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 1188: One Thing

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“You must not have any other god but me.”

I watch the smartphone category with much interest and intrigue. What I find most fascinating is that the market remains bifurcated along the lines of work and personal interactions and no one has figured out how to blend those two so that the working person actually isn’t caught in between.  RIM (makers of the Blackberry) owned the working market. They had, and have, the support of the security people inside of corporations and government.  The President of the U.S. carries a Blackberry, so it’s proven that they have the security advantage.  Unfortunately, they don’t have an application economy and marketplace, so that means that a business person can’t access those fun apps that others can, and really, just because we are at work doesn’t mean that we can’t and don’t need a little fun at the same time.  They have tried to blend the two together by allowing us to have two firewalls but that still isn’t enough to make them unique above all others.  The one thing that Blackberry has going for it, that all other other smartphones have abandoned is, the raised tile qwerty keyboard.  Business is about speed and accuracy.  As we all know who are sitting in front of a keyboard right now, a raised tile keyboard is the only way to ensure both.  Yet, I never see RIM featuring this, what is now their unique feature.  In each of out businesses we have one thing that the other doesn’t.  Do we know what it is?  Are we bold and courageous enough to bring it forward and market, sell and stand behind it? That one thing may be the one thing that takes you to number one!

It is clear what our one thing must be and that is our full belief and following of God.  As early as it gets God laid out that commandment to us and told us to not put any other god before Him.  No, of course we don’t walk around talking about our other gods that we worship, but as we all know it is easier than we like for other gods to find their way into our lives and move up in our priorities.  We have to be careful and always on the watch that we keep our focus and commitment to God first and all else second.  Work, our jobs, our careers can become our god if we are not careful.  Let’s start this week with ensuring that we have our one thing clear and firmly in the forefront of our lives.

Reference: Exodus 20:3 (New Living Translation)