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 929: Power Stuggles

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“To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” 

If you have opened up a business section, watched the news, or skimmed the headlines online over the last week then you will have seen the corporate battle taking place in North Carolina over the merger of Duke Energy and Progress Energy. The ouster of Bill Johnson as CEO, and installation of Jim Rogers, within hours of the merger reads likes a business fiction thriller and conjures up the days of “Barbarians at the Gates”.  Even after all of the sworn testimonies and lawsuits we may never know whether the change of CEO’s was premeditated, but what is evident is that a power struggle ensued and the Board of Directors changed their mind and took an action that will be questioned for awhile. What is also certain is like with any power struggle that egos and personalities had a bearing on the decision. At this level of corporate America the size of the boardroom has to be big to fit the egos that walk into the room. When trying to accommodate and make room for two highly successful CEO’s, who then are to co-exist in new and subordinate positions to each other, is similar to bringing together a warm and cold front across the Midwest on a hot summer day.  There is going to be a storm and it’s going to be a big one (which happen to be the worst of times for power companies). We’ll have to watch and see what happens in the particular “power struggle” but without a doubt the winners and losers will be at it for some time.

Power struggles are not new to any of us.  We see them all the time and for the most part they come and go.  We are also familiar with the power struggle that happens inside of us each and every day.  It’s us, our own personality, ego. and will in struggle with giving it all up and allowing God to have full authority and dominion over our lives. Reflect on what we have watched, heard and read about the power struggles in business and consider that the same is happening inside of us daily.  Here we sit, with the greatest power of all time wanting to give and provide for us, and we push back, rebel and do all we can to keep our own control.  It’s time to give up the “power struggle” and let the real power flow through us today.  There is only One who should be in the position of power in our lives and we know who He is! All we have to do is willingly step aside.

Reference: Jude 1:25 (ESV)