Mr. Thomas L. Friedman earned his baccalaureate degree in Mediterranean studies at Brandeis University and received the honor, suma cum laude. He also earned his master’s degree at Oxford University in the field of modern Middle East studies. He became a journalist of the New York Times since 1981. His articles were usually about OPEC or oil-related issues which make him the chief diplomatic, chief White House, and international economics correspondent. He is also the author of several best-selling books namely From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989), The Lexus and the Olive Tree (1999) which won several book awards worldwide. His latest book, Hot, Flat and Crowded released September this year tackles how green revolution can revive the eminence of America in the global environment. He is also a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner.
From its first release in 2005, the book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century had undergone two revisions released 2006 and 2007. This was in response to an increasing amount of insights given by his readers and audience in his tours in promoting the book.
The book was a product of one of his expeditions in Bangalore, India together with some crews of the Discovery Channel. There they interviewed Mr. Nandan Melekani, CEO of InfoSys the largest outsourcing company of India about how technology, economy, industries have been doing these past few years. India has become one of the tiger economies of Asia only for the past few decades. This uplift in the economy is the product of shifting to different economic strategies, changing from a communist to a capitalist society. This change is one of the major factors that help India accumulate wealth. Mr. Melekani’s words “the playing field has been leveled” made the author realize that the world economic environment is making the world flatter and faster. To illustrate and understand the flatness of the world better, he interviewed entrepreneurs of different expertise and executives of the world’s largest business empires.
Throughout history, different civilizations have aspired to attain economic stability. Significant leaps on economy are usually characterized by enhanced trade and communication such that the 21st century globalization is a product of the rise and collaboration of industrialized countries. Before, to thrive or survive, countries have to think globally but in the flattening of the world it is not enough. Individuals have to think globally to thrive and survive. The flat world is empowering more and more people to connect and collaborate and this is happening in warp speed.
The flattening of the world started at the end of the Cold War. The Cold War was not really a battle of two countries but a battle of two economic societies: capitalism and communism. Because of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it did not only free the enslaved people of the Soviet Union. It also breached the foundation of communism making these countries supporting communism available for free trade. These major supporters of communism switched to capitalism allowing more countries namely India and China, to be exploited by industrialized countries. But this was only the start of the flattening of the world. Another significant invention that contributed to the flattening of the world is the net browser and its subsequent improvement. The net browser allowed people to act globally and become connected with a lot more people. Its new add-ons and plug-ins makes other work automated and more efficient. Improvement of the world wide web allowed open sourcing, a mechanism that helped flattened the world. The web becomes a pool of brain power where people can exchange insights to create better ideas and software. The globe becomes a productive intellectual community where peer-review system occurs to make innovations that are free and better than those featured by big companies. Another mechanism that helped the flattening of the world is outsourcing. Because India is a country with few of its resources what it can only offer to the world market is its manpower. The Indians developed their labor force by building universities, IIT. Their government started to educate its people. In the flattening of the world, where jobs can be done where ever you are in the world, these jobs are offered to the smartest or cheapest workers or both. This has been the advantage of India that made it grow it has skillful and well-educated labor force that are usually cheaper such that many jobs especially accounting services are outsourced to companies in India. Another mechanism that supported the flattening of the world is offshoring. China with all its manpower attracted big companies to place manufacturing industries into their shore. Furthermore, due to competitive flattening these countries such as China, acquire technology and companies give education incentives. This also helped industries to improve from manufacturing to designing technologies. For industries this was also an advantage, since they can have a high supply but low production costs with high quality. Another flattening mechanism would e supply chaining, this is a systematized process of distribution where producers, suppliers and consumers work together to efficiently deliver goods that are cheap and sought for. This includes also adapting to new technologies to attain the common standard and reduce anomalies when transferring goods from one place to another. This enables even consumers to be connected to suppliers and manufacturers such that they will know the consumer demands, wants and needs. Another event that pushed the flattening of the world is when more and more people become informed. Because of the accessibility of the information from search engines in the world wide web, people can become well-educated. There was no discrimination in accessing this information, reaching people anytime, anywhere. It can also be translated to different languages such that now, language barriers are not hindrances to gain knowledge. Because of the boom of these industries, search engines have become more efficient at sifting out irrelevant information and associating useful advertisements and add-ins. The evolution of steroids or different innovations intensified the effect of the flattening the world. These were wireless connections, file sharing, multipurpose devices, voice-over internet protocol (VOIP) services and video conferencing. This allowed mobilization and better communication. These allowed more and more people to keep in touched, linked, connected to work together and become more productive. These forces empowered individuals to acquire specific skills to become more competent for the job.
But these forces where not the only reason that made the world flat, flattening of the world took effect when these flatteners worked together instilling new habits, skills, standards and processes. And the survival of industries is based on how they can adapt to these changes. This also changed people’s viewpoint form communism to capitalism to survive in the global market.
Because of these flattening of the world our value is measured by our willingness to change and upgrade our skills. Since most jobs are lost by outsourcing, digitization and automation, there are specific jobs that can remain and specific skills required. To retain a job, an individual must become an untouchable. Untouchables are people who have jobs that are not heavily affected by the disadvantages of the flattening of the world. This happens when the job becomes special, specialized, localized and anchored. These services have a constant global market driven by demand thus these jobs cannot be outsourced, digitized and automated. These jobs have a wide variety of stages from cancer surgeons, celebrities, divorce lawyers, lounge singers, chef to barbers, nannies, plumbers, gardeners and garbage collectors. Moreover, there are still some old middle jobs that can be retained which require specific skills. The new middle jobs consist of people that are good synthesizers, good explainers, good leverages of technology, good localizers, passionate and versatile.
There are certain pressures that this flat world creates and we can only survive by adapting ourselves to these changes. As citizens we should at least ponder in these ten insights:
There is no miracle formula to cope with the flattening of the world;
Take advantage of the flatteners;
Learn how to learn; self-education and self-motivation;
Be a good navigator; sift out filth from facts and wisdom;
CQ + PQ > IQ; nobody works harder at learning than a curious mind;
The weak will fall farther behind; adaptable entrepreneurs will be empowered;
Trust and political stability;
Tough love; job of parents;
Rope-learning; non-erratic system of education is an advantage;
The “flat world” is a like a jungle pitting ‘lions’; economic stability is not going to be a feature;
With this flattening of our world, we – including more advanced countries – are required to run faster in order to stay in place. Otherwise, the world will be too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner. Taking advantage of the defined flatteners is significant because these play a big role in leveling our global playing field.
In the twisted world of modern technological advances and political and economic system changes, self-motivation may not be everything; it may be the only thing. Of course, equipping ourselves will help us to adapt faster with all the changes happening. Especially now that education can be everywhere, internet – a major source of information – outstands. However, not all of those pieces of information are true. We should also learn to be speculative and curious. Moreover, nobody works harder at learning than a curious mind.
Trust and political stability are two other important features in a society as open as we have. Friendships and alliances among countries forges bonds with trust and understanding.
Non-erratic system of education or rope-learning is also a way to get ahead. Here, there is a consistent curriculum used for teaching. Countries like China and Japan has an advantage over America because they can innovate beyond what physics and the sciences offer. These subjects are strictly taught in earlier stages.
Cheap and omnipresent telecommunications have finally destroyed all barriers to international competition. The dawning “flat world” is a is a jungle pitting ‘lions’ where economic stability is not going to be a feature and the weak will fall farther behind. Rugged and adaptable entrepreneurs, by contrast, will be empowered.
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