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 2796: Cumulative Innovation

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.”

Innovation comes in layers.  Something gets established and then layer upon layer new ideas, products and services come along.  Joseph Nicéphore Niépce created the camera. That was baseline invention and now look at the photos taken on your phone.  How many layers ware we from Niépce (1816) to now?  One thing can lead to another if we take on the attitude that we are seeking cumulative innovation.  That idea you heard someone mention last week might well be a layer to be built upon.  We are wise when we look for the next layer, not always stuck on being the one to discover the first, instead we see these things and ask ourselves,  “What if….?”

What if we fully surrendered and accepted that He is our foundation and that we are just the next layer of His Kingdom building?  What if we accepted that we are His creation and His innovation?  What if felt the burden to be innovating for Him and the sharing of His Gospel?  What if, today we are to be an important part of His cumulative innovation?

Reference: Mathew 7:24 (New Living Translation)