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 1150: Road Warriors

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“So he continued to travel around, preaching in synagogues throughout Judea.”

My former boss at Electronic Arts is now the Chairman of the United States Olympics Committee (USOC).  This past weekend the New York Times did a story on the USOC and how they have improved, strengthened and built better relationships with the International Olympic Committee (IOC).  The article tells how he and the CEO he hired have worked tirelessly to repair what formerly was perceived as unfair, and maybe even arrogant behavior of the USOC.  What was interesting about the article too is that they went out of the way to describe the high level of travel and days on the road that both the Chairman and CEO have logged.  As I read this, it reminded me that even in this day and age of very accessible and reliable digital communication that still today the face to face to meeting matters.  But, it’s also more than that I think. It’s not only the face to face, it’s the effort that gets put into the face to face meeting that proceeds and colors the meeting.  If someone comes half way around the world to meet with you, it is hard to not start the meeting with respect and appreciation.  That extra effort, however it takes shape, can maybe mean the difference in a successful meeting or not. Maybe this is why the road warriors seem to still have an edge up, even today.

Jesus was a road warrior.  He moved from place to place and along the way, met people in their places of need.  He didn’t just go to Jerusalem and set up shop in the Temple and have people come to Him.  He knew much better. He knew that in order to reach people in their hearts and minds, that He had to be among them. This is a great example for us to follow.  Today, where are you planning on having lunch?  Will you be among your team?  How many meetings will be in your office, versus out on the floor or in another part of the building? Reed Hastings from NetFlix doesn’t even have an office.  He comes in each day and finds someplace to sit down and works from there.  When he has meetings, they are where the person sits, not him.  Even in our own workplace we can demonstrate what it means to be a “road warrior”. Even in our own offices we can meet people where they are, just as Jesus did.

Reference:  Luke 4:44 (New Living Translation)