Special Report by: Carlo Senica

About The Author

Name: Thomas Loren FriedmanBorn: July 20, 1953

• An American journalist, columnist and author• Writes a twice-weekly column for The New York

Times• He has written extensively on foreign

affairs including global trade, the Middle East, globalization, and environmental issues.

The World Is becoming Flat!!

… several technological and political forces have converged, and that has produced a global, Web-enabled playing field that allows for multiple forms of collaboration without regard to geography or distance - or soon, even language.

"Tom, the playing field is being leveled." Indians and Chinese were going to compete for work like never before, and Americans weren't ready …

The Ten Forces That Flattened the World

1. Fall of the Berlin WallDate: November 9, 1989 • Tilted the worldwide balance

of power toward democracies and free markets

• Symbolized the end of the Cold war

• Allowed people from other side of the wall to join the economic mainstream

The Ten Forces That Flattened the World

2. Netscape IPO (formerly known as Netscape Communications Corp.)

IPO date: August 9, 1995• Offering sparked massive investment in fiber-optic

cables.• 1st co. to attempt to capitalize the World Wide Web.• Netscape and the Web broadened the audience for

the Internet from its roots as a communications medium.

The Ten Forces That Flattened the World

3. Work flow software• The rise of apps from

PayPal to VPNs enabled faster, closer coordination among distant employees.

• The ability of machines to talk to other machines with no humans involved.

The Ten Forces That Flattened the World

4. Open-sourcing "the most disruptive force of all“

• Self-organizing communities, launched a collaborative revolution.

• Communities uploading and collaborating on online projects. Examples include open source software, blogs, and Wikipedia.

The Ten Forces That Flattened the World

5. Outsourcing • Friedman argues that

outsourcing has allowed companies to split service and manufacturing activities into components, with each component performed in most efficient, cost-effective way.

The Ten Forces That Flattened the World

6. Offshoring • Manufacturing's version of outsourcing.

The Ten Forces That Flattened the World

7. Supply-chaining • Robust networks of suppliers, retailers, and

customers increased business efficiency.

The Ten Forces That Flattened the World

8. Insourcing • Friedman uses UPS as a prime example for insourcing, in

which the company's employees perform services (beyond shipping) for another company.

• For example, UPS itself repairs Toshiba computers on behalf of Toshiba. The work is done at the UPS hub, by UPS employees.

The Ten Forces That Flattened the World

9. In-forming • Google and other search engines are the prime

example. "Never before in the history of the planet have so many people (on their own) had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people", writes Friedman.

The Ten Forces That Flattened the World

10. Wireless • Like "steroids," wireless technologies pumped up

collaboration, making it mobile and personal.• Personal digital devices like mobile phones, iPods,

personal digital assistants, instant messaging, and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

The Triple Convergence

Then ten factors could not have flattened the world all on their own, Friedman explains that as each of the factors came together, they had to spread and take root to create the environment rich for flattening. He credits this spread, the creation of complementary software and the internet, and political factors that caused several developing countries, including China, Russia, India and Latin America, to open their borders at this time with the creation of the perfect storm that led to the rapid-fire pace of globalization.

References

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Friedman• http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.05/friedman.html?pg=3&topic=friedman

&topic_set=

• http://www.enotes.com/topics/world-flat/in-depth• http://www.enotes.com/topics/world-flat• http://www.wikisummaries.org/The_World_Is_Flat• http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question435.htm• http://www.investopedia.com/terms