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 910: Switching Costs

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“Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, by the swift gazelles and deer of the wild, not to awaken love until the time is right.”


Any business or service tries to find a way to up “switching costs”.  What exactly is the cost of switching?  Well, we have experienced it in one form of another in the electronic age and before.  Does any of this sound familiar?  Have you ever:  held onto an email or internet service provider because you don’t want to change your email address and have to go through all the communication to others about the change, or not changed cell phone carriers or cable companies because it’s just too hard to go through, or keep the same pair of running shoes for fear of a new pair not fitting right, or keep going to the same doctor because he/she has all your records, or stick with a music service because they have all of your playlists recorded?  It could be any, or all, or for other reasons but each is a “switching cost” that we want to keep high so that we retain our customers/consumers.  Building in switching costs is good business and we need to not only do it with our products/services, but with our employees as well so that they don’t just easily pick up and leave to go to work for another company.  Think about it today, have you built in enough switching cost to ensure continuity for the business?

Solomon sang of keeping emotions curbed until the time is right.  I love how God has left all of the cost of switching upon us.  While He could have created this life of ours to be a life of burden and shackle,   He didn’t create that for us. Instead He gave us choice, freedom and the opportunity to make our own decisions.  The cost of switching is high though.  Each time we walk away from the Lord, ignore His words, or act out against His will, we run the risk of setting another back in their walk and journey.  I’ve recently watched the impressionable be dismayed by the actions of a believer.  It is not pretty. Friends, let us all consider seriously that cost of switching away from working and living for the glory of God before we act.

Reference:  Song of Songs (New Living Translation)