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 1234: Working in the Grey

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“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children”

There is a fascinating conversation happening in the music industry about the morality and ethics of the streaming of music on services like Spotify, Rdio, Pandora, and now iTunes Radio.  Streaming of music by licensed services is fully legal.  But, that has not stopped many from crying out that even though these services are legal, they are not moral or ethical. Why is this?  This past weekend I was hanging with one of my friends who is as hard-core of a music person as you will find.  He and his wife attend live music events at least three times a week. He knows more about bands and who is doing what than I can keep up with.  However, this hardest of core music fans no longer buys music.  Why?  Because, he can stream what he wants to hear, any time he desires.  That behavior, for the creator of music becomes the moral and ethical dilemma to streaming.  It’s an interesting and nuanced conversation that is worth more thinking.  We can, and do face these dilemmas in our work as well.  Any time we are faced with something where we have to consider compromise, or are challenged with what doesn’t feel right, even though it is legal to do, then we need to think hard about our decisions and actions. And we must realize that we are not alone.  Our customers, employees, partners, and consumers are all watching what we do as well.

As believers, we are not exempted from these decisions.  In fact, we may be more challenged because we should be driven and led by our values and principles. What are we to do?  There are no clear answers, but we are taught that when we find ourselves confused or feeling lost in what we should do, then we are to “imitate God”.  Yes, this is why we ask ourselves what Jesus would do. Our challenges at work are seldom black and white. When in the grey, remember that we can rest assured in the imitation of God.

Reference: Ephesians 5:1 (New Living Translation)