Mother Teresa, CEO: Unexpected Principles for Practical Leadership (BK Business)

This book details the leadership principles used by Mother Teresa in building one of the world’s largest and most successful organizations, with this as its central lesson: leaders must articulate a simple vision, and execute it with absolute practicality. Bose—who spent eight months working with Mother Teresa in 1992-3—and Faust have distilled Mother Teresa’s leadership style into nine essential principles. Each principle shows readers how to apply Mother Teresa’s wisdom in their lives and businesses.

Much has been written about Mother Teresa. She is an actual saint, beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2003, as well as the winner of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, This book is the first to view her in another light—as a pragmatic, realistic leader who over 47 years raised billions of dollars and helped millions of people. This often meant making tough decisions—such as accepting donations from people of questionable morals. This book has the principles that guided those decisions. These are universal principles that can help any leader working to keep an organization on course and on mission.

What organization, founded in 1948 by a passionate entrepreneur and twelve loyal team members, grew to become one of the largest enterprises in the world? Today it has operations in over 100 countries, includes over 1 million team members, has raised and deployed billions of dollars in capital, and is one of the most recognized brands in history.

Is it Hewlett-Packard? Coca-Cola? Disney?

No, it is the Missionaries of Charity. And Mother Teresa was its leader.

How did this nun with no formal business training create a global brand, become a powerful fund-raising and public relations magnet, and lead a worldwide organization through every phase of growth over the course of forty-seven years? What were her secrets?

When we shift our lens and view Mother Teresa from a leadership perspective, a wonderful success story emerges, one filled with inspiration, life lessons, and impact.

Ruma Bose spent time in Calcutta working as a volunteer with Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity in 1992. Over time, she discovered that Mother Teresa’s success resulted from the careful application of eight simple and unexpected principles.

Through the pages of this book you will have the unique opportunity to learn these principles, share Bose’s experience with Mother Teresa, and discover how to apply Mother Teresa’s principles whether on a single project, throughout an organization, or in your life.

Modern, well-timed, and humane, Mother Teresa, CEO helps you discover how you don’t have to be a saint to be a great leader!