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 1950: “You Say You Want A Revolution”

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“Jesus asked them, “Am I some dangerous revolutionary, that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me?”

It is Bastille Day in France.  In 1789 the French people overthrew the Bastille and set in place a new government a year later.  This was just over a decade after the American Revolution, that set the course of the United States as we know it today.  Revolutions are never pretty.  We might reflect back on them as positive because of the change that was necessary, but as George Bernard Shaw wrote in his play, “Major Barbara”, (I paraphrase), “Men change laws, guns and bombs change governments”.  Why am I writing about this?  Well, many times when companies lose touch with the sentiment of their employees, customers or shareholders, there is a cry out for a “revolution”.  The board room might not be able to hear the cry from the rank and file, but it is there and rather than fight, the employees flee and head somewhere else, because the they know the revolution will not happen.  I am watching one of those right now as a company appears rudderless and is listing, all the while the senior executives act as if nothing is wrong. It needs a revolution, but there won’t be any (metaphoric) blowing up of the boardroom.  I cannot stress enough that keeping a pulse on how the front-line of any organization is feeling is so important.  If you need a hand with this, let me know as with today’s technology we can stay in front of the need for revolution.

If you watched any of NBC’s, “A.D. -The Bible” (or even better, read the book. :)) you know that Jesus created a revolution, but not the type of revolution that we define with swords, guns and bombs.  He did change everything about everything for the Jewish people and turned what was known on its head.  And, yes, even then, there was still blood shed for it to happen.  It’s one thing to stand back and have others fight the fight for us, it’s another for one to give His own life so that the rest of us could live, eternally.  Let us today praise our Lord with working and living within His will for us and thank Him for being willing to give us His all.

Reference:  Mark 14:48 (New Living Translation)