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 3K302: Economic Dominoes

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“If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.”

And then there goes First Republic in the way of Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank. It’s felt like we are playing dominoes and hopefully the game is over, but we will see.  The same economic game gets played within our companies with people through reorganizations and layoffs. One domino falls and then all the others start moving until many changes have been made. That is if the company’s succession plan is a good one. What can also happen is someone begins to fail, or quits, and then there isn’t any one who can pick up the dominoes that fall behind them. This is when we all have to chip in, roll up our sleeves and pick up the extra slack. It’s one of the harder times in a company. It’s also one of the harder times for people who have to take on the extra work but may not feel like they are getting any extra reward that is due to them. We have all been there at one time or another. As I look at how companies are now reacting and thinking about staffing and resourcing their organizations, we should all probably get used to this happening more and more, at least for awhile.  We are back to a time where there is a pressure for productivity and efficiency. Not filling open jobs, or at least delaying the fill, is a way to realize that gain and also test the elasticity of the organization. This is why we all need to be sure that we are surrounded by others who are willing to help us when we need the support. And, even more so, we need to be the type of person that others can depend on when they need us.

These can be troubling and anxious times or these can be hopeful and prepared times. We read in Ecclesiastes, which it should be; “If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.” Let us be a domino that when pushed is there for others and will not fall alone because we are always ready to reach out in support of those who work around us.

Reference: Ecclesiastes 4:10 (New Living Translation)