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 948: World Changers

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“When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also;”

“We are going to change the world!”  “I want to change the world!” “Together, we can change the world.”

These are the types of rallying cries that are said at new product launches, company creations, or announcements of inventions.  Few ever become a reality and truly change the world, but there’s no harm or foul in thinking and aspiring to do so.  To truly change the world, we have to come up with something that not only is additive but also disruptive.  Any great innovation ends up extincting something that was there before, creating yes, a bit of a win-lose.  So, with world-changing progress there will be lawsuits, PR attacks, threats, accusations, deep discounting, vendor conflicts, patent challenges, etc.  Net, the world does not change easily nor quietly. There’s always a story plot as to why the world shouldn’t change and forces to fight against progress.  We have to be on the lookout for those forces within our companies and sometimes the enemy is “us”.  Innovation, experimentation and change too many times is killed before it starts because internally we really don’t want our world, as we know it, to change.  Think about innovation within your organization.  Is it free and flowing or are there speed bumps and resistance points to change?  The world cannot be changed without being all in to do so.

What a great compliment that Jason received when he was accused of “upsetting the world”!  Here’s what we need to remember as we go to work each day and try to bring glory to God as our purpose; by virtue of working, acting and speaking in the likeness of Christ we are “upsetting the world”.  We all know that our workplaces can be the worst of places for the fruits of the spirit to be evident and at every turn there is a catalyst to take us to the dark side. But, if we stand strong, stand forward to the wind in our face, and remain steadfast in our faith then we become an upsetting force and yes, even a world-changer.

Acts 17:6 (New American Standard)