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 431: Taking A Stand

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This past week I was reminded of a time when the leadership of a company was about to change and each member of the senior team was polled to see who they thought the next leader should be. While the change did not occur right then, everyone had to make their declaration as to who they would follow and who they wouldn’t, which created some interesting dynamics going forward. Basically, everyone had to declare what camp they would be in and lines were drawn. I would not encourage and organization to do this unless they are at the point of a change being a reality. What was amazing though were the different stances of the team of people. There were those who were steadfast on their decision, those who were waited to see what others would say first and then there were those who would never declare as they didn’t want to reveal themselves in case the decision came out and they would end up on the wrong side of the person who would get the job. After the process was all over and nothing came of it, guess who the tem respected the most? Yes, those who were not afraid to take a stand, regardless of how things turned out. Recently a gentleman named Michael Jordan died. This is not MJ, #23 the basketball player. This was Michael Jordan who was the President of PepsiCo and then went on to lead Westinghouse when they bought CBS and was later acquired by Viacom. He then turned around EDS which led to the acquisition by HP. He was a remarkable business person. I had the opportunity to sit in a few meetings with him and I will never forget him saying that a point of view was worth 10 IQ points. He was saying that taking a stand pays off. We all know of the time when the Disciple Peter had a chance to take a stand and say that he was a follower of Jesus. When he didn’t he was crushed and the Bible tells us that he “went away, weeping bitterly”. Fortunately for us he did not stay away long as he went on to be a staunch supporter and evangelist for Jesus. But, you wonder if he didn’t hold onto that moment and wonder what would have happened had he stayed true to his point of view versus denying that he knew Jesus on that fateful day. Today, are you struggling with whether or not you should take a stand on something you are facing? If you are and you need the encouragement to be courageous, please take the stand. You will be glad you did.

Reference: Acts 2:14-17