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 2334: Advice, Please!

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“Plans go wrong for lack of advice;many advisers bring success.”

I’ve been working with a company for a number of years now and I am reminded by them that each time they have reached a point where they hit a wall or stumble, it is because they have moved forward without enough of, or the right advice.  We are all susceptible to this, but for some reason it is an easy mistake to make.  Last year a number of well known brands launched marketing campaigns that after they were made public (to great embarrassment) the first thing we ask ourselves is, “Who didn’t tell them that was just wrong?”  Well, it was probably because someone moved forward without asking for advice.  It was 20 years ago this month that I was at a corporate marketing meeting, globally attended by the top executives, partners and customers when the same thing happened. The CMO of the company rolled out an advertising campaign that he hadn’t consulted with, or asked advice from the best marketing minds in the business.  With great fanfare and expense the advertisements were screened.  Other than the gasps the only other reaction was silence.  Do I need to say that this was that CMO’s last meeting with the company? And to think, with a little advice, everything could have been different.

What plans have we made for this year that we didn’t solicit advice for before we launched out on them?  If we are still following a list of resolutions, we might find that one or more on the page have been established without any advice or counsel.  And then we wonder why our plans don’t work out or go awry?  With just the following of King Solomon’s advice we could ensure that our plans come to a positive fruition.

Reference: Proverbs 15:22 (New Living Translation)