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 3K171: Never Stop Innovating!

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So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

The conversation probably went something like this, “If we extend the current capability of our best product so that the user can experience greater benefits, then we will also be able to bring this new product to the market to broaden our offerings. It won’t be easy to get acceptance, but if we get the right people using the product with some success then we can market them for greater consumer adoption”.  Sound familiar?  This is the conversation of innovation. When the details behind the words are real, then innovation becomes a reality. And sometimes, that innovation can be too good.  A few years ago the PGA Tour and the PGA of America sided with the United States Golf Association to reaffirm then “Anchored-Stroke Ban”. Dead was the long putter.  Innovation that was just too good!  Seldom does this happen to us that what we invent and gain acceptance with is rejected in the marketplace (unless it is something of danger like drugs, foods, chemicals, etc.).  The long putter wasn’t about causing harm, it was about causing a threat to making the average player too good.  The lesson here is to not look at the result from these kinds of rulings and extend it into our thinking on innovation.  We should never stop testing the boundaries and extending our thinking because someone might knock us down. Instead, let’s continue to innovate and think “new” and not worry about those who will want to stop innovation.

God is a creator.  He is the founder of innovation.  He looks to us to also bring innovation to how we can bring glory to Him in our work. When was the last time that thought occurred to us?  We can all be innovative in our example and how we spread His message. These are the good deeds that we can do to demonstrate our faith!  Let’s consider today how we can innovate for Him!

Reference: James 2:17 (New Living Translation)