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 1946: Safe Or Sorry

A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare.

Sometimes business needs examples to understand how things work.  A good example of the difference between a “Safe or Sorry” approach is how both Uber and Airbnb have approached their marketplaces.
Both are rapidly growing but one has a better reputation than the other and avoids more conflict.  That would be Airbnb.  Airbnb has worked hard to build good relationships with government regulatory bodies and while I am sure they have sacrificed some business, they are better corporate neighbors and have faced less controversy from their competition.  Uber, on the other hand is the bull in the china shop and would rather fight than compromise and wants it all their way, and it shows.  This past week’s protests in France bring it all to light.  We can decide who we want to be in our business philosophy.  Uber or Airbnb are two good models to draw a distinct contrast.

Who are we in the workplace?  That is the question.  The answer lies in Proverbs and in Jesus.  Today will we face what is in front of us with either an Uber or Airbnb approach and we are asked to decide which one reflects how God asks us to manage ourselves.

Reference: Proverbs 15:1 (New Living Translation)