Linda Gerhard blog

Book Report Blog #3

2007-05-28T18:48:00.000-07:00

"The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman

I had hoped that at some point in the book Thomas Friedman would look at the social and environmental issues that this burst of “progress” has brought about. Sadly he devoted only a very few pages to these issues saying that nations such as the United States and the United Kingdom will need to set a good example for nations such as China and India to follow. I think it is unfortunate that human rights and environmental protection must take a back seat to cheap labor and cheap manufacturing, which is the example being provided. How can the United States be seen as setting a good example when the example that is set is that of companies searching out the cheapest locations for manufacturing when often it is cheaper at least in part because of the lack of regulations to protect the environment and human rights? It makes one wonder just what is the real cost of cheap labor and cheap manufacturing globally? And, in the long, run, is it worth it?

Friedman writes of the wonderful opportunities and growth in China and India and how the young people are bright, eager, and well-equipped to compete on the world stage. Well, some of them. He devotes a very few pages to the caste system that is still strong in India in which some people are doomed to remain as it is still seen as their destiny. Similar situations exist in China, but Friedman focuses only on those who are profiting from the flattening of the world and not much on those who are being passed by or ignored by it. He does briefly discuss that all countries need to make efforts to bring along all of their citizens realizing that as the gap between poor and middle class/wealthy grows larger so does the stability of the government and therefore the stability of supply chains.

Very late in the book, Friedman acknowledges that the world is not flattening evenly or all over. As most of could already see, there are large groups in many if not most nations that are not on the fast track, or any track for that matter. He also looks at the dark side of the triple convergence and flattening of the world. It was because of these events that the technology and resources to plan and execute the events of 9/11 were possible. He correctly points out that no matter how great a tool something is, there will always be someone, or many someones, who will devise ways to use it for destructive purposes.

In his summary, I appreciated the Ebay story of the severely handicapped young man whose handicap became invisible and no longer encumbered him with the technologies and opportunities created in the Ebay community. I also found his comparison of Indian Muslims to Muslims in Afghanistan and the major differences in their viewpoint from everything from the roles of women to jihad. Because of how they have accepted or rejected the challenges and changes in the world, the imaginations and goals are completely different.

Friedman mentions many very different people in this book, mostly people who have found some way to become very successful as a result of technology and the flattening of the world. The one that I find most inspiring is probably Abraham Georges of India who made his fortune, but then reinvested much of it in making his country, India, better from the bottom up. He looks at the very people that most Indians would like to forget and gives at least a small number of them a chance to reach beyond their destiny and reach for their dreams. He gives them hope and more; he gives them the education and opportunity to attain their goals. I hope that with all of the challenges and changes to come, with all of the fortunes to be made and lost, more people like Abraham George come out of it.

Book Report Blog #2

2007-05-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

“The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman

In the first part of the book Friedman repeatedly states that the “flattening” of the world, outsourcing, and off-shoring will be good for the world and therefore good for the United States. It is sometimes difficult to see how sending so many jobs out of this country can possibly be good for it, and the picture of the near future for the United States that Friedman paints has some grim aspects. He addresses this in the next part of the book and reminds us that there was fear and trepidation around all major advances. I am reminded of one of my marketing professor’s favorite examples, buggy whips. Makers of buggy whips wanted to think of the automobile as a passing fancy and continue to manufacture what they always had and continue to be prosperous. While there is still a very small market for buggy whips, the people who jumped on to the new transportation technology and found other products and services they could offer, certainly weathered the change much more prosperously and painlessly than those who clung to what they had always done.
Friedman accurately points out that all of the things that can be invented have not yet been invented and as technology continues to advance it is creativity and ingenuity that will determine who will thrive and who will suffer in the changes to come. These are areas where the United States still has a major advantage—at least right now. The playing field is being leveled and our advantage is likely short-lived, especially if we don’t recognize this.
I appreciated that Friedman was quick to point out that the infrastructure to help people to adapt to the new skills and technologies that will be and are required to continue to compete successfully is sorely lacking. We, as a country, need to realize that our advantage has passed and it is time to put the necessary funding into education, especially math and science. I find it disheartening that even in the math course that we must take in order to teach elementary education there are people constantly grumbling about why it is necessary. Friedman reminds us of our government’s response to Sputnik. Instead of just rolling over and allowing the Russian’s to dominate the space race, we stepped up our efforts and had a clear goal in mind and the funding made available to reach it. He makes a valid point when he discusses the lack of response from our current administration to the deficiencies in our math and science education programs. Right now, the United States is moving ahead at a pretty slow pace compared to nations such as China and India.
While quick to say that there will always be winners and losers in trade, Friedman also stresses the need for social conscience and there must be reeducation and training programs in place. We must prepare for the future now. Parents must take action and help their children learn responsibility, ingenuity, imagination, and ambition. Teachers need to challenge and hold high expectations for their students. Curriculum must be designed to promote creativity, problem solving, and get students excited about math and science. Our country must rally around these ideas or be left behind by those countries who do. At first I found Friedman’s ideas somewhat chilling, but I think he is largely correct and we must not try to ignore what is happening, but see it as a call to action.

Book Report Blog #1

2007-04-29T16:44:00.000-07:00

"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.