Studio Manifesto
Creative North Star
We make work that blends the clarity of lived leadership with the honesty of craft—projects that entertain, inform, and endure. Our bar: truth of voice, rigor of execution, and usefulness to the audience.
Narrative with Spine
Stories anchored in real stakes—business, culture, identity.
Craft over Hype
Editing, structure, and voice—iterated until the work carries itself.
Systems for Creators
Lightweight pipelines so ideas move from draft to publish.
Studio Principles
- Audience first: clarity, utility, respect for attention.
- Voice matters: conversational, direct, accountable.
- Small loops: draft → review → refine → publish.
- Show your work: excerpts, process notes, and transparent milestones.
Creative Authority. Authentic Voice.
Rutherford Creative Media serves as both creative studio and publishing platform, where business wisdom meets storytelling craft.
After five decades as a global CEO, Barry Rutherford has turned his attention to the stories that shaped his journey and the narratives that define our time. RCM is the umbrella brand that houses his creative, media, and consulting ventures—each one informed by a lifetime of leadership experience and a commitment to authentic voice.
From the boardrooms of international corporations to the podcasting studios exploring modern masculinity, from memoir chapters that distill business wisdom to thriller fiction that examines the cost of secrets—RCM bridges worlds that rarely intersect with such intentionality.
This is where strategic thinking meets creative expression, where decades of real-world experience becomes the foundation for compelling storytelling.
Our Platforms
Rutherford & Company
Implementation & advisory. We fix what's breaking, link AI tools into coherent workflows, enable collaborative AI services, and teach teams to vibe-code to ship outcomes fast.
Malestrum
Father–son media on Gen Z, masculinity, and modern life—podcast, shorts, and essays.
VisitCreative Works
Fiction and memoir in progress—selected chapters live; publishing cadence set.
ExploreGreat stories deserve great systems. R&C protects the creative signal by stabilizing tools, simplifying flows, and enabling teams to produce at a high standard with less friction.
Rutherford & Company
We turn strategy into shipped capability. R&C is the implementation arm of Rutherford Creative Media — blending Barry Rutherford's decades of executive leadership and growth consulting with Griffin Rutherford's Computer Science rigor to deliver practical, durable AI systems that actually work in your day-to-day.
Our focus: fix what's not working, link scattered AI tools into a coherent workflow, enable collaborative AI services across teams, and teach your people to "vibe-code" — rapidly iterating with AI assistants to ship real outcomes without waiting on long dev cycles.
From deck → deployment
Close the gap between strategy slides and shipped workflows.
Human-centered AI
Augment people first; tools follow. Change management baked in.
Speed without chaos
Small sprints, measurable wins, governance you can live with.
What We Implement
Engagements are modular. Start where the pain is worst, expand after first wins.
AI Triage & Fix
- Stabilize flaky automations, prompts, and brittle integrations.
- Diagnose failure points across tools (ChatGPT/Claude, Descript, Notion, Ghost/Substack, Make/Zapier, GHL, etc.).
- Harden: retries, fallbacks, logging, permissions, cost controls.
Workflow Linking
- Map your content/data flows end-to-end; remove swivel-chair steps.
- Unify prompts, templates, and data sources; reduce duplicate work.
- API-level stitching for reliability; human checkpoints where needed.
AI Collaboration Pods
- Stand up small cross-functional pods with embedded AI assistants.
- Define operating cadences, review rituals, and prompt/tool libraries.
- Create role-specific 'copilots' for PMs, operators, creators, execs.
Vibe-Coding Workshops
- Teach non-developers rapid AI-assisted building (Claude/ChatGPT).
- Patterns: spec → prompt → code → test → refine, in tight loops.
- Ship micro-tools: content pipelines, dashboards, CRUD utilities.
Advisory & Retainers
- Executive guidance on AI roadmaps, staffing, partner/tool choices.
- Quarterly architecture reviews, prompt ops governance, KPIs.
- Board-level updates translating AI work into business outcomes.
Compliance & Guardrails
- Lightweight governance for privacy, IP, and data security.
- Human-in-the-loop checkpoints; red-team prompts; audit trails.
- Model/tool selection aligned with policy and risk posture.
Who We Serve
Founders, content teams, ops leaders, and mid-market executives who need AI to produce measurable outcomes within weeks. We meet you where you are — from "we tried AI and it broke" to "we're ready to scale responsibly."
Assess
1–2 week triage: systems inventory, pain points, metrics, quick wins list.
Ship
2–4 week sprint: fix the worst issues, link key flows, prove ROI with one clear use-case.
Enable
Upskill teams with vibe-coding workshops; add governance; set cadence for ongoing wins.
Talk to R&C
Tell us what's breaking, what you want to ship, and who needs to be enabled. We'll propose a small, high-impact starting point.
Led by Barry Rutherford (global CEO, growth & ops) and Griffin Rutherford (CS graduate, AI systems).
Works Snapshot
- Elias Vance (Thriller): Opening chapter live; series bible in development.
- Serendipity: A Tactical Life (Memoir): Draft chapters underway; cadence defined.
- Malestrum (Media Platform): Podcast + shorts; research feeding scripts.
Creative Works
Elias Vance Series
"One man, haunted by old injuries and darker secrets, forced into action when corruption pushes too far."
Haunted by injuries that never healed and secrets that refuse to stay buried, Elias Vance lives quietly on society's edge. But when corruption threatens the people around him, the past he tried to escape drags him back into the fight. Part soldier, part survivor — Elias is a man who never asked to be a hero, but one who can't walk away when justice calls.
Serendipity: A Tactical Life
Looking back across five decades of business and life, I can see how often success wasn't the product of a perfect plan but of being ready when opportunity appeared. Serendipity isn't luck alone — it's a mix of preparation, timing, and the willingness to act when doors unexpectedly open. From chance encounters on factory floors to meetings in far-flung cities, those unplanned moments shaped the trajectory of my career more than any spreadsheet or forecast ever did.
Meet the Team
Barry Rutherford
Founder & Creative Director
Global CEO turned author/creator. Five decades of leadership across continents inform a perspective that bridges boardrooms and creative studios. Strategic thinking meets authentic storytelling.
Current focus: Serendipity: A Tactical Life memoir, the Elias Vance thriller series, and Malestrum (modern masculinity & generational perspectives).
Griffin Rutherford
Co-Creator, Malestrum
Engineer and co-creator of Malestrum. Brings an authentic Gen Z perspective on identity, work, and culture—grounded by an engineering mindset and outdoor grit.
Current focus: Malestrum podcast & shorts, Gen Z research, and practical engineering projects.