Author Archives: Rusty Rueff

About Rusty Rueff

Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.

day 2087: The Pepsi Challenge

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“Then they went from town to town, instructing the believers to follow the decisions made by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem.”

Ten years ago, in 2006, Hank Stringer and I published our book, Talent Force:  A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business.  In 2015, our agent and editor asked us to request someone to write the foreword for the book.  Hank and I sat down and talked about who we could ask.  When we landed on the person we wanted, it was a long shot, but when Roger Enrico said, “Yes”.  it meant more to me than I could ever express.”  You see, Roger created the idea of using music mega-stars to take their music and put it into the context of marketing a product.  That product was Pepsi-Cola and the star was named, Michael Jackson.  Even more amazing was that Roger was so sure of Pepsi that he challenged America to take a blind taste test against Coca-Cola and the Pepsi Challenge made Coke blink in 1986 when they abandoned their formula and created in response, “New Coke”.  That did not end so well for Coca-Cola. Last Thursday, Roger unexpectedly passed away.  In a generation there are few who, when they leave us, make people stop and reflect on just how different things were before they came onto the scene, and how much different it was after they made their mark.  When we look to learn on how to confidently market in a way that changes consumer conversation, look no further than the case study of Roger Enrico.

The Pepsi Challenge was about making a blind taste test choice and then telling others about that choice.  Isn’t that the same challenge that God puts in front of us?  We are presented Jesus to follow.  We make our choice and then we are challenged to tell others about what He has done for our life.  And like the Pepsi Challenge that came with a blindfold, our faith is believing in that which we cannot see.  So today, let’s take our own challenge; let’s each take (or take) the Jesus Challenge.

Reference:  Acts 16:4 (New Living Translation)