“The World Is Flat”
By Thomas L Friedman
• Advances in technology and the way
information flows throughout the world, along
with the opening of global economic borders
has created an atmosphere where many more
countries and more companies can compete
for their own slice of the economic pie.
• If we don’t get in the game we will soon be on
the sideline watching.
The 10 Flatteners
• Thomas Friedman outlined 10 factors which
he believes have flatten the world’s economic
playing field.
Flattener # 1…and the walls come
crumbling down!
• Friedman’s first flattener was the fall of the
Berlin wall on November 9, 1989.
• This paved the way for an entire region once
stagnated by the cold war, to compete on a
world economic scale.
• Capitalism was able to spread its wings
throughout Eastern Europe and into Asia and
beyond.
Flattener # 1 : Continued…
• Top down bureaucracies were dismantled and
socialist tilting economies like India’s were
revamped to make room for the
entrepreneurial spirit that was once bound by
the walls of bureaucracy and red tape.
• The fall of the Berlin Wall allowed for
horizontal communication throughout the
world.
Flattener # 1 : Continued…
• Open communication allows an open
exchange of ideas.
• The best of those ideas will rise like cream to
the top.
• We must teach ourselves to innovate and
become the cream that rises to the top.
Flattener #2: Netscape and the Web
• Netscape allowed the Web community to
connect more easily by making other peoples
Web pages easy to view. (Point and click)
• Web protocols enabled different types of
computers to communicate regardless of
compatibility issues.
• Open communication meant an open
discussion of ideas.
Flattener #2: Netscape and the Web
• Enthusiasm for the internet allowed for an
endless supply of investment money and
stimulated a boom which paved the internet
highway throughout the world.
Flattener #3: Work Flow Software
• Workflow software allows work to be broken
up into pieces.
• The pieces can be farmed out anywhere in the
world to the highest quality/best value
producers, and then seamlessly put back
together via the internet and workflow
software.
Wild Brain
Wild Brain : Example of Work Flow
Software
• Friedman sights an example of an animation
production team called “Wild Brain”, using the
new plumbing of the internet along with work
flow software to allow its employees to
contribute from all over the globe.
• Animation for the show “Higglytown Heroes”
is done in India, design in New York, and the
writers are from all over the U.S.
Flattener #4: Uploading
• Open Source Software is a program created by
a community of code writers.
• Source code is made available online for
anyone to use and the user may contribute
patches to improve its capabilities.
• This collaborative effort pools the intellect of
many people in an effort to create a better
programs for all.
Flattener #4: Uploading
• These communities of programmers working
for the better good was the framework for
many other creative groups coming together
to collaborate and discuss whatever interests
they had.
• The blog was born and a whole new creative
outlet was brought forth with it.
Flattener # 5: Outsourcing Y2K
• A set of unique circumstances created a
partnership that would be a win/win for both
parties involved.
• The partnership was between an India nation
that had a large pool of computer savvy
intellectual talent and the United States who
had massive amounts of tedious work to
complete in order to prepare for the Y2K
computer crisis.
Flattener # 5: Outsourcing Y2K
• The recently built internet superhighway
linked the two nations and allowed the United
States to outsource the massive amount of
code review work that had to be completed
before Y2K to intellectually talented and
underemployed India software engineers.
• This created a partnership that would then be
used again and again.
Flattener # 5: Outsourcing Y2K
• This proved that if it could be digitized, it
could be out sourced to the cheapest/most
efficient supplier available.
• This opened choices for all businesses on a
global scale.
Flattener #6: Off shoring
• The difference between outsourcing and off
shoring is that outsourcing is done via the
internet and workflow software, while off shoring
moves an entire corporate operation to the most
advantageous location for the company involved.
• This promotes competition and insures survival of
the fittest.
• It also allows the utilization of massive amounts
of cheap labor in countries such as China.
Flattener #6: Off shoring
• Friedman uses the example of the African proverb: the
Gazelle vs. the Lion.
• Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it
must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will
starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.
Flattener #7: Supply-Chain
• For the next flattener, Friedman provides the
example of the behemoth Wal-Mart.
• A Wal-Mart cashier can scan an item in any of
its stores and provide an up-to-the-minute
inventory update to its warehouse facility and
suppliers.
• This allows for immediate demand updates for
production and distribution.
Flattener #7: Supply-Chain
• Finding the lowest price/best quality
producers is not enough if you can’t get the
merchandise to where it is needed.
• Wal-Mart’s state of the art supply-chain
management keeps it one step ahead of the
competition.
Flattener # 8: Insourcing
• Friedman’s next flattener is given life by the
exposition of UPS and its ability provide
business logistics for clients big and small.
• UPS makes big clients to act small by giving
them a quick response time and personal
touch for their clients.
• It allows small companies to appear big by
providing Wal-Mart like logistics and supplychaining w/o the cost.
Flattener # 8: Insourcing
• It also gives small business a global reach
through its worldwide shipping and tracking
systems.
• UPS literally gets inside a company and does
parts of its operation for them.
Flattener # 9: Informing
• The next flattener is perhaps the most
important: Informing.
• Search engine software like Google and Yahoo
allow an infinite amount of information at
your fingertips.
• This endless supply of information and ease of
access, allows the individual to bridge cultural
difference and gain admittance to countless
resources of information.
Flattener # 9: Informing
• Friedman believes that a knowledgeable, well
trained workforce is the key to success in a flat
world.
• Now that knowledge is available anywhere
and at anytime.
Flattener # 10: The Steroids
• The factors that Friedman refers to as the steroids
are things that make all the other flatteners work
better.
• Things such as faster more efficient PCs, wireless
access and a more efficient communication methods
like videoconferencing.
• Improvements that allow for anytime/anywhere
access and pocket size capabilities.
The Triple Convergence
• The “Triple Convergence” is the set of factors
that came together to flatten the world and
usher in a new era of international business
and competition.
The Triple Convergence
• All the 10 flatteners coming together have
made the world more accessible to everyone.
The Triple Convergence
• Convergence II: Companies and their
managers begin to understand and adapt to
the 10 flattener. They utilize them in
advantageous ways that improve the ways
business is done.
• We must be the same type of innovative
managers. Like the Lion and the Gazelle, we
must start running to survive.
The Triple Convergence
• Convergence III: The addition of China, India,
parts of Latin America and Eastern Europe to
the global playing field have added to the
competition.
• The competitive players have roughly doubled
and they are ready to go right out of the box.
Wake up call!!
• We as a country must realize the existence of
the flat world.
• We must educate our employees and utilize
the flattening tools in order to make ourselves
leaner, faster and stronger as a country.
• The competition is here, and they are hungry.
• We must run fast or be eaten!!