Duke on Demand

Apple CEO Tim Cook tells MBA students at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business when to follow business rules and when to throw them out. Cook spoke as part of his class reunion at the school.(www.fuqua.duke.edu)

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APPLE CEO AND FUQUA ALUM TIM COOK TALKS LEADERSHIP AT DUKE

Tim Cook spoke to students and alums when he returned for his 25th reunion



"Explore everything. Push the corners of your mind. Just get on this kind of continual learning roller coaster and see what happens."

This was among the advice Apple CEO Tim Cook shared with students at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business on April 26th. Back on campus for his 25-year reunion, Cook took part in an hour-long dialogue with Fuqua Dean Bill Boulding and the students in a jam-packed Geneen Auditorium buzzing with excitement to hear from the leader of the world's most profitable company.

The Apple CEO has embarked on a career far different than he had envisioned after graduating from Fuqua's Evening Executive MBA program in 1988. "For me the journey was not predictable at all. You have to find your own north star and stay with your north star."

As 450 Daytime MBA students prepared to graduate, Cook advised the students to heed Abraham Lincoln's words of wisdom: "I will prepare and someday my chance will come."

Cook shared the three keys to his leadership at Apple: people, strategy, and execution. "If you get those three right the world is a great place."

Students were able to get a unique glimpse into Cook's motivation, inspiration and leadership role models. Raised in the south and a witness to racial injustice, Cook described his admiration for Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Junior's bravery in risking their lives to fight for what they believed in. He has just three photos in his office: two of Kennedy and one of King.

Cook was asked when to follow strict principles of business theory and when to break the rules. His response stressed the importance of risks and learning from failure. "You should rarely follow the rules. What Fuqua teaches you so well is how to learn and how to collaborate. Write your own rules."

This message resonated with first-year MBA student Shelby Hall. "I know this follows Steve Jobs' belief that Apple creates products which consumers didn't ever know existed," she said. "It was interesting to hear Tim Cook's perspective on how we should balance writing our own rules while applying the foundations of business taught here at Fuqua."

Cook also spoke about some of his recollections from Fuqua. "The people made it an incredible experience. It was great for me to see how bright people approached solutions in different ways."

First-year MBA student Juan Danzilo says Cook's willingness to share his experiences shows a deep commitment to Fuqua. "Tim Cook's presence reflects Fuqua's sense of community. His humility and eloquence is admirable. It certainly was a unique opportunity for MBA students to hear from such an inspirational leader."

A Duke graduate student's research into how male magnolia green jumping spiders interpret the appearance of other spiders as a friend or foe finds that the pheromone scent of a female makes them respond more quickly, raising their pedipalps for love or their forelegs for fighting.

Saying "humanity in the abstract will never inspire you in the same way as human beings you meet," Melinda Gates urged Duke University's graduates Sunday to use new technology to connect with others, including people in the developing world whose lives Americans can now touch in a more personal way.

"Over the course of your lives, I promise you, you will have many opportunities to use technology to make your world bigger, to meet more different kinds of people and to keep in touch with more of the people you meet," she said in the annual commencement ceremony in Wallace Wade Stadium. "I want you to connect because I believe it will inspire you to do something, to make a difference in the world."

Gates, who received undergraduate and business degrees from Duke and later served as a university trustee, said, "it is so fantastic to be back here at my alma mater." She recalled attending Duke basketball games and spending long nights writing computer code as a student, long before she became co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest transparently operated private foundation.

"The way you communicate is the single biggest difference between you now and me a generation ago," she told the graduates. Smartphones and other technologies have proliferated, even in a Kenyan slum she visited recently, making it possible for Americans to get to know people in other countries more personally.

"Your world really can become a neighborhood," Gates said, arguing that "deep human connection ... is not a tool. It's not a means to an end. It is the end -- the purpose and the result of a meaningful life -- and it will inspire the most amazing acts of love, generosity and humanity."

Delivered under a sunny sky, her address highlighted the ceremony at which Duke awarded more than 5,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees, including to those who graduated in September and December.

Read more here: https://today.duke.edu/2013/05/commence2013.

Duke's most senior senior is Robert Becker. The 80-year-old member of the class of 2013 arrived on campus in the early 1950s but after four years left two courses shy of a degree. After careers in the military and airline industry, Becker returned to Duke this January to finish up. Having taken courses in logic and religion, he's slated to receive a bachelor of arts degree in political science.

The native of Satellite, Fla., should have plenty of fans on hand at commencement. His wife, son, two daughters and five grandchildren plan to attend. As a graduate, he would join brothers Dennis '66 and Richard '56 as a Duke alumnus.

We are intermediate Arabic students at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina and this is our cover of لا للديكتاتورية originally by four inspiring Sudanese artists (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P0qhpfZe6Q).

Freedom is universal, and so is music. This goes out to our brothers and sisters in Sudan and throughout the Middle East.

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Film directed and produced by Lawrence Nemeh
Music arranged and produced by Ryan Gaylord

Starring (in order of appearance): Mayyadda Major, Lawrence Nemeh, Desmond Lee and Ryan Gaylord

Featuring: Emma Smith!

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Lyrics:

Chorus (all):
لا للديكتاتورية لا للحكومه سياديه
لا للسلطه الابديه نحن نريد الحريه
لا للديكتاتورية لا للحكومه سياديه
لا للسلطه الابديه نحن نريد الحريه

Verse 1 (Ryan):
يلأ حان الاوان هاذه وقت الشباب
هذا وقت الرجال هذا الاسود الذي تمسد حبال
نحن كوحده قوه تبقي تحرك جبال
الي متي نخان الي مني من حكمأ دكتاتوريأ نهان
في هذا الارض سنه كما تدين تدان
في هذا الارض حكمه كما تعين تعان
فقد حان الاوان الي خرق النظام
فمن عاش جبان فقد راب الظلأم
الي متي نكون فقط قوم الكلأم
الي متي نساق وفي الفن اللجام
وبلفن نهان....وبلهم نعان
لقد سالت عيون دمعأ من سيد دمام
لقد عشنا قرون علي حلم السلأم
علي حلم الامان ..علي قهر النظام
فقد حان الاوان ....لكي نقول

Chorus

Verse 2 (Desmond):
بقوله بكل كبيراء
كلمه طالعه من ضميري صاعده للسماء
الحاله وصلت حدا والشعوب قالت كفايه
حكامنه اتقرصنو والقرصنه بقت هوايه
لو كان ضميرك صاحي ماكان خبتا في البدايه
شوف المرايه عاين حتلقي نفسك ما معايه
انا الشعب الرفض خوفو وطلع يقاوم
لو كنتا فاهم الكرسي مسخره ماشفنا مره دائم
مسرح عريس والخيوط في يد ابت تسالم
حبر ع الورق وين الضمير السيدو نايم
ضباب كتير والمصير مجهول في الظلمه عايم
بلد مقسمه عصابه منهي الجرائم
ديمقراطيه بلأسم والقمع لسه فايم
ما بلسلأح حارد عليك ياالسموك حاكم
بجمله واحده حارد عليك من غير شتايم
ميزنا ربنا بعقل عن البهايم

Chorus

Verse 3 (Mayyadda):
Yes, for love and equality
Say no to cruelty
Until when we be living like a جبنة
جوة حلته لايك سجنه
we never speak the truth cuz لسانه
لسانه هو مربوط مافي امانه
امانه هي مدسوسه في كورنه
والكورنه موجودة في قلبنا
قلبنا من القرف قال كفايه
كفايه من الظلم دي الحكايه
اذا انتا قرفان ارفع يدك فوق
عارفك زهجان and you wanna talk freedom, freedom and
You wanna chant ... من من من Darkness you wanna walk
Until when we be living in ضلمه
22 years ما داير يتلمة

Chorus

Verse 4 (Lawrence):
الشعب جاكم بلرساله يحاكم احكم بعداله
قناصه شبيحه جات منك شينه وقبيحه
دي عصابتك حالفين نطيحها
احسن ترحل من غير فضيحه
في ابو روف ناس قالو لألألألأ
راس لانوف ديل قالو لألألألأ
كسرو الخوف ديل قالو لألألألأ
من غير ملاتوف ديل قالو لألألألأ
سلميه سليمه والناس في السجون مرميه
عشان بلدي تعيش محميه
ماسك المايك بدل البندقيه

Chorus

David Ferrucci, an IBM Fellow and artificial intelligence scientist, gives a talk "AI: In and Out of Jeopardy," as part the Duke University Provost Lecture Series "Information Futures." In 2007, Ferrucci took on the Jeopardy Challenge --- to create an intelligent computer system that could rival human champions at the game of Jeopardy. After four years of intense research and development, he and his team succeeded when their computer Watson beat the highest-ranked Jeopardy champions of all time on national television in February 2011.

The 2013 ADF Season will feature 47 performances by 25 companies and choreographers, including 11 company debuts, 9 ADF commissioned world premieres, 2 reconstructed classic works, and 1 US premiere. Tickets go on sale May 13, 2013 and will be available at www.americandancefestival.org. For the complete season schedule along with additional information on each performing company visit the ADF website.

Duke Students' Presentations of Their Social Entrepreneurship Endeavors with Feedback from Jessica Jackley --
February 7, 2013 For more information, go to http://colloquium.duke.edu/.

Marathon runner and cancer survivor Amy Carreira's journey from being helped to helping fund research for The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke.