Why The World Is Flat
"The world is flat". For Thomas Friedman and business kin alike, this notion is widely accepted. Nowadays, there is more integration and interdependence of knowledge and physical resources between nations than ever before. We operate in a global market place where commerce and its affects are felt universally. Thus, recognizing howbusiness is conducted in different cultures is central to creating and sustaining successful beneficial relationships as well as understanding and promoting the world's greater welfare. The internationally focused programs at the Henley Business School at the University of Reading in England immerses students into the context of key themes and emerging challenges facing businesses across the world. As an International
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After reading The World is Flat, I would have to say that I believe the world is flat as according to the author Thomas L. Friedman. Globalization has taken the world by storm and everything that we do in this world is done with technology. Ever since the world was introduced to the World Wide Web in 1993, we have spiraled in a new direction at a rapid speed, and we have yet to slow down. Technology has advanced so much that nowadays we do not need actual people to run a business and at that rate we are going a much flatter world. Thomas
L. Friedman refers to the world being flattened while he was sleeping, and I believe that this is the case because it seems as though it happened overnite.
In my have opinion, the flattening of...show more content...
This is especially important with the Iraq situation continuing for such a lengthy amount of time to be a world that is just made up of computers and machines.
In his book Friedman refers to the ten forces that helped shape the world as we know it to be today:
1.Collapse of Berlin Wall 11/89: The event not only symbolized the end of the Cold war, it allowed people from other side of the wall to join the economic mainstream. (11/09/1989)
2.Netscape: Netscape and the Web broadened the audience for theInternet 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.Uploading: Communities uploading and collaborating on online projects. Examples include 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, cost–effective way.
6.Offshoring:
Essay on World is Flat
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The World Is Flat A Brief History of the Twenty–First Century by Thomas L. Friedman First published: 2005 Table of Contents Key Figures Short Summary (Synopsis) Thomas L. Friedman – Biography Genre | | | | Chapter Summaries with Notes / Analysis Chapters 1– 4 – How the World Became Flat Chapters 5 – 9 – America and the Flat World Chapter 10– Developing Countries and the Flat World Chapter 11– Companies and the Flat World Chapters 12– 14 – Geopolitics and the Flat World Chapter 15– Conclusion: Imagination Overall Analysis Structure Analysis Key Facts Important Quotations / Memorable Quotes and Analysis Questions Memorable Quotes Quiz Vocabulary Study...show more content... Friedman shows how, as services and goods become increasingly tradable, more jobs are likely to become outsourced, digitized, or automated. He predicts that untouchable jobs in the new flat world will fall into three, broad categories: people who are "special or specialized" (e.g. Madonna, Michael Jordan, or your brain surgeon); people who are "localized and anchored" (e.g. waitresses, lawyers, plumbers, nurses, etc.); and "the old middle jobs" (e.g. people in the middle class who are under pressure because their jobs are becoming tradable). Friedman explores what he thinks the new middle–class jobs will be in the flat world, calling the people who will occupy those jobs which he divides into eight categories "the new middlers." The eight categories are: "Great Collaborators and Orchestrators," "The Great Synthesizers," "The Great Explainers," "The Great Leveragers," "The Great Adapters," "The Green People," "The Passionate Personalizers," and "The Great Localizers." Friedman outlines four skill sets and attitudes that educators and employers point to as "the right stuff" to make it in the flat world. The first skill set individuals must possess is the ability to "learn how to learn." The second skill set is what Friedman dubs "CQ + PQ > IQ," or that curiosity and passion, combined, are more important than intelligence. The third skill set/ attitude Friedman uncovers is "Plays Well with Others." The final skill set
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The World Is Flat
ASSIGNMENT: The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman Discuss the book in general and what he means by a "flat world" and what conditions make it flat. Focus on at least one specific topic such as 10 flatteners or the 7 rules for companies
The book by Thomas Friedman, "The World is Flat", discusses the enormous changes regarding technology and communications which have altered the lives of people all over the globe (1). A large aspect in regards to the "flat world" is that we are competing with foreigners all over the world for jobs, status, and power.
Friedman states that the world is flat because he sees it as a "level playing field" with converging opportunities (4). He discusses events such as the creation of global supply...show more content...
Friedman states that these two aspects are exemplified by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the initial public offering of Netscape stock in 1995 (2). The 10 flatteners are: The coming of IBM personal computers, the coming of the Netscape web browser, development of software programs that allow computers to communicate with one another, development of open–sourcing, outsourcing, off–shoring, supply–chaining, in–sourcing, in–forming, and coming of wireless technology (1).
Another flattener that Friedman feels is important is the open source movement as something with a global affect. "Open source" regards the technique of developing software. Open source software is developed by a team of engineers which distribute the software freely over the Internet and is available to anyone who has the source code. The problem with open source is that it has become somewhat of a "cult movement" (2). The increase of the Web has created the "Internet Utopians" who are constantly in search of free information without the associated costs.
In regards to outsourcing, Friedman discusses the "dirty little secret" his idea of hiring foreign workers for cost considerations and because foreign workers are often more competent then their American counterparts (3). The secret is the fact that these workers are more motivated to work harder because they know they are "lower down the totem pole" (3).
Some of Friedman's proposals and ideas seem
The World Is Flat Essay
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Kassandra Chang 8/21/14 Period 1 APHG Summer Writing assignment
The World is Flat By: Thomas L. Friedman
1. What is it about the flat world that both excites Friedman and fills him with dread? Friedman gets excited because the flattening of the world means that we as people who inhabit Earth are collecting all of our knowledge and putting it together into this worldwide network. By doing this we would start to emerge ourselves in an era of prosperity, innovation, and collaboration, by company's communities, and individuals. Friedman states that is if terrorism and politics do not get in the way. The flattening of the world also fills him with dread both on a personal and professional level. On a more personal level it fills him with dread...show more content...
Why should we as Americans become good at it? Why should we focus on our personal "value–add?" The "touchy feely" service stuff is the more intimate type of service and relationships you have or offer your client on a more personal level rather than have it be professional all the time. We as Americans, should be relatively good at this because as the book states "anything that can be digitized can be outsourced to either the smartest or the cheapest producer, or both." Meaning the more technical work can be taken over to for instance, India, where someone will do that work for you, which gives you more freedom to connect with your clients. We should focus on our "value–add" because that is what you as an individual bring to your company. 5. How are the journalism and fast food industries becoming flat? Journalism and fast food industries are becoming more "flat" because they were two of the few jobs that didn't need outsourcing help or hadn't been modified to include outsourcing, until now. With journalism you have stuff going on like the Reuters operation. "Work gets done where it can be done most effectively and efficiently." These types of professions are slowly changing to be more likely to start allowing outsource work, which ultimately gives the American workers more free time for "sophisticated work". These two jobs are not immune to outsourcing. You pull up to a drive through and think the person inside is taking your order but they aren't,
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The World is flat
In the video/summary of "The world is flat" by Friedman,. he was supporting globalization in the 21st century and he ignored the negative side of it. In his case, the term "World is flat" refers to the "leveling of the playing field" between the economic dynamics of the West and the rising economic powers of India and China. Friedman's idea is that because of huge improvements in technological advances, the society is becoming more and more exceptional. He didn't to take into consideration the realities concerning the fact that in society, for such a system to work with any kind of sustainability it needs to create recovery to the ones that have been outsourced. Friedman's resolution to this is that creativeness will take the place of the work...show more content...
You can experience different circumstances. Friedman's idea is good and it mentioned that some of our society's well successful enterprise are the ones that are most prepared to change but some of them are still yet to invent or innovate anything, instead they are relying on finding new means to produce existing products in a cheaper and faster way than their competitors, therefore raising an environment that's not very conducive. The technology developers rarely benefit from the majority of financial benefit from its sales agreement. He also basically he mentioned that you have to stay educated because your line of work can become outdated in no time and then you have to get new job skills quick. Personally, I feel that International business development in the future will become huge as it is rapidly growing now. This particular area of business is often ignored by professionals when making career decisions however no other sector offer such diverse and deep learning other than developing. Doing business internationally will give the company crossbreeding, cultural and organizational qualities in the field of evolution .. Companies that do/are doing business internationally have the advantage to be exposed to many technical areas; these positions will be a wide opportunity for the
World Is Flat
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BOOK REPORT: The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty–First Century is a bestselling book in which he examines an in depth analysis of globalization in today's world. It is called the world if flat because it is actually a metaphor for looking at the world as a level playing field in terms of business where all of the competitors have equal opportunities. In this book, Friedman talks about ten different factors that play an important role in explaining why exactly the world is flat. The first of these "flatteners" was the collapse of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. He refers to this in the book with the statement, "When the walls came down, and the windows came up"....show more content...
These first three flatteners are the foundation to the next six forces that explain why the world is flat. The fourth factor is uploading which he considers to be "the most disruptive force of all" because communities of people all over the world and constantly uploading and collaborating open source software, blogs and Wikipedias like never before. The fifth force is known as Outsourcing which allows companies to save a lot of time and money on service and manufacturing activities due to cheap labor and fast distribution with the introduction of fiber–optic cables. The sixth factor is known as Off shoring which basically is the internal relocation of a company's manufacturing or other kinds of processes due to less costly operations. Some good examples are China, Malaysia, Mexico and Brazil. The seventh factor is the Supply–chaining flattener where Friedman compares the modern retail supply to a river. As he states in the book "These little conveyor belts fed into a bigger belt, like streams feeding into a powerful river." Here he is actually comparing the river to the supply–chain processes of Wal–Mart. He goes on to state that Wal–Mart is in fact the best example of a company using technology to streamline its shipping, distributing, and overall sales processes. Next is the eight "flattener" known as Insourcing. Friedman uses UPS as a great example of insourcing in that the employees of UPS
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The World Is Flat Essay
Question 1: From our IT News video clip, 'The World is Flat' (5 pts) a)What does Friedman mean by 'the world is flat'? Response: Friedman is referring to several technological advances that have leveled the playing field when it comes to collaboration, and the ease of access of the web. These technological advances have allowed political and social dimensions of society to produce a global society and economy that allows everyone to have an equal pathway to success without regarding geography anymore. b)What is a flattener? Describe an additional flattener not mentioned in the video. Response: A flattener is a new way to view the global; economy as a level playing field .In a global economy that is considered flat all individuals have...show more content... While it is achieving incredible product efficiency, no one has looked into what the physiological factors are of being monitored by a machine.
b)As an employer why would you want to use these systems? Why would you not want to use these systems? Response: As an employer I can see that these computerized software systems have simplified and accelerated all regular business functions and transactions, But while these computerized systems are now monitoring human interactions this deskills the labor of the employees and defeats the purpose of self–actualization and purpose which is what makes a happy employee and keeps them there working hard. c)As an employee why would you want to use these systems? Why would you not want to use these systems? Response: I would want these systems there checking that everything is being done as best it can be but as an employee I have accumulated years of knowledge and skill that I am proud to put to use. If a machine is telling me what to do, and I blindly listen I will not feel like a useful
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The World Is Flat Study Guide
