The World is Flat
Ch. 5 - The America & Free Trade
Ch. 6 - The Untouchables
Ch. 7 - The Right Stuff
Presented by:
Ann Sin
Brian Kwan
Kelvin Luk
Kenneth Lam
Agenda





Is Free Trade/ Out-sourcing Good for US?
Current Situation
How to Be Untouchables
Key to Success in the Flat World
Examples
Outsourcing is good for US?
Opponent: Mr. Roberts
former assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy in the Reagan administration

companies are now freer to move capital and technology around the globe in
search of cheaper labor. E.g. India & China, harder for any industry to justify
investing in or employing people in the U.S. and other high-wage countries.

unemployment results
remaining capital is spread more thinly

E.g. shortage of nurses
importing foreign nurses
domestic nursing schools are unlikely to increase their enrollments.


decline in labor productivity and real incomes
domestic economy becomes a less efficient
Outsourcing is good for US?
Opponent: Mr. Roberts
The higher the value added, the greater the incentive
to outsource the work.
new industries and occupations will rise
outsourced as well.
First World wages and salaries can fall swiftly,
bring political instability
retraining is limited to domestic services, foreign
labor is brought in!
Outsourcing is good for US?
Opponent: Mr. Roberts




the U.S. has lost its lead in advanced-technology
products and now runs a deficit in advanced
technology with China
losing its superiority in advanced-technology
products
declining incomes
Americans are heavily in debt
Outsourcing is good for US?
Defender: Mr.Bhagwati
university professor at Columbia University in New York





growing ability to import services
radiologists in Bangalore read X-rays taken in
Boston.
facts for 1999-2002. The Bureau of Labor Statistics
shows that, counting four IT-related sectors, the jobs
expanded
outsourced jobs: over the next 15 years has been
put at 225,000, which is less than 1.5% of the stock
of available jobs in 2002.
more people employed
Outsourcing is good for US?
Defender: Mr.Bhagwati
prodigious technical change.
Creates new skilled jobs, both by creating new products and
processes
Maintain the technology also requires skilled labor.

obesity epidemic
diabetes management,
 aging women
cosmetic surgery

Outsourcing is good for US?
Defender: Mr.Bhagwati
 Other companies continue to outsource
If you don’t
become seriously uncompetitive and could
fold.
Current Situation



Threats
Free Trade
- Outsourcing
 Unemployment
Global Supply Chain
- More Specialization
Technology Advance
- More Tradable
 Lost Comparative
Advantage Easily

Opportunities
Efficiency

Lump of labor theory
is Wrong

Unlimited Wants
Growing Pie
 New Job opportunities

New Middle Jobs



Job Nature
Collaborating with Others
- Doing Integrates Globally
Putting Disparate Things
Together


Requirement
Versatile
- in Depth Skills & Broad
Scope
- Learning & Growing
Adaptable
- Ready to do anything
More Personal Touch

Like People
How to be untouchable?

“ Special or Specialized”

E.g.: Michael Jordan, Madonna.
Never be replaced by anyone else

“Localized”



Their job must be done in specific location. It requires
face to face interaction or local knowledge
“ The New Middlers”
The New Middlers







Great Collaborators & Orchestrators
Great Synthesizers
Great Explainers
Great Leveragers
Great Adaptors
Passionate Personalizers
Great Localizers
Great Collaborators and
Orchestrators





The key is the ability to be a good horizontal
collaborator
E.g. able to run 24/7/7 supply chain
Feel comfortable working with a global
company.
Being able to operate in, mobilize and
manage a multidimensional and multicultural
workforce
E.g. Sales, and management with the above
ability
The Great Synthesizers

Creates value by putting together disparate
things that you would not think of as going
together

Dell’s value “ ability to synthesize much better
than everyone else

E.g. Search engine optimizing brings together
Mathematicians and marketing experts.
A Synthesizer:
In the past:
+
=
OS/2


IBM system
Dell does little in design & manufacturing, but
brings all parts together from others to put
them in front of customers
Electronic Data Systems Corporation (EDS)
futurist Jeff Wacker predicted:
Chief Information Officer
(CIO)
Chief Integration Officer
(CIO)
The Great Explainers




Person who can see complexity but explain It
with simplicity
More important to be able to explain
something to someone else than to doing
technical work independently
Example: Howard Freeman case
E.g. Managers, writers, teachers, producers
who are also good explainers
An Explainer: Howard Freeman
Started
SlideMaster
PhotoImaging (1977)
Processing,
duplicating
& enlarging slides
Rise of digital
photography
New career as
explainer
Explain how to
use DC & comp
to process film
The Great Adapters

Look for employee who are more adaptable
and versatile

Gaining new competencies by constantly
learning and growing

Able to see things from different perspectives
rather than being pure technicians
An Adapter: Marcia Loughry




Marcia Loughry – EDS enterprise architect
Studied accounting in college, dropped out to
work as a typist in EDS word-processing
center in 1978
PCs were introduced → Mainframe &
desktop publishing
Publishing software was introduced → Call
center and help desk
An Adapter: Marcia Loughry


Later realized constant learning was essential
Studied network operating systems, and the
became one of 1st Microsoft Windows NT server
technicians in SMC
Be an expert on 3 topics:
Core bread & butter right now
Another topic closely associated
What is going to be done next
The Green People



People from BRICK ( Brazil, Russia, India,
China, Korea) consume more and more.
Only way to survive: do more things with less
energy and fewer emission
E.g. person who focus on “ bio- inspired
solutions to looming energy and
environmental problems.
A Leverager: EDS SMC



System Management Center (SMC) had 100
people without any expertise full-time
monitoring data of other firms in the past
EDS leveraged more computing power to
identify the root cause of any problem
automatically
Specialized jobs: computer engineers who
can design precise programs to work
efficiently
Keys to Succeed in Flat World

Get Ready to be a NEW MIDDLER!!
Right Kind of Education System
4 Aspects:
1. “Learn How to Learn”
 You know today is OUT-OF-DATE soon!
 Be EXCITED about learning & LOVE learning
2. “CQ+PQ>IQ”
 Passion & Curiosity
 Self-motivators & Self-educators
 When you was a kids, you want to be a …….
Right Kind of Education System
Four Aspects:
3.“Like People”
 Managing & Interacting with others
 Involve Personalized & High-touch Interaction
4.“Nurture More RIGHT BRAIN”
 Right Brain: Context, Emotion & Synthesis
 Tackling NEW challenges instead ROUTINE
 Synthesize the BIG Pic. Instead a SINGLE one
 Way of nurturing: Intrinsic motivation
Right Kind of Education System
E.g. in Georgia Institute of Technology:
“Good Engineer” = “Good Musician, Singer….”
 Able to Communicate
 Tie Thing Together from Different Disciplines
“Facilities”
 Recital Room & Concert Area
 Music Building & Stage
 Exercise students TALENTS
Right Kind of Education System
E.g. in Georgia Institute of Technology:
“Threads”
 Creation of Students with Fixed Set of Skills
 Broad Collection Skills and Learning Experience
in Globally Competitive Conceptual Age
 Intuitive, Flexible & Mutually Strengthening
“The whole notion of separate dept is CRAZY!!”
 Run Through the Whole Curriculum
Right Education: Georgia Institute
of Technology, Atlanta



Selected students on a sort of Darwinian
weeding-out process, focused entirely on
grades
Low graduation rates due to gray curriculum
& atmosphere
To get more students applying & graduating,
admission policies was changed to recruit &
admit engineering students with musical
background
Right Education: Georgia Institute
of Technology, Atlanta


People having other interests tend to
communicate more, tend to ask for help
readily, help others more who need help, and
think horizontally
Result:



Large increase in music courses
> 50% of students played musical instruments or
participated in musical groups
Graduation rates jumped from 65% to 76%
Right Education: Georgia Institute
of Technology, Atlanta



After dot-com bubble, computer science
enrollment at Georgia Tech started to drop
precipitously
DeMillo and Furst redesigned the CS major
around 9 threads
Each thread is a combination of computing
with another field → synthesis of knowledge
Right Education: Georgia Institute
of Technology, Atlanta


Each student need 2 threads to get a CS degree
9 threads = Computing +









Intelligence
Embodiment
Internetworking
Platforms
Information
People
Media
Modeling
Computing Foundations
Right Education: Georgia Institute
of Technology, Atlanta


Aim: Put things together that make sense
Georgia Tech model: recognizes the world is
increasingly operate off the flat-world platform,
with its tools for all kinds of horizontal
collaboration → schools should embed these
tools & concepts of collaboration into the
education process
Right Country
“Free Market Economy”
 Competition btw States and Universities
 Tear Down & Build Up More
 Services Delivered Globally
”Protects Minority Interest”
 Intellectual Property Protection
 Enhances & Encourage New Ideas
Right Country
“Flexible Labor Laws”
 Fire & Hire
“Political Stability”
“High Level of Trust”
 Innovation, Currency & Justice
Questions & Answers