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 2399: Growth Or Pivot?

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“Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!“

I recently read an article by an economist who describes two states of business: 1) Growth – increases in services or products and 2) Pivot – the shifting of the distribution or production of those goods and services.  This is as simplified diagnosis question for any of the work we are doing and it is important because we can easily become deceived in thinking that we are growing but indeed all we are doing is pivoting.  Certainly, a significant and productive pivot can lead to growth, but more often than not those pivots can lull us into a false feeling of growth being satisfied with a better bottom line.  But, without a growing top line, the deception will quickly catch up with us.

Jesus tells the parable of the sower.  What He is asking each of us is whether or not we are just pivoting in our faith or are we really letting Him grow within us? It’s pretty obvious that He is challenging us to grow and to yield from that growth multiples of what we can conceive possible.  Imagine today that we are the product and service of God in our workplace and on this earth.  Are we increasing His Kingdom or are we just pivoting what is already there?

Reference:  Matthew 13:18 (New Living Translation)