The World Is Flat Chapter Summaries

The book “The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty – First Century” is written by a famous journalist, he is also a columnist from a well known magazine name New York Times, and lastly, an author of many books, Mr. Thomas Friedman.Mr. Thomas Friedman was born on July 20, 1953 at St. Luis Park, Minnesota, United States. He was married to Mrs. Ann Friedman on 1978 and had two children named Orly and Natalie Friedman. We can also call him as a scholar, I mean a great guy that could be one of the geniuses, on globalization and international trading between different countries for when he writes for New York Time Magazine, most of his article are all about foreign affairs and also global trade and because of that he has won the PULITZER
awards three times, twice for international reporting and once for commentary. Mr. Friedman faces different criticism from different people from different field of expertise. But most people from the business field of expertise support the metaphor quoted by Mr. Freidman that the world is flat especially in the world of IT’s, most on technological expertise. Mr. Friedman is easily amazed by technological innovations. So, is it only technological breakthrough is the only reason why the world is turning or becoming flat? How about other aspects of the world that turns the world flat? Before I explained every chapter from the book the world is flat, most explanation is about the ten flatteners. Mr. Friedman talk about globalization, of course he is one of the running scholar for globalization, that globalization, through this, the world playing ground between developed, developing, and under - develop countries are being leveled and it shrink the world from a size of large to the size of medium and to the size of a tiny. Mr. Friedman also pointed out that the only way to survive this globalization through the world is to be more curious and to have more passion for it is the wealth of tomorrow. These lines were addressed to its country, United States. For Mr. Friedman, his countrywas basically the role model for the modern world which is basically not the role model for most scholars like Berkeley economist David Levine as he pointed out that even Japan had a lesser poverty line together with Canada, France and even UK (United Kingdom) so how does he stand with that, the United States of America is the lead role model for modern world? One passage from the book is that “my parents used to remind me to finish my dinner for people in China and India are starving but nowadays Friedman used to remind his sibling to finish their homework for people from different corner of the world are starving for the jobs that their taking too”. These suggest that Friedman was scared that when the time comes American jobs are not for Americans but for other races of individual for the jobs require higher qualifications and need also an extra skill for every individual for a certain jobs. In short, the educational attainment of an individual that can get from United State of America is now also attainable from different corners of the world (most developing countries). In short Mr. Friedman’s implies thatthe power which every country is going to posses is through technological innovations and economic progresses. Mr. Friedman alsosuggest the immediately need for a change on nations, individuals, and organizations to become more productive and competitive in the world market, where some of the wall that barricade this were crash down like historical and geographical division. That was the effect of the globalization throughout the world. The effect of globalization to a certain nations may bring both negative and positive effect. Negative effect when elites countries use the weakness of a certain skill for his/her could get a higher profit and positive effect when you see a certain development to a place like technologies, industrial, finance, etc… Mr. Thomas Friedman divided globalization into 3 eras, globalization 1.0, globalization 2.0 and lastly globalization 3.0. Globalization 1.0 is on countries putting old world and new world together. Globalization 1.0 era is the time when different countries in the old world (1492 – 1800) races for new exploration gaining more colonies and established imperial and that was the first part of globalization start to flattened the world from size large to size medium.Globalization 2.0 is the era for industrial revolution, emergence of multinational companies, etc... This is the time (1800 – 2000) when mostly thing are fueled by PC’s shrinking the world which is sized from medium to the size of small. Globalization 3.0 is the time (2000 up to the present) where all individuals and groups of different people collaborating to compete internationally or competing globally. These made the small world turn into tiny and completely leveled the playing ground globally that a certain individual’s job from a certain place or country can be outsource from different art of the world/globe.
But do we all know what globalization is? Does globalization mean that economic, cultural and even political systems are integrated? Or does globalization is like finding the same fast-food chain and restaurant on the different part of the world? Or maybe, globalization means that an individual country could not put a business and could not trade from other with their own instead of they have to consult it from the other countries to rationalize their business. Most people don’t know what globalization is and they keep on bluffing about that. Different people from different field of study use globalization differently. Globalization is a process of increased interconnectedness among different country most notably in the areas of economics, politics, and culture. One examples of this is a McDonalds Company establishing in Japan, India, and even more in developing countries. The idea of globalization can be simplified in several key of characteristics like technologies innovations specially on transportation and telecommunications, the movement of people and capital (money), the Non - governmental organizations (NGO’s) and multinational corporations are working together for them to access more to a new world market. Critics of globalizations say that there are disadvantage and advantage of globalization happening throughout the world. The proponents of globalizations seek for it helps nations to “catch up” the industrializations throughout the nations and with that it fasten and increased employment and technological advances at the same time it also allows rich nations to shipped domestic jobs overseas the labor for it is much cheaper and with that it also weakens one element of the state which is sovereignty (national sovereignty). Some argue that globalizations on some matter could bring positive development as it would brought new industries and could create more jobs in developing countries like Philippines. Other scholars says that globalizations kind of negative for it will compel poorer countries of the world tends to do whatever the giant developed countries telling them what to do. We are all aware that the worlds, different place, have different time zones for it rotates on its axis while revolving around the sun.
If we divide the world like the front side and the back side, a certain nation experiencing daylight time, probably the front side, it is necessary that the other side, the back side, of the world of that certain place also experiencing a night time and vice versa. The chapter one is entitled “While I was sleeping” which laterally means that while he (Mr. Friedman) was sleeping in one side of the world, it is night time, other places from the other side of the world were widely awake for it is daytime. How could anyone don’t know that? It was explained during primary levels. The rotation of the earth on its axis as it revolves around the sun causing the day and night time occur to the different art of the world. When Mr. Friedman decided to traveled with the crews of the Discovery Time channel they landed on Bangalore, India. He was amazed for what he sees the different western advertisement and he said that “this was all in my place but this is India but its look like my country”. While in India, he meets different Indian workers and businessman. One of his interview happed to do with Jaithirth “Jerry” Rao, an Indian who’s immune to the outsourcing thing, we learn that he (Jerry Rao) process different information exchange online from different parts of the world and also perform various duties like from scheduling air flights down to a
hotel reservation and also ordering from a fast food chain. What Jerry Rao showing us is an example of outsourcing which outsourcing will be explains down belowlater. While Mr. Friedman continues traveling from India down to China and back to America. We people tends to study various phenomena regarding outsourcing with different countries or nations throughout the world mostly on business sector and its impact, either positive or negative effects, on its different players which involved to the circulations of what we called “outsourcing”. As we goes back, Friedman’s metaphoric word the world is flat is really surreal. By the time of the Old world, different people do conclude that the world is flat as they see the horizon where the sea and the sky meet together and also different tribes can easily accesses from one tribe to the other tribe. But as the Homo sapiens knowledge increases as they tackle and interact from different parts of the world it is slowly turning more progressive at the same time it made the world “round”. But ironically as technological innovations slowly changing the world, Columbus declared that the world is round as he sailed going to west and arrived at the same place where he left from the east. That shows that people could sail or travel around the world with finite time and not infinite because that was also the reason why most people of the old world afraid of for they might lost to the greatness of horizon. With this Columbus, slowly globalized the world. As Columbus left – over doomed at a certain corner after a few hundred years, corporations continue what Columbus started putting the world on the mode of development. As the corporations continues to developed/globalizing the world later on they formed multinational corporations as the expand version of corporations putting more sharing between different people from different part of the world. And now, it is the globalization of every individual and by far reaches the impact competing throughout the world. The ten flatteners was introduces us by different citation of Mr. Friedman experiencing while traveling from India to China down to his homeland, America. The first flattener was when the wall of the Berlin Wall collapsed. This served as the eye – opener which enabled people to think that their still a long horizon after that wall. The Berlin Wall served as boundaries between two different cultures as well as the form of government, democratic style and authoritarian style. More broadly, the Wall of Berlin separated the rivalry between United State and Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall symbolize as a powerful division of the world into a communist bloc of countries which is under the control of the Soviet Union and the Western World, led by the United State of America, where both of them are just glaring each other from the across the wall and form a frontier which stretched across the Europe and the entire world. The start of this collapsing was when people from the one side, the authoritarian government, tend to crosses for survival purposes to the other side, the democratic government. When the wall was collapsed it allows to most people that their still a lot of land to be discover and to be developed, it also allow people to see or immunized the democratic free market aside from. Most people quoted the first flattener as “when the walls goes down the windows goes up”. Just like the saying “if a door closes other door will open”.
The second flattener is when Internet or the NETSCAPE went to public which give the sign the evolutions of technology. This also started the remaining flatteners to expose. The web goes up and the internet goes round through Mr. Tim Berners-Lee who created the WWW (World Wide Web) and Mr. Lee posted the first web site. As the WWW was created, it makes the Internet more and more and more useful to everyone from different parts of the world which allows people to communicate from the other side of the world to the other side of the world. Through Netscape it introduces us to the first mainstream of the Web browser. As what I said, this had made the distances between two individuals disappears and at the same time it also helps shrinking the world and flattens the world. Well at first, this web browser was used only by those geeks but as the time goes by it was accessible from the age of five years old individuals up to eighty - five years old individual. The commercial web browser also brought the ability to browse the internet instead of knowing exactly how and where to go. This also gave the power to retrieve lost documents and unsearched pages stored on a site. We can’t deny that the Modem was a big part of this obviously as well as the HTML emerges and became easier as a coding system. URL also gives each web page into its unique locations while HTTP set the rules which permitted documents to be linked together from other computers across the internet. As this arises Mr. Friedman thought that people will change as long as they have the strong reason to cope with or to do so. Most illustrations goes like first it is just individuals and computers, next is the different individuals, the computers and the forming of network and finally later on it became globally which it fuels global communications.
The third flattener is called “work flow software”, this is the ability of the machines without the involvement of human being talks to each other machine to the other machine. The belief where Mr. Friedman stands out is that these first three flatteners became a “crude foundation of a whole new global platform for collaboration”. The combination of PC and emails in acompany replaced the paper slip from transferring from one place to the other. This enables the creator to do more other than sharing emails, pictures, and even on documents. Through this they collaboratively enabled to create and designs widgets, other people doing other people’s taxes, tracking different inventory and even reading someone’s x – ray images coming from the other side of the world, systematically, instantaneously and flawlessly. The work flow software served as a quit revolution which enable business done quicker, better, better and seamlessly. The work was started flowing during the mid 1990s.
The fourth flattener is the one who’s very popular to most people, the uploading. The uploading is the opposite of downloading; instead we received information or data we are sending them out throughout the world by uploading it. Different communities upload and collaborate on projects through online just like how Mozilla came out to the market and become one of the web browsers. This flattener cite examples like open source software, blogs, and even though the Wikipedia. According to Mr. Friedman that the fourth flatteners called Uploading consider this phenomenon for it has the potential to be “the most disruptive force of all” flatteners. Uploading as well as downloading allows content creators to simply post their work for free out of the net for the other people to use it for free and for donation also or maybe for a limited time. Standards and more standards are being sets up and together they no longer relay to different large corporations for its life. This is the result of different countries spending on such research putting it more accessible to the whole world and later on become free. Currently the number of uploading is at small number. However, Mr. Thomas Friedman believes that as more people get positive feedback, uploading will grow faster and every big hierarchical structure will feel its effects. Uploading is a kind of writing software in a way that allowed it to be easy shared and improved by any other programmer because everyone has access to the source code.
The fifth flattener is called out – sourcing. This is the way where most of companies hiring an outside firm to process payroll at a less efficient cost. At his book, Mr. Friedman argues that outsourcing has allowed companies to split it services and manufacturing activities into components, this every component can performed in the most efficient as well as cost – effective way. We can easily says that during the past years, people tend to move where the work is but as the outsourcing came over the runaways now the jobs or works in moved where the people is. Like for an example, the job which is available in the America and which is that job is for a certain American, now as the outsourcing came that job from America is now for a certain individual came from different part of the world or should we say that jobs traveled from America to a certain place for it is more efficient and firms could saved more money for profit. At the book of Mr. Friedman give an example like an Indian individual is doing, reading, scheduling, booking a certain American, this shows that most people from America prefer on outsourcing for they can save more money if they do outsourcing. On the year 2000, it created software work overload from different US companies which this corporations uses outsourcing in a place like India. As outsourcing dominated the world of development, Indiabecomes the second buyer of US overcapacity on fiber optics. The Dot – come bubble burst reducing the revenue but not on IT workload so it became that outsourcing is at necessity. One of the lines from the book “the world is flat” is that Mr. Friedman encounter is that when he wanted to get a reservation on Jet Blue Airlines with the help of Grandma Betty over the phone. Other incident is that Bhavya in Bangalore is going read your next x – ray which is that x – ray was come from an American citizen. Mr. Friedman also show us that when out sourcing become a problem the India were already prepared for it, it just like they were expecting this moment of flattening happen.
The sixth flattener is called off shoring. This is the manufacturing version of out sourcing. Mr. Friedman sets China as an example for these flatteners when the most significant event takes place, the China joined the WTO. If out sourcing is to India well the off shoring is for the China. The internal relocation of a company’s manufacturing or the other processes to a foreign land just to take advantages of less costly operations there.These flatteners show that a certain company from a certain place transfersit’s manufacturing to another country for it is cheaper in taxes, labor, energy and also health care cost. The race between China and the European and also the other Western Countries focusing on educating young individuals in math, science, and also computer skills, which are really required for the flat world. Sooner or later China’s export could stimulate American exporting. This is why most of the countries cutting their wages just to allow giants companies to transfer their manufacturing to their place and just to keep the competition high between countries with greater off shoring. The moving manufacturing to a low – cost labor market like Nike, Wal – Mart, Starbucks, etc… is also a political issue but still a reality on economic aspect.
The seventh flattener is called “supply – chaining”. Supply – chaining can be either a flattener or a product of the flattening or could be both, for such time that a supply chains become larger in size and number, this can force companies to collaborate and / or agree on the commonality sets of standards. Supply chaining is also we can call the partnering with other businesses to receive items when need. Mr. Friedman provides an example on how the Wal – Mart automatically orders stocks that replenish once if an item were sold. With this unlimited flow of information from one company to the other company can directly gives firm the ability to react quickly. Mr. Friedman came out to what he call the Wal – Mart Symphony which it is 27/7/365: from delivery, sorting, packing, distribution, buying, manufacturing, down to reordering going back to delivery, sorting and so on… Mr. Friedman compares the modern retail supply chain to a river putting him to appoint that the best example of this is the Wal – Mart Company for it use technology to streamline item sales, distribution and shipping. Mr. Friedman also pointing out that the fewer the natural resources a country or a company had, the more they innovate just to survive the globalization.
Insourcing, is the eight flattener of the world. Insourcing is related to supply – chaining in when companies collaborate with each other. It is like having someone come into your business and let them manage some part of it for you. Mr. Friedman uses the example of UPS, which has grown and become larger and later on become more on supply logistics services for business, specially small business, which allow those business to compete head – to – head with the larger corporations in specific niches. UPS's global reach and size makes it attractive for small companies to leverage UPS's ability to take them global, yet they still concentrate on their core competencies. Insourcing is like one company performs duties of the other company which serves a way the fill the gaps of the within the horizontal global supply chain. This also requires intimate and extensive collaboration. Right now the UPS slogan is “Your World Synchronizer”. The UPS is not just do delivering packages but synching global supply chains for companies, and also they take over operations for companies that use them to ship with. Some example of UPS been doing is they repairs Toshiba computers on behalf of Toshiba. The works where Toshiba repairs computers is done at the UPS hub, by UPS employees.
The Informing. The most trend of all flatteners on individual by using search engines like Google or other Yahoo Groups which allow them to mine the impossible large round world, but as you can see with this search engines they could do the impossible to be possible, the amount of data and locate the information that they been looking for, in a sense that both shrinking large amount of data and flattening it at the same time.
The last flattener is the thing called “Steroids”. This is the flattener that the technologies which amplify or accelerate the flattening tendencies of the first nine phenomena. Examples of this includes exponentially greater on computing power and memory storage capacity, peer – to – peer networking, like VoIP or the “voice over internet protocol” which allow or permits the cramming of many more calls onto smaller and smaller transmission lines. Information steroids are responsible for harnessing the quadruple combinations of information in becoming digital, mobile, personal and lastly virtual. Steroids is what he is referring to the power of having information are always at one’s fingertips because of cell phones, PDAs, wireless laptops, etc… Wireless technology, Mr. Friedman’s ubersteroid of steroid, will no longer have to worry about the next to a fixed – based communications device to communicate, collaborate or compete, videoconferencing, and also do enhance the computer graphics, which is all of this was enabled by through increasing of computing power and videoconferencing.
Friedman claims that what we’re seeing today is only the beginning of a flattened world. This metamorphosis will only accelerate and flatten further as the flattening influences penetrate their way through the culture. It takes time to create hardware and software to exploit a flattening technology, and it takes even more time for the wetware (managers, innovators, b-school professors, CEOs, workers, and parents) to catch up and find creative ways and processes to survive and compete in a flatter world.
All of the above are just the first part of the book.
The second part of the book describes the effects of flattening on the world and also explains on how we can adopt to the rapid changes for what is causing it. Just like Mr. Friedman describe it as what he calls the triple convergence –a new platform (electronic Web – enabled platform), horizontal supply chain management systems, and a huge in increase in terms of people number competing in the global marketplace. These three forces come together at the same time with the combination of the ten (10) factors which have worked together to flattened the world and with that they created a whole new set of geopolitical and economic issues that Mr. Friedman explains in details in the remainder of the book. The first convergence was all about technology that created a new platform. It is up until 2000 where the ten (10) flatteners were kinda like semi – independent of one another. Around Y2K, all of the flatteners converged with one another putting all forces to collaborate more and if we compared it to the complementary goods, with that when one flattener has been enhanced the other also enhance; so the more one flattener had been developed the more leveled the global field became. The first convergence was all about the combinations of all flatteners that developed platform which allow for innovations, productions, educations and even research more available. The second convergence is all about business process. After the
emerging of the ten flatteners, in the business, it is necessary to required a new business model for them to succeed. The top – down method of collaboration, where innovation comes from the top, is not required any more instead business was needed to begin with the new collaboration through horizontalization. Horizontalization means that the companies and people should collaborate with other departments or companies to add more value of creation or even more on innovations. The third convergence is all about the global workforce. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Some countries that had been followed the Soviet economic model—this include India, China, Russia, and the nations of Eastern Europe, Latin America, and also Central Asia—began to open up their economies to the world. And when these new players converged with different countries to the rest of the globalized marketplace, they had been added a new brain power to the whole playing field and enhanced horizontal collaboration with different countries across the globe. In return, the third convergence is the most important force which shapes politics and economics of the different countries around the world in the early 21st century.
The Great Sorting out is the chapter where reality check was call by Mr. Freidman as they explore the different countries and societies on how they cope with and adapt the changes that globalization brought to them in their business as individuals and entities. Mr. Friedman made us believes that what Karl Marx was projected are now happening in the world as it was flattened as he compares between Industrial Revolution to the current IT Revolution.
An interview with a noted political theorist at the Harvard University, Mr. Sandel discussed about whether or not is exploitation is globalization? Are the outsourced people in India are exploited or are they given the opportunity they would have? The answered were searched by Mr. Friedman by examining the India – Indiana story from 2003. The Indiana’s unemployment computer system were upgraded though the outsourcing to an Indian company as effectively they taking their work from people in Indiana in order to provide more work for the people of India. Mr. Friedman also demonstrate that there is a little people who begin to act big, so too there are big people able to connect on the smallest level. As the forces of innovations had dominated the world the identities of every individual become harder to define which it is also needed to be sorted out. All have become intertwined at the same it was blurred the traditional roles of different consumers, employees, citizens, taxpayers, shareholders, etc…
Influences that shape the business and also the different competition especially on technological – fueled global environment which is calling for an action of the government, business and individuals that they must stay ahead of these trends in order to remain competitive. As a whole Mr. Friedman’s message is very clear that every individual should be prepared because this phenomenon waits for no one even you’re a son of a President or even the daughter of the first lady of whatever country of you belong to. Mr. Friedman also paint without any scare tactics that anyone could be left behind for the world is moving faster than most of us can keep up. Mr. Thomas Friedman presents the problem that we are facing as the world fast evolving and also on how are we going to face it, prevent it with its possible solutions.
The World is Flat is full of practical advises for those individuals who are facing an increase of competition. Mr. Friedman also concluded that education still a key for future financial success. As he quoted in his book “When I was growingup, my parents used to say to me, ‘finish your dinner –people in China and India are starving.’ My advice to you is: finish your homework—people in China and Indiaare starving for your jobs.”
Mr. Friedman also suggest that focusing on education efforts on the four sets of skill will help the young individual prepare for the increased competition that they’re going to face at the future: (a) Individuals should learn how to learn because every day individuals create a new knowledge so they to be continual learners or otherwise they will become outdated and obsolete. (b) Individuals should developed passion and also curiosity ‘cause if you combine these two it has a greater importance than intelligence. (c) They have to improve their interpersonal skill. No matter how big or small the world is, they are still human beings and they should have continue to work together for them to accomplish thing either small, big or large because in the flat world people skills could become more important than computer skills. And lastly, (d) they have to enhance their brain abilities especially on creativity. The abstract problem solving is a skill that is not easily to be replicated by any other people, and if every individual possesses this skill will be more employable than those who have not. Mr. Friedman also suggests that if you love a certain thing or works it will naturally allow showing an individual to be more creative. And lastly, I suggest that every individual where ever you are, DON’T BE NAÏVE.