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 2648: Death Of A Brand

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“Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit.”

And so goes the brands of Campbell’s Soup, Oscar Meyer, Clairol, Kraft, Jell-O and CoverGirl.  What were once the major and most recognized and known brands in the world are now being squeezed out and pushed aside by the newer, hipper, more niche and boutique brands. A good and timely reminder that once was, does not mean will always be. I have a friend who has one of the RCA dog statues in his house in the entry foyer. It’s very cool and it always invokes to me a good feeling.  Last time I saw him I asked him if he still had it.  He does but he said he spends more time now explaining to people that it isn’t a replica of a dog he once owned.  Brands come.  Brands go.

The verse from Colossians written above is also a reminder of our brand for God. My Pastor, Terry, has been good over the years or reminding me that my actions I take, words I write and speak, the work I do, the time I spend, the places I invest are only important in the Lord’s eyes if they yield good fruit for Him.  He is so right. We are not to judge others on the fruit they bear, but we know about ourselves that a bad tree cannot yield good fruit, so we must work on ourselves, on our own internal brand if you will (who we truly are), to be sure that we are yielding good fruit for the Lord now and into the future.

Reference: Colossians 1:10 (New Living Translation)