Ten years ago, Jim O'Neill made a startling prediction: the G-7 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan would no longer be the world’s economic powerhouses. With globalization, a new era would rise in which the emerging forces of Brazil, Russia, India and China – populous, increasingly urbanized and overflowing with raw materials and ambition – would overtake the largest Western economies. The BRICs were born.

No other economic idea has defined the 21st Century more powerfully or more accurately. In the past decade all four have experienced significant growth and are now among the top ten economies in the world. Jim O’Neill’s single prediction has spurred economic and social change, created new political structures and challenged the thinking of business leaders, governments, and decision makers.

In December, on the tenth anniversary of his creation of the BRICs concept, Portfolio Penguin will publish Jim O'Neill's new book, The Growth Concept, in which he shares his personal insights on how and why he developed one of the most compelling economic concepts of our time.

He also explains the ‘Next 11’ concept for the next set of fast-growing emerging markets that could have a BRIC-like impact on the world (Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Turkey and Vietnam), and proposes redefining those markets that offer the potential for transformation as Growth Markets.

Jim O’Neill said: “Now more than ever do we need to understand the economic forces that are reshaping our world. The BRICs have already had a transformational impact on the global economy, and other fast growing countries are now following their lead. Ten years after I dreamed up the BRICs phenomenon, I have no doubt that the rise of the Growth Markets is the single most important economic dynamic for our generation and the next.”

Joel Rickett, Editrial Director of Portfolio UK, said: “Jim O’Neill is one of the world’s most influential economic thinkers – no wonder he has been described as Goldman Sachs’ rock star. There is no one better placed to map our fast-shifting world and to predict the shape of things to come"