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 719: Open Doors

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“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me”

All kinds of companies like to talk about their “open door” policies. To further the thought we have added “transparency” to our current business language. Both are about businesses and business executives being open to new ideas, listening to their customers and employees and opening up their businesses for shareholders and others to see inside their working operations. Some talk a good game and never follow through. Others work hard to open the doors but rarely see anyone make the effort to walk through. While this can be discouraging, after all of the work and effort to open doors and be transparent, these are the right actions to take. Everything is a two-way street and it takes interest and commitment to walk through the open door or to research and learn about a company. But having the opportunity to do so is a good thing. As employees, customers and shareholders, we should applaud those companies and Executives/Managers who open their doors. If we lead any part of a business, even a single team, keeping the doors open, whether anyone walks through or not, should be our standard operating procedure.

When Jesus says that He stands at the door and knocks, He is talking to not only those who don’t believe, He is talking to us as well. He is saying that He wants an open door into our lives and He, and we, should be able to pass through freely with Him. Jesus probably feels like anyone of us who strives to have our doors open at work for our employees and customers and then wonders why no one walks through and takes advantage of the opportunity to sit, talk, learn, listen, and know more. The difference is that Jesus keeps knocking and waiting whether we open the door or not. How cool is that? We love and serve a Lord that doesn’t give up on us, but keeps wanting us to open the door to Him. As we go into this day, are we hearing Him knocking and we are ignoring it, or doing all we can to not open the door? The next time no one walks through our open door at work and we wonder why, let’s be reminded that there is a door for us that we should be opening even further to Jesus.

Reference: Revelation 3:20