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 718: Trade Secrets

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“Ask me and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come.”

Every business likes to think that they have a “secret sauce” or a “trade secret” that makes them better than their competition. In fact, some do. When I worked at the Pepsi-Cola division of PepsiCo, only two people knew the formula for Pepsi-Cola. To many people’s surprise, not even the CEO of the company knew the recipe. The same was true for KFC and the combination of the eleven spices. For most of the rest of businesses their trade secrets may be in how they spend their money or time, manage their people, or lead their corporate culture to get more from their people than others get from theirs. That’s a legitimate secret and one to protect. I have been getting to know a financial firm who knows for sure that their culture is their secret sauce and their competitive weapon. They guard their culture with the same ferocity that they compete in the marketplace. Indeed this is their remarkable secret that makes them better than others. More companies would be better served to stop searching for a new secret and instead focus on the one they have in front of them and make their culture their trade secret that assures them the competitive advantage.

Jeremiah prophesied about the remarkable secrets of God that could be revealed if only the people would open their eyes, ears and hearts. What is remarkable about our God is that He is not about keeping secrets, He is just the opposite; He wants and will reveal all to us if only we will have the faith to want to know. God could have chosen to not reveal to us the Holy Trinity but instead He put it all out there for us and then gives us every opportunity to learn, dig, know, and discover the wonders and gifts of who He is. As close as we are willing to be to Him, as much as we are open to knowing; there are no secrets with God. And, He commissions us to take our knowledge and faith and reveal all knowledge, all “secrets”, if you will, to any and all. So, let’s not keep God’s secrets, but instead spread and trade them to those we know need to hear.

Reference: Jeremiah 33:3 (New Living Testament)