Expert on global business, culture and politics.
and American politics

Highlights

Long-time journalist for The Economist, Adrian Wooldridge speaks on a wide range of subjects from management to politics to globalization and the economy.

He writes The Economist’s Wilson Column and is Management Editor. He also has served as the magazine’s Washington Bureau Chief, Los Angeles Correspondent, and Social Policy Editor (specializing in education and health care).

Adrian is the coauthor or coeditor with fellow Economist journalist John Micklethwait of five books on globalization and business. His most recent book God is Back shows how and why religion is booming around the world and reveals its vast effects on the global economy, politics and culture.

He also is rereleasing a largely rewritten edition of his 1996 book, The Witch Doctors, an entertaining yet serious guide to today's management theories and gurus.

Adrian has written Economist surveys on entrepreneurship, the global search for talent, as well as on telecommunications, education, multinational companies and management consultancy.

He’s also written public policy papers on education, on meritocracy and classless society, and a book on American politics.

Books

With his writing partner John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge has written three books on business and one book on American politics. Adrian’s next book will explore the role of religion in political and social issues worldwide.

Globalization

A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Promise of Globalization is the first comprehensive examination of the most important revolution of our times. Adrian Wooldridge and his coauthor have gathered evidence from all over the world to illuminate the true character of the global economy and they offer an optimistic assessment of its real and potential impact. A Future Perfect was shortlisted for the 2000 Lionel Gelber Award.

In his most recent book, God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World, John looks at the rise of religious sentiment around the world and how it is affecting politics, culture and economics both globally and in specific countries and regions around the world.

Business

In The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea, Wooldridge charts the rise of one of history’s great catalysts for change, and argues that the company has become the basic unit and most powerful institution of modern society. The Company was named one of the ten best books of 2003 by BusinessWeek.

In The Witch Doctors, Wooldridge analyzes the problems that plague the modern corporation (and why they seek outside help) and the effectiveness of the solutions that management gurus have offered.

Politics

Wooldridge’s last book, The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America, is a portrait of America and of ‘American exceptionalism’ that combines the fresh perspective of an outsider with the knowledge and insight of a journalist who has been translating the American experience to the world for years and who traveled all over the country to research the book. The Right Nation profiles the radical conservative movement in America—the forces that have shaped it, the constituencies it represents, and the power that it wields in the world today.

China vs. India

Adrian Wooldridge is an expert on globalization, with two books on the subject and ongoing interest as a business journalist. Audiences have found his remarks on China and India especially valuable. China often seems more attractive to investors in pure economic terms, but political risk changes the equation. India’s stable democracy trumps China’s autocracy and her more mature regulatory environment serves business better than China’s corruption. Adrian has more insights and more details.

The Search for Talent

Adrian has written a major piece for The Economist that examines the dynamics of the new global war for talent. There has always been a talent shortage in the hi-tech industries, but now the trend is broadening to new sorts of industries. Several factors are driving these changes: the shift toward a knowledge-based economy, demographics (fewer workers), changes in worker attitudes. The implications for business are enormous: companies now need people more than people need companies. So far, businesses are better at bringing people on-board than at keeping them for the longer term. And very few companies—or countries—have done anything to prepare for the massive exit of senior talent to retirement, even though they know it’s coming. Few people understand this issue better than Adrian Wooldridge.

The Talent Economy and the Competition of Universities

Adrian has also written a long research piece on the talent economy and the central role universities play in it. Universities are in the talent business and, until now, the United States has been the clear leader. But competition is growing abroad and between universities the competition is intensifying. This is a topic in which individuals and families, companies and countries, and, of course, the universities themselves, have a huge stake.

Topics

• God is Back: How the Global Revival of Faith is Changing the World
• Entrepreneurship
• The Global Search for Talent
• Political Risk as Business Risk in India & China
• The Talent Economy and the Competition of Universities
• America in Global Context

Credentials

• Washington Bureau Chief & columnist, The Economist
• Coauthor/coeditor of four books
• Author of several public policy papers and of several Economist surveys
• Prize Fellowship and Doctorate, All Souls College, Oxford
• Harkness Fellow, University of California, Berkeley

Books

The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America (2004)

The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea (2003)

A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Promise of Globalization (2000)

The Witch Doctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus (1996)

Measuring the Mind: Education and Psychology in England 1860-1990 (1994)