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 2338: By The Book

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“But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.” So John agreed to baptize him.”

My two Brother-in-Laws (Patti’s brothers) are in totally different businesses.  One runs a stem cell regeneration and cell therapy manufacturing company.  The other leads his own off-premise catering business in Manhattan. Over the holidays we were able to spend time together and the conversations would drift to business and the important areas of focus for both of them.  I am always amazed at how “business is business” at its heart.  Both of my Brother-in-Laws do very different things but they both have the similarities of being in businesses where if they don’t follow their standards of operations, people will become sick or worse, die.  Cell therapy manufacturing and cooking food for others to eat both share that same danger.  This reminded me of why it is so important to run our businesses “by the book” and not to deviate or cut corners, or get sloppy.  Standard of Operations (SOPs) are there for a reason and if we are trying to circumvent them, ignore, or resist, then we are setting ourselves up for failure, or worse.

What happens when we don’t go “by the Book” (that being God’s Word) in our own work lives?  People may not physically die, but the worst can happen; we could dissuade or confuse them from exploring what it is to follow Jesus.  You see, we have to be even more by the book than the rest of the world, for more is required from us than those who don’t profess a belief.  John the Baptist said to Jesus, “You should be baptizing me” but Jesus said, “No”, because He was teaching and modeling for us how important it is to follow through and do what is required.  He commands us to go “by the Book” in all we do.

Reference: Matthew 3:15 (New Living Translation)