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 1522: Building Social Currency: Part 4 – Social Tools Are A Means, Not An End

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I clipped out an article in 2010 from Fast Company  that was written by Ben Paynter, titled “Five Steps to Social Currency”.  I was so struck by Paynter’s five steps/lessons that I thought they would be worth exploring in depth and applying some of our purposed worKING thoughts to what he has written.  This will be the fourth in our five part series.

“Because of your unfailing love, I can enter your house; I will worship at your Temple with deepest awe.”

Let’s remember that building a business is the gaining of customers and consumers and then retaining them.  Customers and consumers that come and go, well they are not only expensive, but they are potentially damaging.  I’m on the board of a company that has come to the conclusion that some customers just aren’t ready to be sold to and even though they might sign a deal for a few thousand dollars, it is actually better to not sell to them if they aren’t “ready” enough that those few thousand dollars end up feeling like a great deal, value, or maybe even a bargain.  We all know this feeling.  On our recent wedding anniversary trip we listened to the recommendation of the American Express Travel desk and booked a hotel in Savannah which was supposed to be something really “special”.  It turned out to be special in that it was really expensive, but that where the “special” ended.  We were ready for a great experience, but they weren’t ready to deliver one and so we walked away not feeling good about those few nights and now are questioning other hotels in their line of offering, and also American Express’ recommendations.  And, because we are human, when you ask either of us about our stay in Savannah, we will likely tell you where to avoid along with what to do.

I’m a “church guy”.  What I mean by that is that I believe that attending and being in church is part of what we are taught Biblically to do as part of our walk with Christ.  If this was not to be the case, then why would have God sent His disciples to establish and create churches?  But many I know have stopped attending church, or just attend when it is comfortable for them.  My pastor likes to say that being in church is being at the intersection of intentionality and sacrifice.  He is right and I personally like what can happen in that intersection.  What I am drawing on here is that as we are to go about deepening our walk with the Lord and bringing others along with us, that we need to go past the superficial and don’t just stop there.  When we engage, that is when we grow and in our growth is the ends we desire.

Reference: Psalm 5:7 (New Living Translation)