Davis, Stephanie E.
Professional Reading - Sophomore Year
Directions: Respond to each of the items below in the space provided. Remember that the summary
must be written with the same attention to spelling, grammar, and professional presentation to which
all College of Business documents are expected to conform. At a minimum, papers should be two four pages and address all mandatory topics.
Book Title: Thomas L. Friedman, The World Is Flat, A Brief History of the Twenty-First
Century
Content Areas
Summarize the book you read.
The author, Thomas L. Friedman, begins in Bangalore, India. Where he is visiting and doing
what seems to be a documentary for Discovery Times. He is intrigued by the technology that
Infosys Technologies Limited used to communicate around the world with. They had large big
flat screen televisions in which they would talk with different headquarters around the world.
Different clocks were in this room, with the big flat screen, showing all different times of the US.
The CEO of the company explained to Friedman that the “playing field has been leveled, India
can compete now for global knowledge.” Friedman thinks about what the CEO said, and he
believed this meant the world is flat.
Basically, the world could communicate and do business
from countries a world apart.
Friedman also concludes that there were three eras of globalization. They were 1) Globalization
1.0 (1492 to 1800), 2) Globalization 2.0 (1800 to 2000), and we are currently experiencing
Globalization 3.0. Friedman explains in this current era, the world is shrinking to tiny, where we
can compete globally as individuals.
While visiting Dilian, a port city in China, he learns that Dilian is for Japan what India is to the
United States. Friedman also explains that outsourcing is becoming a new thing for leveling the
playing field globally. When he returned from his trip from India and Japan, Friedman did not
stop researching to find out how flat the world really was.
In the next chapter, Friedman explains that there are ten forces that flattened the world. They are
in date order: 1) 11/9/89, the fall of the Berlin Wall, 2) 8/9/95, the date that Netscape went
public, 3) Work flow software is the third flattener, 4) Uploading is explained as the fourth
flattener.
In the next several chapters, Friedman explains that “while protectionism would be
counterproductive, a policy of free trade, while necessary, is not enough by itself.” Friedman
also goes on to explain that Americans should continue to get a higher education to compete
globally.
Friedman explains how David Ricardo (1772-1823), an English economist, developed the freetrade theory. This theory explained that a nation that specialized in the production of a certain
good with comparative cost advantage trades with other nations for their specialized goods, there
would be an overall gain in trade and income would increase in each nation. Friedman also
explains that nations like India and China are raising America to the top, not to the bottom.
Friedman talks about how finding a job that cannot be outsourced would be a better idea. There
are three areas in which he explains that are “special or specialized, localized and anchored, and
the new middlers.” Friedman also goes on to explain three categories in which different careers
that are not likely to be outsourced. They are as follows: 1) “Great Collaborators, 2)
Orchestrators,” 3) “The Great Synthesizers,” 4) “The Great Explainers,” 5) “The Great
Leveragers,” 6) “The Great Adapters.”
Friedman outlines the stuff to have to make it in the flat world. The first skill set is the “ability
to learn.” Friedman says the second skill set would be “learn how to learn.” The second is also
“CQ+PQ>IQ.” CQ being curiosity quotient, PQ is the person quotient, and IQ is intelligent
quotient. The third skill set is “Plays well with others.” The final skill set explained is “The
Right Brain Stuff.”
Friedman compares our crisis we are in to an air mattress in which we are laying on and the air is
slowly coming out. We don’t know until all the air is out and our head hits the cement. By that
time it is too hard to re-inflate. He also talks to a physicist, Shirley Ann Jackson, an African
American woman. She says that the US is still the leading engine in innovation compared to
other countries. She goes on to say that other countries are running a marathon, while we are
running a sprint.
Friedman talks about the dirty little secrets of the US. They include the gap in age of scientists,
education gap, the ambition, the funding gap, and the infrastructure gap.
Friedman takes a closer look at the foreign policies imposed on each nation to be able to live and
continue to grow in the flat world. In this chapter, Friedman considers how a country will
survive in the flat world. He concludes that a country must have three elements; they are
infrastructure, education, and the right governance. He also concludes that a nation should have
an open culture to be able to work best in a global economy.
Friedman talks about how companies that grow today are the ones that are prepared for change.
He gives seven rules that companies should follow when in trouble. He also goes on to say in the
next chapters that to unflatten the world, starts with the removal of certain technology. Also
some countries will not be flattened because some are “too sick.” These are rural villages in
China, Africa and India. Disease and poverty or lack of education is the primarily reasons for
unflattening.
Friedman concludes with a comparison of 11/9, when the Berlin wall came down to 9/11. 11/9
represented an open world, while 9/11 represented how evil imaginations could close the world
up.
Discuss what you learned from this book as it relates to your coursework.
I learned a lot from this particular reading. Although, some of it is an already know fact. The
world has advanced in all areas of technology and communication, especially in the last 10 years.
In order to be able to survive in this world or economy, we need to be able to compete globally.
In order to do so, we should strive to complete a higher education as a society. We need to
continue to be the leaders in the economy.
Critique the book. Would you recommend the book to someone else? Why or why not? What did you
like about the book? What didn’t you like about the book?
I enjoyed reading this book. It is interesting to read because it is the truth and how the world
really is. The title itself is intriguing. We all know the world is not flat. This was a very
interesting title to begin with. I would definitely recommend this book to someone else. The
only thing I did not like was the length of the book. It is very overwhelming.
When Complete: Save this document to your computer. Name the document like this: Doe,
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