America’s Energy Independence

The Oil and Gas business has been rightly billed as “the most productive business in human history.” Dramatic innovations in drilling technologies – aka “fracking” – have expanded America’s energy industry to new heights, so much so that in 2011, the United States was a net petroleum exporter for the first time since the Hoover administration. This huge push in production, while assuredly controversial in some aspects, has yielded a massive increase in good old fashioned American manufacturing jobs – which by our math is exactly the right kind of industry to support.

Our Role

Grid was approached by oilfield services newcomer JC Fodale Energy Services in early 2012 to help bring a bit of order to the booming company’s operations and communications. Specializing in oilfield remediation – shorthand for “we prevent you making a mess but if you do, we clean it up” – Fodale’s growth curve has neatly matched the nationwide growth in hydraulic fracturing. In this case, “boom” isn’t just hyperbole: founded in 2007, JC Fodale expanded from a total of four employees to more than 1500 in a scant three years. A rolling stone gathers no moss, indeed.

In the oil and gas business, responsiveness and a perform-at-all costs mentality are what win.

In an industry where personal connections between Company Men and production bosses are what drives the day-to-day flow of labor, machinery and services, our task was to help Fodale tell their story in a compelling, “professionally badass” way, to match their black and gold aesthetic. “Professionally badass” is also not hyperbole – this is a company whose fleet of work trucks are blacked out Ford Raptors, and a projecting a swaggering, confident tone was the primary creative direction Grid received. CEO Jerry Fodale knows experientially that image matters, but in the oil and gas business, responsiveness and a perform-at-all costs mentality are what win.

JC Fodale operates in some seriously far-flung places like the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas and the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, and at times has quite literally not been able to hire qualified workers quickly enough to meet customer demand. This is known colloquially as “a nice problem to have.” As Fodale has scaled at a breakneck pace, Grid has helped them scale their digital offerings at pace, helping the Human Resources and Supply Chain departments leverage web-based technologies to streamline recruiting and procurement. Grid has been working alongside Fodale for two years straight, responding to communication, recruiting and marketing needs, and we look forward to watching the company experience their next 100% growth.