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 730: Strategic Decisions, Part 2

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“Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress”

When faced with strategic direction decisions we really have one of three decisions to be made; To lead, follow, or get out of the way. Part two of this three part series is about following.

When we are told there is only room for one of anything, that’s not entirely right. There’s actually room for more and for the sake of the argument, let’s say there is room for three of anything significant. One will be high quality/high service/high cost, the second will be good quality/good service with a better price point, and the third will be a value play with lowest cost but reasonable service/quality. Cases in point; Car rental companies, airlines, soda pop, cereal companies, mass market home builders, computer hardware companies, etc. Even when we think a company has a market sewn up and dominating there is room for a number two if positioned correctly. We are seeing that today with the tablet market as a bunch of companies are trying to figure out what they need to do/be to be number two or number three behind Apple and the ipad. It’s not always wrong to follow as a company still strives to find a place of leadership. It’s about knowing who we are as a company/product/service and then playing to your strengths to carve out our place in the market.

God challenges us all the time in our work and personal lives to know who we are and then follow. Yes, He wants us to lead and yes, sometimes, as we read yesterday, He wants us to get out of harm’s and our own way, but He is also very happy if we learn to follow what He has taught us and to use those talents, gifts and treasures that have been given to us to ensure that we complete and excel at the tasks given to us. If we are to bring glory to God in all that we do then sometimes we need put our head down and pay attention to the tasks that have been given to us.

Reference: 1 Timothy 4:15 (New Living Testament)