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 2504: Hold The Foam (Cup)

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“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

In the airport in Providence, RI there is a Starbucks that is popular and there is a Dunkin’ Donuts that is WIDLY popular.  The line at DD is always three times the length at Starbucks. And it is the same all across New England. We/they love their DD and don’t like to see much change with them.  That is why it has taken nearly 10 years for DD to replace and transition away from those big, thick foam cups.  They are kind amazing in that; the heat or cold stays in the cup and the cup doesn’t get wet with sweat from the temp change which can be a lot in the winter and summer here. But, those foam cups aren’t good for the world and DD has known it for awhile and been working on a change that is coming next month.  There has been a ton of engineering and design work, but there has been just as much time on the change management side with their customers.  By the time the change comes, pretty much everyone will know.  There will be those who don’t like it, but they can’t say that they weren’t prepared.  Remember the overnight change in the Coca-Cola to the “new Coke” formula in the 80’s?  That didn’t go over so well.  Our consumers and customers will come with us but when we change we need to realize that the change doesn’t come easy and they want to be heard, understood and cared for during that change.

We are so fortunate that our God never changes.  But, WE do.  We can vacillate with the smallest of influence and then we wonder why we feel like we are falling away from God.  The workplace loves to give us reasons to be too busy, too focused, too overwhelmed, to keep our daily disciplines of time in the Word, prayer and fellowship.  God is always working on us and we just have to stay close and filled with Him to go with Him to where He wants us to go. We are His cups, waiting to be filled.

Reference: Matthew 5:6 (New Living Translation)