Russ McGuire is an accomplished writer, a sought out speaker, and a gifted teacher. God has blessed him with the ability to take complex topics and make them accessible, which enables the audience to connect with the topic and more easily determine what to do next.
An Accomplished Writer
Russ is the author of Six Questions: What Every Business Leader Need to Know About Their Business published in 2020. In this book Russ asks six simple questions that any leader should be able to answer about their business. But more than simply asking the questions, he provides the tools and approaches leaders can use to thoughtfully develop the answers to those questions.
In 2020, Russ also wrote A Sprint to the Finish: A Strategic History of Sprint Corporation.
For over a century Sprint was an innovative leader in the telecommunications industry. From its humble beginnings stringing wires to homes and businesses in Abilene, Kansas, to helping build the global Internet, and stockpiling the richest porfolio of spectrum for fifth-generation (5G) wireless services, Sprint had an outsized impact on how everyday citizens and the world’s largest companies communicate. Russ leverages his unique perspective as former Vice President of Corporate Strategy to provide insights into the strategic decisions that the company made over the decades.
2020 was a productive year for Russ as he also wrote VisuALS: A Startup Strategic Journey during that year. VisuALS is a technology startup birthed out of Oklahoma Christian University to “love our neighbors by restoring independence, dignity, and hope through affordable assistive technology solutions.” They help those with debilitating conditions to reconnect with their loved ones and the world around them. The book follows the startup team from initial concept through to market launch, teaching how to take each of the strategic steps along that journey.
Russ is the author of The Power of Mobility: How Your Business Can Compete and Win in the Next Technology Revolution published in 2007 by John Wiley & Sons. The book predicted that mobile technology would disrupt virtually all industries and provided a framework to help businesses capture the power of mobility. Since that time, smartphones, mobile apps, and wireless connectivity have impacted most industries, creating clear winners and losers.
Russ has also contributed chapters to a number of books including Enterprise City: How Companies Are Changing the Global Urban Landscape (2014), Shift 2020: How Technology Will Impact Our Future (2014), Mobile Future Forward: Essays from Thought Leaders on the Future of Mobile (2010) and Annual Review of Communications (2002 and 2006).
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Russ approaches each writing assignment by first defining the objective of the document and understanding the audience, then structuring the message to most effectively engage the audience to achieve the objective. This often involves bringing the audience up to speed on a technical or historical issue, providing a framework for evaluating the issue, and then presenting the arguments that can lead the audience to take the action most appropriate for their needs. In addition to his public writing, throughout his career Russ has written many white papers for his clients or employers to frame specific issues in a way that could lead to decisions. Many of these were for internal strategic decisions and some have been to help customers determine what actions they should take relative to new technologies or new offers (example: Alleviating the Pain in Today’s Edge Networks).
Russ has also contributed articles to a number of magazines.
For nearly a decade Russ served as a regular columnist for MinistryTech magazine (formerly known as Christian Computing), contributing more than 100 articles in six series (click here for a complete list): The Mobility Revolution (2009-2010), Launching Online (2010), Tablet Time (2010-2011), The Power and the Danger (2011-2014), The Next Revolution (2014-2015), and Startup (2015-2018). Russ’ article on “What is 4G?” was selected to be the cover story in December 2009, his article on “YouVersion” was selected to be the cover story in March 2016, and his article on “Mobile tAPPestry” was selected to be the cover story in August 2016.
In 2010 and 2011 Russ wrote nine articles for Home School Enrichment magazine on the topic of Raising Entrepreneurs which provided a framework of “Seven Disciplines of Biblical Business Success” – pairing each of seven business disciplines (e.g. “marketing”) with a biblical discipline (e.g. “integrity”). The series introduced homeschooling families to the basic elements of any successful business while providing scriptural encouragement to perform those activities in a God honoring manner. Russ provided an additional article for the July/August 2014 issue of the magazine, aimed at graduating high school students on the topic of Leaving Home.
Between 2005 and 2008, Russ wrote a number of articles for leading business and wireless publications introducing the Mobility Revolution. The first of these was an article on “The Law of Mobility” for the September/October 2005 issue of Business Reform magazine. (This led to the article “Moore’s Law, Metcalfe’s Law; now McGuire’s” by Daniel Briere in the January 16, 2006 issue of Network World magazine.) Wireless Week magazine’s CTIA Show Daily issue on April 6, 2006 included Russ’ article on “The Law of Mobility.” Later that month,CIO magazine published “The Internet: Is Mobility a Power or a Danger?” The May 11, 2006 issue of Telephony magazine included Russ’ perspectives on “Will the Mobility Age Help or Hurt Telecom?” On May 19, Mobile Enterprise Magazine included Russ’ article on “Mobility: Way More Than Connectivity.” Finally, in September of 2008, GigaOm published two articles by Russ on “Mobile Broadband – A New Revolution?” and “Mobility – What’s Different?“
Prior to joining Sprint, Russ served as the Online Director for Business Reform magazine. In addition to building an online business selling magazine subscriptions and books, Russ also managed a partnership with World Net Daily called BizNetDaily. Russ collected and provided editorial support for several prominent contributors including Dave Ramsey and Rick Boxx. Russ also wrote over 60 articles himself for BizNetDaily during 2003 (see article list). Russ also contributed to the print magazine. Towards the end of 2003, the Business Reform editorial staff also briefly took over publication of Success magazine and Russ contributed two articles that were published in the January/February 2004 issue of Success.
Russ also regularly writes on strategic topics at ClearPurpose.media.
A Sought Out Speaker
As a public speaker, since 2006 Russ has delivered 16 conference/event keynotes, has been a featured speaker 11 times, and served on two dozen industry panels (see the full list). It’s not unusual for the framework that Russ introduces in his talk at a conference to be referenced by other speakers throughout the remainder of the event.
Russ’ approach to these types of opportunities is to clearly identify his goals for the event, understand the audience and other participants, develop a messaging pyramid to structure the topic, and then, if appropriate develop the presentation materials (e.g. speech and/or presentation).
Russ is also popular with salespeople. They love to have him present to their customers. He brings credibility to the topic, provides thought-provoking material, and helps structure the complex issues so that the decisions facing the customer become more clear and manageable, leading to quicker decisions. This has been particularly true when a significant technology change represents meaningful opportunity or threat for the customer. Russ’ presentations, along with his ability to engage the customer with consultative probing questions, can help clarify the urgency for the customer and help move them towards taking action.
A Gifted Teacher
Russ has a heart for teaching, whether that be in 1-on-1 coaching sessions, lecturing to a class, posting tutorials online, or teaching through his writing.
Many of his online tutorials are available at ClearPurpose.