Leaving Microsoft to Change the World: An entrepreneur's odyssey to educate the world's children

by JohnWood (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $4.19

  John Wood was a senior Microsoft director but in 1999, he decided to throw in the corporate towel and do something entirely different. He founded a charity called Room To Read which has since built 197 schools, established 2930 libraries and donated 1.2 million books to children all over Asia. This is his truly remarkable story. In 1998 John Wood was a rising executive at Microsoft when a trip to Nepal inspired him to change the world, one book and one child at a time. Fueled by the same drive that made him so successful at Microsoft, Wood used the business practices he had learned in the non-profit world to create Room to Read, a stunningly effective organization helping a million children in Asia. In this book, Wood chronicles his life and work, from the start-up years at Microsoft to his life-changing decision to leave, and includes the methods he uses to manage Room to Read with 'the efficiency of General Electric and the compassion of Mother Teresa.' Wood's story is an uncommon and instructive primer on creating success on your own terms, and an inspiration for changing the world.

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $4.15

  In 1998 John Wood was a rising executive at Microsoft . Then a trip to Nepal inspired him to set up schools and libraries in the developing world. Fuelled by the same drive that made him a top executive, Wood took his business acumen into the charity sector and created Room to Read, a stunningly effective organisation that has created a network of more than 2,000 schools and libraries throughout Asia and Africa in only six years. Leaving Microsoft to Change the World chronicles John Wood's incredible journey, his first years at Microsoft, his life-changing decision to leave, and the adventure that followed. Wood shares the methods he uses to manage Room to Read, taken from the boardroom of one of the world's most influential companies and applied successfully in a very different setting. His story is an inspirational example of how to create success on your own terms and change your world. After earning an MBA at the Kellogg School of Management, John Wood joined Microsoft in 1991. He quickly ascended to become Microsoft's director of business development in China and the surrounding regions. In 1999, he founded Room to Read, a charity that promotes literacy throughout the developing world. He lives in San Francisco.