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 709: What We See

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So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us.”

As consumers, for most companies we have no idea what the inside of their businesses look like, other than what we experience as a consumer. We know what McDonald’s looks like from the store, but wouldn’t have a clue what the corporate HQ looks like unless we look it up and the company would share that with us. That said, it’s why what we see as consumers becomes what the company is for us, and maybe that is all we ever see. So, where the consumer is exposed becomes the point of truth and what will be the take=away to share with others. That’s why companies pay so much attention to ensuring that they provide and leave the best impression with their front-line employees and exposure point locations. It is always in our best interest to shore up and protect these places and people who represent us. That first impression, that “what we see” can speak volumes and become an indelible image and impression.

This past weekend I visited Hillsong Church in Manhattan and Carl Lentz, the pastor, made the point that each of us will for more people than we know, be the only “what we see” opportunities for what it means to be a follower of Jesus. If we were to stop for a moment and think about all the people who we will interact with today, and how many of them will take the time to go to church, pick up a Bible or reach out to someone to ask about what it means to believe and follow, then it becomes pretty obvious that we are an important and critical exposure point. Paul tells us that we are God’s ambassadors. That means that we are what they see about Jesus. It’s an awesome responsibility and one that we should reflect upon today as we go about our work and life.

Reference: 2 Corinthians 5:20 (New Living Testament)