Biography
John Micklethwait is one of the world’s foremost authorities on globalization — how it works and where it’s headed — and a leading proponent of its positive impact and potential. That same understanding lets him explain how globalization sometimes turns sour, as in today’s European financial crisis.
He is the coauthor/coeditor of two books on globalization: A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Promise of Globalization and Globalisation: Making sense of an integrating world.
His book, The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea, was named one of the ten best books of 2003 by BusinessWeek.
Micklethwait is also an expert on American business and culture, and on American politics and American foreign and defense policy. He was head of the magazine’s U.S. section from 1999 to 2006.
He is the coauthor, with Adrian Wooldridge, of The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America and bestseller The Witch Doctors.
John's current book, Masters of Management: How The Business Gurus and Their Ideas Have Changed The World — For Better and For Worse is a revised and expanded edition of The Witch Doctors. This book is an entertaining yet serious guide to today's management theories and gurus.
"Read it before buying any other business book."
— Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Micklethwait is currently editor-in-chief of The Economist , the world’s leading business and current affairs weekly. John is a trustee of the British Museum.
He is a winner of the Wincott Award, Britain’s leading prize for financial journalism and was named Editors' Editor of the Year at the British Society of Magazine Editors 2010 annual awards.
He has appeared on television and radio throughout the world and written op-ed articles for the world’s premier print news journals.
Background
After studying history at Magdalen College, Oxford, John Micklethwait worked as a banker at Chase Manhattan. He joined The Economist in 1987 as a finance correspondent. He set up The Economist’s Los Angeles office, where he worked from 1990-1993 and served as its media correspondent. Since then, he’s edited the business section of the magazine, run the New York bureau, and, most recently, edited the United States section. He has covered business and politics from the United States, Latin America, Continental Europe, Southern Africa and most of Asia, and he’s written surveys for The Economist on California, business in Asia, Argentina, Silicon Valley, the United States, and the entertainment industry.
Books
With his writing partner Adrian Wooldridge, John Micklethwait has written four books on business and one book on American politics.
Globalisation
A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Promise of Globalization is the first comprehensive examination of the most important revolution of our times. Gathering evidence from the shantytowns of São Paolo to the boardrooms of General Electric, from the troubled Russia-Estonia border to the booming San Fernando Valley sex industry, John Micklethwait and his coauthor deliver an illuminating tour of the global economy and an optimistic assessment of its real and potential impact. A Future Perfect was shortlisted for the 2000 Lionel Gelber Award.
John also co-edited the first edition of Globalisation: Making sense of an integrating world, a collection of surveys and articles on globalisation that have appeared in The Economist, covering the full range of conceptual and practical issues involved in this contentious subject.
In his 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
Masters of Management: How The Business Gurus and and Their Ideas Have Changed The World — For Better and For Worse is a revised and expanded edition of The Witch Doctors, updated to include the rise and fall of the Internet boom, the Great Recession of 2008, and the more recent developments in management theory.
Organized around the management problems that plague corporations, The Witch Doctors looks deeply into their social and corporate implications for managers and workers alike and analyzes the effectiveness of the solutions that management gurus have offered.
In The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea, Micklethwait 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.
Politics
Micklethwait’s last book, The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America, is a portrait of America 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.
Areas
- Globalisation
- American business
- American politics and foreign and defense policy
- International affairs & transatlantic relations
- Silicon Valley and US West Coast business and politics
Credentials
- Editor-in-chief, The Economist
- Trustee, the British Museum
- Editors' Editor of the Year 2010, British Society of Magazine Editors
- Voted Young Financial Journalist of the Year (1990), Harold Wincott Foundation
- Frequent broadcaster, appearing on CNN, ABC news, BBC, Charlie Rose, Today, Start the Week and NPR
- Co-author of four books; co-editor of a fifth
Reviews
An organization of family business advisors:
He was absolutely fantastic, the best keynote speaker they've ever had. He offered his view of the US Election from an UK perspective, he has a great way with words; brilliant on economics and politics...beautiful presentation which he tweaked to their audience.
A leading international conference organizer:
Your presentation was just so well received, and I am just so glad you were able to do it. I received so many comments from delegates saying that your presentation was scary and fascinating at the same time. Thank you for also being so generous with your time.
A media company:
John delivered a great opening keynote address at the event — topical, insightful and amusing. Delegates really enjoyed it and the feedback was excellent. He was a pleasure to work with throughout the process and did a superb job.
An international research and educational organization:
John was fantastic! Everything went well. Thanks again for all your hard work!
How, in a relatively short time, did America veer so far to the right as to become incomprehensible to Europe, as it would no doubt be to Richard Nixon? And why is it likely to remain so no matter who occupies the Oval Office? Like latter-day de Tocquevilles, English journalists John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge explain this new America, and the conservative movement that shaped it, with a freshness and clarity that elude most native observers. *The Right Nation* is an indispensable guide to the mystery of American difference that will illuminate readers on both the right and left.