The fourth annual Fuqua School of Business and Coach K Leadership Conference kicked off Monday night and is bringing business leaders and basketball fans alike to Duke for the next two days.
Men's basketball head coach Krzyzewski and the Fuqua Center of Leadership Ethics collaborate to put on the sold-out event. Thirty leaders from business, sports, government and nonprofit organizations are slated to speak about ethics in the workplace.
This year's theme, "Organizational Community: Cultivating shared purpose, ownership and success," is expected to attract more than 300 participants committed to leadership development. They come from diverse industry and functional backgrounds-including finance, sales, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and marketing. Notable speakers include NCAA President Myles Brand, former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa James Joseph, Harvard Business Review Editor Thomas Stewart and CNN anchor Judy Woodruff.
"The theme of this conference is about teamwork and making each other better," Coach K said at the opening night's event. "Let's be on the same team. That's the only way you'll be able to get the full effect of the conference."
Krzyzewski said it is important for the attendees to form a community while at the conference. "Take that feeling back to your team and form an even better community," he said.
While the athletic theme certainly attracted many avid basketball fans, participants were also drawn to the conference to learn how to develop ethics in their own companies.
"Ethical leadership is so important in today's world, and this conference helps the outside world recognize Duke University as a place where people can come to develop that ethical leadership," Sanyin Siang, managing director and senior research associate for COLE, said.
James Quigley, CEO of Deloitte & Touche USA, gave Monday night's keynote address.
He related his company's experiences with the tragedies of Sept. 11, 2001 and Hurricane Katrina to building cohesion.
This year's conference theme was chosen because of the high-profile corporate scandals within the past few years, organizers said.
"Although ethical leadership has always been important, the business world is beginning to recognize just how important building and having ethical leadership in a company is," Siang said. "The indicators for a company's success and ability to prevail are based not only on functional areas, like marketing and accounting. It is also based on how many leaders you have, what type of leaders you have and the core value system that company has."
She also added that ethical leadership is necessary in building organizational community.
Since the conference was started in 2002, the program has diversified its selection of speakers, in terms of both gender and race, and the number of attendees has increased. "[This year], we have the most diverse conference ever, and we are going to continue to increase that," Siang said.
Lawrence Adair, a retired General in the U.S. Army plans to speak today about ethics, building community and using the military as a metaphor for community.
"I see the army as a value-based organization," he said. "I am interested in the conference because of Coach K, the U.S. Army and [panel mediator] Colonel Joe LeBoeuf."
Business leaders decided to attend the conference for a variety of reasons.
"We're a new team, and our company is investing to make us a better management team," said Mike Curry, sales manager for QAD, Inc., a software company.
David Stevens, solution consulting manager for the Americas for QAD, was attracted to the conference because of an story he read in The Wall Street Journal in March. "The basis of the article was how you can draw a lot of comparisons between basketball and what you deal with in the business world today," he said. "It is ever-changing, always moving, and it's what we deal with on a daily basis. We saw an opportunity to leverage how Coach K leads a basketball team to what we deal with every day."
Krzyzewski, however, is not giving participants too much inside information about how the basketball program is run.
"Tell us anything we can do to help you. Except during practice tomorrow. I don't want any of your damn suggestions," Coach K said, eliciting laughter from the crowd.
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