How Nations Win - by Henrik Ekelund (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Why do some countries surge ahead while others stall? Discover the practical levers that keep economies resilient, innovative, and wealth-building--levers we can use to protect prosperity before it slips away.

Too often, debates about economic growth rely on a "magic pill," a singular factor to explain prosperity, and miss the full picture. In How Nations Win, global entrepreneur and investor Henrik Ekelund argues that lasting prosperity depends on a more complete, encompassing, data-backed model for producing sustainable growth across time and geography.

Drawing from his study of two millennia of growth revolutions and thousands of pages of research--including close studies of "twin" pairs of similar nations with stark gaps in prosperity--Ekelund reveals the three forces that interact to fuel economies--freedom, order, and innovation--and their twelve underlying drivers. He maps how those drivers, like democracy, free markets, free trade, rule of law, economic stability, and market-driven innovation, create a "virtuous cycle" of productive investment. And he captures how today's drift toward protectionism, authoritarianism, cronyism, and overbearing government puts that cycle at risk.

Readers will come away with a practical lens for smarter policy, investment, and civic choices:

• Identify the twelve drivers behind durable growth--and what happens when a nation gets strong in a few but weak in others
• Make sense of why similar countries diverge
• Understand how bottom-up entrepreneurship, private investors, and a humming financial system turn ideas into prosperity
• Navigate today's headwinds--demographics, opportunity gaps, and carbon constraints--without abandoning growth

Whether you're shaping business strategy, investing capital, or engaging in policy debates that will define the next decade, How Nations Win provides a clearer set of signals to watch and makes the case that prosperity is built on fundamentals that can be defended--if we recognize what's at stake and act before erosion becomes collapse.

About the Author

Henrik Ekelund is the founder and chairman of BTS, a publicly traded global consulting firm that works with more than 150 of the Fortune 500 across six continents, including Microsoft, EY, Samsung, SAP, and Tetra Pak. BTS has offices in four cities in the United States and 32 in total around the world.

He has been honored as Sweden's Entrepreneur of the Year and is an investor and advisor for a number of start-up and growth companies; so far, eight have gone public or were sold after achieving exceptional growth.

He is also an active member of YPO, which has more than 32,000 members globally, and the Wall Street Journal CEO Council. He has been published in Nature, various US media outlets, and in leading Swedish business media outlets.

Henrik's passion for economics and public policy began in college. He earned his master of science degree in business and economics from the Stockholm School of Economics, where he was a leader in the Swedish Conservative Party's student organization, as well as editor in chief of its magazine.

Henrik is on the board of directors for The Sweden-America Foundation, which focuses on promoting the exchange of scientific, cultural, and practical experiences, and offers fellowships to young Swedish researchers and graduate students.

Though he currently lives in Switzerland with his wife, Anine, Henrik was born in Stockholm and spends much of his time traveling--he has visited more than 110 countries--to explore opportunities for growth for businesses and economies. He is the father of two grown daughters, Olivia and Nikoline, and is an avid mountaineer, skier, and sailor.