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 1292: Getting “PIN”-ed Down

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“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The company, Target, had their bulls eye painted on their chest this past week.  We all read about the loss of nearly 40MM sets of credit card data.  What we didn’t know, because they told us it hadn’t happened, was that the PIN numbers were compromised as well.  Once that truth came to light, then all of their credibility was lost and they now have a real consumer problem on their hands.  It begs the question, “Why didn’t they just tell the whole truth the first time?”  There are so many examples we have of other companies who get in a crisis that it’s not like any of us are learning this for the first time. We also know that the companies that are applauded for their transparency and forthright actions are the ones that we remember positively and keep on buying and consuming from them.  Target chose the other path, or it so appears, and that might well haunt them for many years to come.

We are completing this holiday season and for any of us who have been in church and trying to intentionally celebrate this most wonderful season, we have been doing our best to stay close to the truth of Christmas.  Sure, it’s been great to have family and friends around.  The gifts were fun and appreciated.  The days away from work have been restful.  But, we also have tried to stay grounded to the truth that Christmas is about the celebration of the birth of Christ.  Standing by the truths and standing up for the truth is a hard thing in our world.  As we close 2013 and look forward, one place we can become stronger and more effective in our example setting to others is to be the one who always looks to truth to rule the daily big and small decisions in our work and lives.  How we live for the Truth will be an indication to others on who we are – like our PIN to the world.  Let’s be sure that we are never “PIN”-ed down for the wrong reasons.

Reference: John 8:32 (New Living Translation)