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The World Is Flat
The World Is Flat
In a narrative punctuated by case studies, interviews and sometimes surprising statistics, Friedmans message is clear: be prepared, because this phenomenon waits for no one. Without rhetoric or scare tactics, he paints a picture of a world moving faster than most can keep up. As we explore Americas place in the fast-evolving world economic platform, Friedman presents not only the problems we face, but preventative measures and possible solutions.
Thomas L. Friedman United States English Globalization Farrar, Straus and Giroux April 5, 2005
Media Type Print (Hardcover and Paperback) and Compact disc Pages ISBN 488 ISBN 0-374-29288-4
The World is Flat is an historical and geographical journey, with stories and anecdotes from the days of Columbus to a modern day Indian call center; from the Great Depression to the home office of a MidwesternUSA housewife demonstrating the pervasiveness of the world-flattening trend. Spanning a broad range of industries, cultures and schools of thought, the real-world examples presented as evidence of his theory are undeniable. From teleconferencing to podcasts and manufacturing to restaurant order taking, The World is Flat leaves no stone unturned in a quest for answers to a problem that most cannot even define. Friedmans dissection of globalization is a valiant attempt at explaining and understanding the forces driving the flattening of the world, though he admits that the very nature of beast prevents one from having all of the answers. This candor is in keeping with the theme of the entire book, in that we must learn how to learn, teaching ourselves to stay curious and innovative, if we are to excel in a global economy. As he moves towards the end of this presentation of his theory, Friedman warns of the forces that could seriously harm or slow the flattening of the world, particularly the threat posed by terrorist networks such as AlQaeda. His perspective is refreshing in a media driven largely by scare tactics and fear mongering as he encourages a realistic and objective approach to this threat.
As people become more able to collaborate, compete and share with others of different cultures, religions, educational backgrounds and languages, The World is Flat is a necessary reality check to bring these factors into perspective and offer, if not answers to every problem, the drive to uncover working solutions.
Chapters
Chapter One While I Was Sleeping
As we are introduced to Friedmans theory that the world is flat, we accompany him on a journey to the various locations around the globe that led him to this conclusion. We start off in Bangalore, India, where he finds himself surrounded by advertisements of traditionally American companies such as Pizza Hut, Epson, HP and Texas Instruments during a round of golf. Traveling with a crew from the Discovery Times channel, he encounters Indian workers and businesspeople working for American companies, speaking in American accents and even adopting American names in their own country. A visit to Infosys Technologies Ltd leaves Friedman in wonder at the massive conferencing system they have created that allows people from around the globe to congregate and collaborate in one giant room via satellite and teleconferencing technology. Friedman guides us through the different eras of globalization as he has defined them in an historical narrative from the days of Columbus to our present day state. We see the ever increasing pace of globalization through his encounters with people such as Jaithirth Jerry Rao, an outsourced businessman in India, and others. Through Jerry, we learn about the process of information exchange online and the effect it has on businesses to perform various duties from remote locations with everything from tax preparation to hair appointment scheduling to hospital bookings cited as examples of outsourcing. As Friedman travels through Japan, China and back to America, we study various examples of the business outsourcing phenomenon and its impact, positive and negative, on the players involved. Homesourcing and military outsourcing are explored as Friedman explains the sheer prevalence of outsourcing in our society.
sector as a prime example, has forced other developing countries to try to keep up with their low cost solutions, resulting in better quality and cheaper products being produced worldwide. The seventh flattening factor is our introduction to supply chaining, which is discussed in much greater detail later in Chapter Fourteen. Rounding out his list with insourcing, in-forming and the steroids, Friedman examines his flattening factors, their origins and the effect they will have on the way we do business in the future.
allowed people from other side of the wall to join the economic mainstream. (11/09/1989) Netscape: Netscape and the Web broadened the audience for the Internet from its roots as a
communications medium used primarily by 'early adopters and geeks' to something that made the Internet accessible to everyone from five-year-olds to eighty-five-year olds. (8/9/1995)
3.
Work Flow Software: The ability of machines to talk to other machines with no humans
involved. Friedman believes these first three forces have become a crude foundation of a whole new global platform for collaboration.
4.
open source software, blogs, and Wikipedia. Friedman considers the phenomenon "the most disruptive force of all."
5.
Outsourcing: Friedman argues that outsourcing has allowed companies to split service and
manufacturing activities into components, with each component performed in most efficient, costeffective way.
6. 7.
Offshoring: Manufacturing's version of outsourcing. Supply-Chaining: Friedman compares the modern retail supply chain to a river, and points to
Wal-Mart as the best example of a company using technology to streamline item sales, distribution, and shipping.
8.
Insourcing: Friedman uses UPS as a prime example for insourcing, in which the company's
employees perform services--beyond shipping--for another company. For example, UPS itself repairs Toshiba computers on behalf of Toshiba. The work is done at the UPS hub, by UPS employees.
9.
In-forming: Google and other search engines are the prime example. "Never before in the
history of the planet have so many people-on their own-had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people", writes Friedman.
10.
"The Steroids": Personal digital devices like mobile phones, iPods, personal digital
Friedman summarizes the chapter with an examination of intellectual property law and means that must be put in place to protect it, as well as the death of the human bond in the online world.
We begin by examining the U.S Olympic Basketball Teams unexpected loss at the 2004 Games as an example of our complacency as the rest of the world is learning and catching up in areas we are used to dominating. An interview with Shirley Ann Jackson, 2004 President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, demonstrates that a quiet crisis is happening slowly but surely as multiple and complex forces are at work creating the perfect storm; demographic, political, social, cultural, economic, etc., that could lead to America falling behind in innovation, science and technology. We explore the dirty little secrets that no one is talking about a lack of highly skilled scientists and engineers, disinterest in math and science by our younger population, lack of ambition as television and video games take over, an outdated basic education system, lack of funding for research, lack of infrastructure as we focus on war and other countries focus on developing sustainable and innovative business. Friedman explores the differences between different countrys educational systems with Bill Gates and ultimately poses the question, why are we so focused on idolizing Britney Spears when competing countries are idolizing Bill Gates? Friedman contemplates The Innovate America Report, a well-meaning document ignored by the President as he chased his own agenda and wonders whether China will beat us to the implementation of our own innovation. He sums up the chapter with a call to action to kick-start the long process of preparing ourselves for the future into motion before we are literally left behind.
We see the Chinese manufacture of statuettes of The Virgin of Guadalupe and their subsequent importation into Mexico as an example of the problem created when one developing country competes with another, as China replaced Mexico as the U.S.s number two importer in 2003. Friedman discusses the need for developing countries to put policies in place to create the right environment for their companies and entrepreneurs to succeed in the flat world. He states that countries must be brutally honest with themselves in determining their place in the world market if they are to adapt and survive. A comparison of countries who have opened their borders and adopted free trade policies versus those who have not and been left behind illustrates his point. The concept of reform retail and wholesale is introduced as we explore changes in education, infrastructure and governance. Ireland becomes a case study for financial success as their per capita GDP has risen to second highest in the European Union. Friedman contemplates a societys ability and willingness to sacrifice for the purpose of economic development and leaders with vision as vehicles of change and conversely, the reason some countries will not.
Friedman shares stories of the world flattening but humbly announces that he does indeed realize the world is not yet flat. He wants to draw attention to the flattening and the ever-increasing pace at which it is occurring. Part of this understanding must come from a recognization of factors that are preventing globalization from occurring in some people. Friedman examines different groups of people he believes are disadvantaged for one reason or another and the way that this keeps them from moving forward into a flattened world. The AIDS epidemic affects people who are too sick to hope they will ever make it to middle class. Disempowered people are those who live in areas touched by the flattening of the world but lack the means, knowledge and infrastructure to benefit from it. For example, in India only 2% of the entire population are involved in the high-tech and manufacturing for export sectors. Different societies and cultures are coming into contact with each other more frequently and more quickly than ever before, leading to great frustration. Using the Arab-Muslim world and his journalistic encounters with their youth as an example, Friedman explores the impact of freedom of thought and expression that world flattening has created and its impact on a traditionally closed society. He warns of a potential threat lurking in the not too distant future: a depletion of our natural resources as people compete to have more and better.
to consider the effect of a war on their place in the business world. Friedman explores both the China-Taiwan relations and India-Pakistan as examples of how the flattening of the world and supply chain have a calming effect and cause countries to think rationally about the true cost of war, making diplomatic solution more likely. As we explore the darker side of the supply chain phenomenon, we understand how Al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks form mutant supply chains for the purpose of destruction, not profit. In a flat world, the transmission of terror is much easier. We must examine our abilities to derail the nuclear threat by using our capabilities to disrupt the terrorists supply chain.