In the iconic Billy Bob Thornton movie, School for Scoundrels, the anti-hero famously turns down a teaching job, saying, “Those who can do stay in the real world; those who can’t -- teach.” Vivek Wadhwa, sits at a top table, hands together, looking like the professor he is, hearing out students from the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, and occasionally tapping notes into the laptop in front of him. But none of Wadhwa’s students can accuse him of being untested in the real-world.   

“You always succeed by making other people successful.”

Wadhwa built and led a software outfit called Relativity Technologies which helps modernize legacy computer systems. In 2002, he survived a massive heart attack to get sucked into another sort of battle.

“I woke up in the hospital glad to be alive. But I had my investors trying to steal my company,” said Wadhwa, who now teaches at the Pratt School of Engineering, which runs Duke’s popular Master of Engineering Management Program.   

With Wadhwa in hospital, venture capitalists swooped down on Relativity Technologies to try and convince top management to accept money for a revised agreement that would gift them majority ownership. But they were in for a shock when Wadhwa, still bandaged, walked into the meeting. The rest is history. Wadhwa maintained control over his company; worked 18-hour days and was indisputably in charge. He steered his company through the dot-com crash and when it was on high ground he decided to listen to his heart.

“For a CEO there are always moments of anxiety. But the challenge is to resist the urge to step in.”

“For 35 years I was nothing but a tech head and later a CEO. That means working all hours, it means very large sacrifices,” said Wadhwa whose company was hailed as one of the “coolest” companies in the world by Fortune magazine. “I recruited a CEO to take over from me and decided that my priority was to make up for lost time with my family and give back to the education system.”

Wadhwa dabbled briefly with producing Hollywood-Bollywood films but soon turned to helping students and fledgling entrepreneurs at Duke get better acquainted with the business world. Wadhwa is a visiting scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization (CERC), at Duke University.

“We have seen some fabulous businesses coming out of college campuses,” said Wadhwa, who is involved with Duke's CERC which incubates and spurs social, commercial and technological innovation on campus.

In addition to his roles at Duke University, Vivek Wadhwa is also a Wertheim Fellow at the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. He is also a technology entrepreneur and a columnist for BusinessWeek.com

Teaches at: Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University
Program: Master of Engineering Management Program
Title: Executive in Residence
Education: BA, Computing Studies, Canberra University; MBA, New York University
Specialization: Globalization, Outsourcing, And Entrepreneurship.

CERC is a collaborative effort involving schools across Duke’s campus and their programs, including the Medical School, Pratt School of Engineering, Arts & Sciences and Fuqua School of Business as well as the Fuqua Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

The well-known entrepreneur turned academic usually shares his leadership checklist with students at Duke -- like competing to win, motivating people and setting stretch goals.“When we started Relativity, we cast several principles in stone,” Wadhwa says. This included taking great care of customers, delivering innovative products and hiring good people. “If you do those three things consistently, success will follow."

Make the Team Feel it’s on a Mission from God

Wadhwa stresses the importance of getting a team excited about the mission. Many years ago Wadhwa traveled to St. Petersburg to find a group of ex-KGB mathematicians to create RescueWare, a software program that converts obsolete code, easily and elegantly.

“When I hired the Russian programmers I explained that here is a massive problem that is confounding US programmers. I motivated them by showing them how sitting in Saint Petersburg they could impact technology in the United States,” said Wadhwa.

The Russian programmers, most with Ph.D.s in mathematics, had spent the end of the Cold War reverse-engineering smuggled American technology. Wadhwa said it was not money that made them tick but the challenge. “What got them cracking is the idea that they could come up with breakthrough technology. They never thought they could do it but I showed them the big picture. The mission arrested them,” said Wadhwa. “A CEO must see the big picture, make others see it and be able to motivate everyone.”

Don’t Micromanage Executives

...none of Wadhwa’s students can accuse him of being untested in the real-world.

Wadhwa says a CEO can head off business missteps by keeping close tabs on project managers. But it can very nearly kill managerial initiative. “Delegate work and give managers the authority to implement projects. For a CEO there are always moments of anxiety. But the challenge is to resist the urge to step in. CEOs must not micromanage,” said Wadhwa.

This probably explains how Wadhwa was able to build a company as successful as Relativity with its head office in the US and a crack team halfway around the world, in Russia.

Help Everyone Win

Wadhwa’s company was hailed as one of the “coolest” companies in the world by Fortune magazine.

Wadhwa said it was important for managers to give credit to their team. “It builds a positive environment. You always succeed by making other people successful whether it is your customers, whether it is your boss or subordinates. You lead today by building teams and placing others first. It's not about you."Helping everyone win does include basic tenets like striking fair deals and doing the right thing on the ethical front. “Many people try and squeeze their suppliers -- if you squeeze them, ultimately they will squeeze you,” says Wadhwa.

Integrity Determines Your Success

But there is more to the leadership equation. A good CEO has to ensure that integrity is never compromised — and that is always the bottom line. “There is never a circumstance when lying is acceptable,” says Wadhwa. “The greatest CEOs have integrity. There’s no way for a person who is fundamentally dishonest and selfish to lead a team over long periods of time.”