Coach K Inc.: follow the leader--not basketball--is the name of the game that runs up the score for Mike Krzyzewski.

AuthorShinn, Jerry
PositionCover story

Inside the student center at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, 300 men and women mingle, munching sushi and sipping wine, bottled water and the occasional beer. Even at $1,600 a pop for two days of lectures and discussion, more would be here if the school didn't limit attendance.

Herded from the reception into an adjacent room, they hear Fernando Aguirre's keynote speech, Leading with Heart, Guts and Brains. The CEO of Cincinnati-based Chiquita Brands International is good, but he's just the warm-up act. The star of the fifth annual Fuqua School of Business & Coach K Leadership Conference, without a prepared text, nails it with the finesse of a J.J. Redick jump shot. Mike Krzyzewski thanks American Express, CNN, MassMutual, the Kenan Institute for Ethics and other conference sponsors. "A value system," he says, "is what makes everything work."

And everything is working for Coach K. Many, not just Duke fans, believe he is the best college basketball coach ever. If he stays a few more years--he's 60, has a bad back and has had both hips replaced--he could accumulate the stats to support that claim. CBS Sports announcer Jim Nantz calls him "one of the great leaders, motivators and humanitarians of sport." But he's more than a coach. He's also special assistant to Duke President Richard Brodhead and a faculty member at the Fuqua school's Coach K Center of Leadership and Ethics. Robert Steel, a senior director of Goldman Sachs and chairman of Duke's board of trustees, calls him "an icon of leadership."

In making such a name for himself, he has built a brand. Call it Coach K Inc. Highly marketable, it brings in millions each year, but its value, both to the man and the school, can't be counted solely in dollars. If its stock were traded on Wall Street, it would be a blue chip. A royal-blue chip.

College basketball fans know him by sight, but no one else, seeing him here, would guess he is a celebrity. He is not physically impressive, particularly given his usual working environment, the world of young giants. He wears a conservative business suit with a dark tie. His hair is slicked into a black, close-fitting cap. He is not movie-star handsome. But on stage his personality, illuminated by what the audience knows about him, is charismatic.

Opposing fans criticize him for barking obscenities from the sidelines, but on occasions such as this his comments are larded with softer words like "trust," "caring" and "heart." He shows a sense of humor, and when he directs it at himself, it lubricates everything else he says. Aguirre concludes his speech by noting that he is Mexican and adding, in an ambiguous attempt at humor, that he looks like a Mexican. When Krzyzewski takes the microphone, he says, "I'm Polish. I don't know what we're supposed to look like. Usually we're drunk and we're bowling." The audience laughs, and he adds: "To have a Polack and a Mexican start it off--what could be better?"

After that, he doesn't sound so pompous when he makes pronouncements that begin, "As a leader, I ..." That is not to say he doesn't take himself seriously. Clearly he does--more seriously, perhaps, than any basketball coach ought to be taken, by himself or anyone else--particularly in an academically respected school of business, surrounded by people with Ph.D. or CEO attached to their names. But this audience, professors and chief executives included, takes him seriously, too.

Why? It all starts with basketball. He owns the National Collegiate Athletic Association record for 30-win seasons--with nine--and for NCAA tournament victories--68--including three national championships. Going into the 2006-07 season, his teams had won 753 games--beating opponents 75% of the time. By the time he is 65, if he maintains anything close to that percentage, he...

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