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 2540: Bold Moves – Part 10: The Location RFP

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“But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”

Fast Company Magazine recently ran an article about 10 CEO moves that changed business. We can learn from each of them.

At the end of last year, Amazon announced that they would be putting out for bid (setting up a contest) for where they would locate their second headquarters site. They had run out of talent in Seattle and they needed to find another location to build and grow from.  What they did was cause municipalities across the US (cities and states) and in a couple of international locations to scramble and come up with as many incentives as they could to get Amazon’s attention.  According to Fast Company, 238 cities in the US applied. As of the writing of this, Amazon threw a curve ball and has said they will likely split their second HQ in two and have two locations instead of one…bringing their HQ sites to three total.  The front runners now are Long Island City, NY and somewhere outside of Washington, DC.  But, we will see.  The bold move here is what large company will ever relocate somewhere without sending out a “Location RFP” (request for proposal) without shifting the burden to cities and towns to do the work to attract the business?  I’m not sure it is all good, but expect to see cities getting smarter and companies to expect more.

I feel like God sends me His “Location RFP” each and every day.  He basically says to me, “I have a place all ready for you Rusty and all you have to do is be willing to let me show what I can of it now, and then you just trust and follow me there.” Seems so simple, right?  But, like each of the 238 cities who prepared for the Amazon RFP, it takes real decisions on what we are going deem to be important, where are we going to focus ourselves and what are we willing to give up.  God is not asking for much, but He is asking for our all.

I just want to add that it’s been fun to explore ten bold CEO moves and apply them to our business journey and faith walk. We can learn much from those who are bold, courageous and willing to make a first move.  But, we can learn way more from how God expects us to take these earthly acts and turn them into actions that forward and expand His Kingdom on earth.  As we purposefully take ourselves into the marketplace, let’s remember why we are doing what we do; to boldly bring glory to Him!

Reference: Hebrews 11:16 (New Living Translation)