"The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman
If the ideas and observations in this book had been printed fifty years ago, or possibly even thirty years ago, it would have been seen as an interesting setting for a science fiction novel. Friedman calls it the “flattening” of the world and it is happening at an alarming pace and that pace is ever increasing. Obviously, Friedman does not mean that our earthly sphere is becoming a pancake as we hurtle around the sun. He is speaking figuratively of the social, cultural, technological and economic barriers that once divided the world being knocked down. Where once these issues kept nations, people, manufacturing and trade separated by “mountains” of problems and challenges with everything from logistics to languages, our current world is becoming very flat. The barriers or “mountains” are ceasing to exist producing a flat world.
Friedman bounces from one developing country to the next looking at the ways that they are capitalizing opportunities to be players on the world wide stage. Nations such as the United States have in some ways been caught off guard and are going to have to play catch-up to the innovations coming from nations with cheap labor and few regulations constricting to businesses. He is quick to point out that it is no longer just manufacturing that is being outsourced to other countries, it is also everything from tax preparing to call centers to reading CAT scans and x-rays to tutoring of high school students. It casts quite a shadow of apprehension over the future of our nation.
As uneasy as all of this may make us feel, Friedman states that it is a good thing for the world as a whole and therefore a good thing for each nation. Those who will build success or continue to succeed will be those who are the innovators. Stop trying to make the world accept what you want to offer and find something to offer that the world wants to have—and realize that this will all be changing faster and faster so innovations must keep ahead of the pace. I particularly like the examples he gave with UPS. UPS could have just said we deliver packages and do a good job of it so that’s what we will continue to do, but they didn’t. UPS has not only become more efficient at transporting packages from one place to another worldwide and knowing where each is at any given time, they have developed parts of their business to help other businesses with everything from financing to accounts receivable.
He sums up the overall message of the first part of the book with these statements from page 205 and 206, ”Wealth and power will increasingly accrue to those countries, companies, individuals, universities, and groups who get three basic things right: the infrastructure to connect with this flat-world platform, the education to get more of their people innovating on, working off of, and tapping into this platform, and, finally, the governance to get the best out of this platform and cushion its worst side effects. ...more people in more places now have the power to access the flat world platform—to connect, compete, collaborate, and, unfortunately, destroy—than ever before.” Friedman starts many sections with the phrase “while I was sleeping” which accurately describes how many of us have see these events. It is time to wake up so that we are not left behind.
