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 1141: Strategists

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“I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them all!”

When I worked at PepsiCo we actually had a group of people who were assigned to work on strategy for the corporation.  I didn’t know better then, but what a fun group that would have been to have worked.  On the surface they looked very quantitative as numbers were what were used to validate strategic directions, but these really were the people who were leading the visioning of the company.  It was interesting when they would present drastic strategic shifts that would many times bring in outside “experts” to shore up their positions. I guess, even the smartest of the smartest need others to validate their thinking. What I learned from this group is how important it is to have someone whose job it is to be thinking long, visioning and dreaming about what they future could be.  We tend to all get so consumed in our own jobs and immediate deliverables that we don’t take, or have, the time to think about what might be.  Is there someone who is taking the time to think long, dream big and author the direction of your future?

The Bible values Prophets highly as they readied generations for the coming of Christ and opened the eyes, ears and hearts of so many leaders to the ways of God.  God wants each of us to dream big and think long about the work we can do for the Kingdom.  It may be that God is speaking to us about this right now, but we can’t clear our minds and become still enough to hear His words for us.  Today could be the great day to find other believers to pray with you about the direction that you should be moving! If in our earthly work we surround ourselves with those who have the time to think long and  dream big, then let’s also surround ourselves with those who can spiritually also help us to do so.  This is the gift and power of church and small groups.

Reference: Numbers 11:29 (New Living Translation)