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 2654: OAGs

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“Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.”

Do you remember, the OAG?  It was the Official Airline Guide and contained all of the active flights available for commercial airline traffic.  There was a global version which was very comprehensive and then there was a domestic version and even a condensed version that you could carry in your briefcase or purse. For those who traveled heavily or changed flights frequently, the OAG was essential.  Oh, if you haven’t figured it out, this was pre-internet. Today, it’s pretty easy to access the internet for optional flights, but in truth, it’s not that much easier than the OAG and not necessarily even more convenient than the OAG was.  I’m reminded that technology doesn’t make us any less lazy than we were before technology was given to us.  It’s a good lesson for us who chase technology for the answer to our operations or process problems.  The technology can make it better, but only if the process has been designed or improved allowing the technology to be an enabler, not the driver.  If it is the driver, then expect a lot of head-scratching as to why things didn’t get better, even after all of that time, effort and money to install the technology.

Never in history has God’s Word been more accessible.  There are predictions that the Bible will be available in every language in the world by 2033 and that might speed up as the technology gets even better.  But, because we have the Bible within keystrokes, are we in God’s Word more or about the same as when we needed to reach over for our printed Bible?  I love my printed Bible and it is all marked up, with failing binding, but it is not the form function that makes me want to read and study it or not.  God calls us to His Word to learn where we are, where can go and how we can get there.  Yes, God left His “OAG” for us in any and all forms.  We just have to want to access it.

Reference:  Psalm 119:105 (New Living Translation)