning new technologies and recruiting/networking with the best in the business. We're passionate about sharing how The Energy Industry and Career Management intersect and hope you find this newsletter useful.