The Wheeler Institute for Business and Development with support from Africa Business Club at the London Business School, welcomes Joe Studwell, Author and Development Economist at Africa Urban Lab and Overseas Development Institute, for a conversation about his book, How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World’s Last Developmental Frontier, longlisted for the 2026 Financial Times and Standard Chartered Business Book of the Year Award. The conversation will be moderated by Sukrit Puri, Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School.
More than a decade after How Asia Works sparked debate about how countries get rich, Studwell turns his attention to Africa, drawing on a decade of research, travel and reporting across the continent. The discussion will explore why conventional assumptions about Africa’s prospects for economic growth deserve reconsideration, what distinguishes countries that have made progress from those that have struggled, and the roles of agriculture, urbanisation, demography and the state in driving development. It will also examine what Africa’s rapidly growing population means for its economic future, and what lessons policymakers, investors and business leaders can draw from the continent’s successes and failures.
Date: Monday 9 November 2026
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Lecture Theatre 9, Sussex Place, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4SA
About the speakers
Joe Studwell is a researcher, consultant and author, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI). He is also a Senior Fellow at Africa Urban Lab. His work focuses on economic development, with particular expertise in agriculture, manufacturing, urbanisation, green energy, financial services and asset management. He was the founding editor of China Economic Quarterly and co-founded the Asian research firm Dragonomics, now Gavekal Dragonomics. He is the author of several books on economic development, including How Asia Works, named a book of the year by The Economist and the Financial Times. He holds a PhD in global business and development from the University of Cambridge.
Sukrit Puri is Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School. His research examines how businesses navigate the political and social environments of emerging markets, including the influence of corporate political activity, cultural identity and family business. Before pursuing his PhD, he worked at Goldman Sachs as an investment analyst. He holds an AB in Economics from Princeton University and a PhD in Political Science from MIT.