Thomas Friedman – The World is Flat
Introduction
“Tom, the playing field is being levelled, and you Americans are not ready for it”
These words by Nandan Nilekani, the former CEO of Infosys proved to be the basis of the book “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman.
The video starts with Thomas Friedman, a veteran award winning American journalist, speaking of his visit to Bangalore in India to work on a documentary based on outsourcing, and how his meeting with the then CEO of Infosys influenced him in writing his book where he analyzes globalization and lists out the various factors that led to a “flat” world.
Mr. Friedman then continues and briefly summarizes the first three chapters of his book and how he derived them.
The World is Flat
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This era witnessed individuals/small groups going global irrespective of the color or race. As a result of this, the size further shrunk from small to tiny and almost flattened the world.
The second chapter of the book is about the 10 “Flatteners” i.e. the 10 forces, events or trends that triggered this change.
Flattener #1- 11/9/89 or The collapse of the Berlin Wall: Mr. Friedman argues that the fall of the Berlin Wall was really the decline of communism and in turn the rise of capitalism. With the advent of the Windows powered computers, people from different parts of the world could connect with each other which made it possible to see the world as a “single flat plate.”
Flatter #2: 98/9/95 Netscape: Friedman believes that this was the essence of people to people connectivity and hence a huge flattener. He says that Netscape going public played a key role in commercializing internet and making it accessible to everyone across the globe.
The other flatteners mentioned are Work flow software, Uploading, Outsourcing, Offshoring, Supply-chaining, Insourcing, Informing and Steroids. He illustrates these concepts with examples and provides a strong explanation to support his argument. In my opinion, his discussion of the UPS, or in his words “the guys in funny brown shorts”, is very strong.
He then moves on to the third chapter of the book, titled “The Triple Convergence”, which talks about the way in which all the ten flatteners
The nineteen-chapter, two part book starts off with a brief introduction. This introduction sets up the first part of the book, where the
3. He arranges his examples through chronological order and through out a whole direction where the reader wont fall off a cliff.
Then Friedman discuss with an Indian entrepreneur the impact of outsourcing on America and the way he view globalization as a two way traffic, where not only one nation is affected by this change. Then he talks to another organization of women’s
1) “Study the map that begins chapter 4 and refers to it as you follow McCandless’s journey.”
In Friedman’s “It’s a Flat World, After All”, Friedman in a trip Bangalore, India accidentally “encountered the flattening of the world”. The following paper will analyze “It’s a Flat World, After All” and the flattening of the world. To conclude the paper I will summarize my thoughts on the flattening of the world.
Friedman explains the diplomacy of the twenty-first century in the following: "The world has become an increasingly, interwoven place, and today, whether you are a company or a country, your threats and opportunities increasingly derive from who you are connected to" (392). Ever since the invention of such advanced systems, it has indeed become easier to enforce power and priority over individuals and nations of lesser power, and it is now possible to engage in war against powerful rivals to a horrific degree. The consistent and credible threat of a nuclear warfare is not too difficult to uphold, despite the distance or the size of the nation. Friedman also mentions the rise of new superpowers such as the global market thanks to the Internet, an easy accessible network with the entire world. With the global market, any company or individual who utilizes this invention is able to easily manipulate the flow of the economy very similarly to how a nation does. Therefore, the potential of a smaller group of people or even an individual can match that of an entire nation. His closing remark introduces a fate which discourages the presence of security which the United States, a nation which gained its independence and security from other national
These forces are the direct result of advanced technology. Moreover, the forces were made possible thanks to the World Wide Web (which is another force Friedman mentions). Technology and Internet are the real reasons our world became flat, and the reason the above flattener forces evolved. Companies, groups, and individuals – all connected together to form one global village. US companies started to outsource the back rooms of accounting firms and forwarding Dell customers to the 24/7 call center located in India. US companies were able to reduce cost, while making India a “customer service nation” and China a “low labor cost nation”.
In this chapter, Thomas Friedman looks at how cultures and societies will have to deal with and adapt to the changes that globalization brings to the way of doing business. It affects whole companies and individuals. He gives the perception of the world is flattening by comparing the Industrial Revolution to the IT Revolution that is happening right now. The flattening process was identified by Karl Marx and Frederich Engels in the Communist Manifesto, published in 1848. Marx’s writings about capitalism state “the inexorable march of technology and capital to remove all barriers, boundaries, frictions, and restraints to global commerce (Friedman 234).”
In Thomas L. Friedman’s “Globalization: The Super-Story”, he examines the features of globalization from various aspects and how it helps people better understand 9/11 events. He claims that globalization is the new improved system formed in place of the old “cold war system”(102), and through the patterns of which, people observe today’s world in an integrated way. Simple short phrases, organized structure, colloquial language, and punctuation are techniques Friedman uses to create a reader-friendly, convincing essay. To begin with, Friedman uses simple short phrases to emphasize his points. He starts with an enthusiastic term “big believer” (102), which establishes the colloquial
The speaker spoke about globalization and how it made the whole world look smaller as anyone from any part of the planet can easily and cheaply access any other part of the planet. Of course globalization
These few lines will be extensively discussed and analyzed in the remainder of the book as the topics for chapters two through five.
In Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat he presents his idea of the globalization of the world in all areas; from economic to communication with other countries. Friedman is a journalist from the New York Times and most of his work focuses on economic and technological innovations and advancements, and furthermore how they are associated to history. The ideas he presents in this book are both plausible and convincing. The main focus is whether the world is “flat“. The answer to this question depends on the readers’ political, economical, and technological opinions. Friedman does however present evidence in many situations where the globalization of the world is clearly evident. This essay will explore these different
Author Thomas L. Friedman analyses the technological advances that are creating a level economic playing field with previously disadvantaged countries rising in knowledge and wealth rivaling that of the United States and other world powers in the world. Telephone and computer technology, previously a stronghold only of developed countries, is now easily accessible and has been accessed and mastered by countries such as China and India, making these nations competitive. Friedman perceives the flattening effect as so insightful as to be compared in scope to the Industrial Revolution.
6. How does the topics in Chapter 7, Chapter 8 & Chapter 9 link to this case study?
The phrase: "the world is flat" can be interpreted in many ways. Basically what Friedman means by "flat" is "linked." The falling of trade and political barriers and technical advances have made it possible to do business, instantaneously with billions of other people around the world. It has allowed for parts of the world, which had previously been cut off, like China and India, to successfully compete in the world market. Thus, the playing field is being leveled, and no one nation has an advantage. Friedman could also refer to a "flat world" in a metaphorical sense. In a spherical earth you cannot see around the world and cannot recognize the opportunities far from where you live. If the world were flat you could see it all. There