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 1189: Production Values

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“Now may the Lord value my life, even as I have valued yours today. May he rescue me from all my troubles.”

While sports analogies can be overused and leaned on too easily, we can also learn sometimes from the sports world and bring that learning into our businesses.  What sports does better than most is measure the production value of players and teams very predicatively towards an ultimate outcome, a well-defined, win or lose.  Right now baseball is buzzing about the “long-term deals”. These are the 10-year contracts at the time when a player’s production values can fall because of age.  Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols are exhibits one and two right now.  As we age in the business world, we might want to say a thank you that there are not such tangible and easy to see measurements as baseball.  We might be very surprised at how we decline with age. But we should measure ourselves and be sure that we are still keeping up, fitting in and staying current. If we are not measuring and watching carefully, we need to know that others are and will make their own decisions for us, without us.  Consider what playwright and Nobel Laureate George Bernard Shaw had to say about the subject:

“The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measure anew each time he sees me, while all the rest go on with their old measurements and expect them to fit me.”

God does not grade us on a curve, nor does He every consider discarding us because of what happens to us with age.  But, He does expect that we continue to grow in our faith, regardless of age and circumstance.  Some of the most faithful people I know are the oldest and most mature, chronologically and in experience. God meets us where we are.  Are we seeing this today as a gift and not taking that gift for granted? Let’s do a self-assessment today and be sure that we take a step forward in our faith and dependence on Him.  Our faith and sharing of His love and grace adds value to the Kingdom. We can bring glory to God in whatever we do today!  Let’s do it!

Reference:  1 Samuel 26:24 (New Living Translation)