The Global Web-Based Platform
World Wide Web (Internet)
• The World Wide Web platform enables
individuals to connect, compute,
communicate, collaborate, and compete
everywhere and anywhere, anytime and all
the time; to access limitless amounts of
information, services, and entertainment; to
exchange knowledge; and to produce and sell
goods and services.
• It operates without regard to geography, time,
distance, or even language barriers.
Globalization
• Globalization is the integration and
interdependence of economic, social, cultural,
and ecological facets of life, enabled by rapid
advances in information technology
• Thomas Friedman identifies three eras of
globalization in his book The World Is Flat
Thomas Friedman’s Three Stages of
Globalization
• Globalization 1.0, lasted from 1492 to 1800
– Force behind globalization during this era was how much muscle,
horsepower, wind power, or steam power a country had and could
deploy
• Globalization 2.0, lasted from 1800 to 2000
– Force behind globalization was multinational companies; companies
that had their headquarters in one country but operated in several
countries
• Globalization 3.0, lasted from 2000 to present
– Driven by the convergence of ten forces that Friedman calls
“flatteners”
– Web-based platform has emerged
Friedman’s Ten Flatteners
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Fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989
– Shifted the world toward free-market economies and away from centrally planned economies
– Led to eventual rise of the European Union and early thinking about the world as a single, global
market
Netscape goes public on August 9, 1995
– Popularized the Internet and the World Wide Web
Development of work-flow software
– Enabled computer applications to work with one another without human intervention
– Enable faster, closer collaboration and coordination among employees, regardless of their location
Uploading
– Empowered everybody to create content and put it on the Web
– Led the transition from a passive approach to content to an active, participatory, collaborative
approach
Outsourcing
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Offshoring
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Contracting with an outside company to perform a specific function that your company was doing
itself and then integrating their work back into your operation; for example, moving customer call
centers to India
Relocating an entire operation, or just certain tasks, to another country; for example, moving an
entire manufacturing operations to China
Supply chaining
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Technological revolution led to the creation of networks comprised of companies, their suppliers,
and their customers, all of whom could collaborate and share information for increased efficiency
Friedman’s Ten Flatteners
(continued)
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Insourcing
– Delegating operations or jobs within a business to another company that
specializes in those operations; for example, Dell hires FedEx to “take over”
Dell’s logistics process
Informing
– Your ability to search for information, best illustrated by search engines
• The steroids (computing, instant messaging and file sharing,
wireless technologies, voice over Internet Protocol,
videoconferencing, and computer graphics)
– Technologies that amplify the other flatteners
– Enable all forms of computing and collaboration to be digital, mobile, and
personal
Activity
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Read the handout on Zero-Footprint Information Technology at State Street
Pair off with a partner and discuss the following: (Take notes in your Journal Log)
– Discuss the relationship between State Street’s zero-footprint IT model and the global, Web-based
platform
– Bring up www.statestreet.com
• Go into Thought Leadership The Vision Series
– Read article from Technology, Trading and Analytics
The Evolving Role of Technology Microsite
The Evolving Role of Technology
Answer the following question in your Journal Log
Do you think State Street is keeping up with technology?