8/3/2019 World is Flat Summary

1/3

Summary of Thomas Friedmans The World Is FlatIn The World Is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman discusses events and technologies that are

flattening the world and increasing globalization. Friedman feels the world is highlyinterconnected without regard to hierarchy, distance, organizational size, individual

status, culture, or language. He describes ten "flatteners" that are reshaping the world.

Flattener 1 Fall of the Berlin Wall

The end of the Cold War broke down barriers between people. To catch your attention he

identifies this flattener with 9/11. November 9, 1989 is when the Berlin Wall fell. Hecontrasts it with 9/11 which is journalistically neat but not terribly pertinent.

But Friedman doesn't stop with a political-historical event. About the same time (the1980s), Apple and Microsoft were making personal computers available to the world. Not

only did the Berlin wall fall but Microsoft Windows opened [cute]. Part of flattener #1 is

the personal computer, the ability of individuals to put their thoughts in digital form.

Flattener 2 The Internet

On August 9, 1995 Netscape went public with first internet browser available to thepublic at large. Now people could access information from all over the world.

Flattener 3 - Workflow software

Many software developments, standards, and protocols enable computers and other

digital devices to interact over the internet so that work and other projects can be done bypeople any where in the world.

Friedman notes that with the first three flatteners a collaboration platform is emerging for

people to share digital content inexpensively all over the world. In the mid to late 1990sthe world changed. The remaining flatteners expand on this opportunity for collaboration,

"steadily flattening the world even more."

Flattener 4 - Uploading

Uploading is Friedman's word for people creating content and contributing to theInternet. This document is an example. Perhaps the most significant is the development

of open source software. Hierarchy and organization are not required; quality content and

work product can come from anywhere.

Flattener 5 OutsourcingFriedman recounts the story of Jack Welch at GE forcing his IT people to contract outsome of their work to Indian vendors, starting a tidal wave of change.

Flattener 6 - Offshoring

With instant and virtually cost free global transmission of data and communication,

companies can place each business department responsible for one part of the value chainin the most productive geographic location.

8/3/2019 World is Flat Summary

2/3

Flattener 7 - Supply-Chaining

The rapid, accurate global movement of components and finished goods is now possible

on an unimaginable scale. Freidman describes a Wal-Mart distribution center as anexample.

Flattener 8 - InsourcingIf a company has an extraordinary skill, it may market that skill as a service even though

the company appears to be getting into something totally unrelated to their basic business.Freidman used UPS as an example. UPS, the package delivery company, has a major

hub at Louisville Airport. Toshibas turn around time on the repair of laptop computers

was too long and affecting customer satisfaction. They turned to UPS to operate the

repair shop in Louisville. Computers are returned to the customer in 3 days. UPS is alsomanaging Papa John's pizza delivery as well as their supply logistics. UPS is good at

scheduling, delivering and keeping track of items. UPS sells that skill as a service.

Flattener 9 - In-Forming

Friedman describes this as "the individual's personal analog to uploading, outsourcing,insourcing, supply-chaining and offshoring... the ability to build and deploy your own

personal supply chain - a supply chain of information, knowledge and entertainment."

Flattener 10 - Steroids

All sorts of things are happening to magnify the previous nine flatteners. Examples are

the continued effects of Moore's Law, wi-fi, instant messaging, file sharing, P2P, VoIP,videoconferencing...

Next he talks about "the triple convergence" which brings home how these ten flattenersare changing and will change the world.

His first point is the sum is more than the parts. Each development has value in itself butit is much more valuable when combined with the others. A PC is great, but coupled with

the internet the possibilities expand tremendously. The ten flatteners taken together

constitute a quantum leap and "created a whole new platform. It is a global Web-enabled

platform for multiple forms of collaboration".

The second convergence addresses the fact that the world today looks much the same as

the world yesterday. With any major technological advance there is a lag betweeninvention and major impact because organizations, processes, and facilities have to be

redesigned around the new capability. Friedman gives various examples starting with

light bulbs and electric motors. Each changed society but there was a lag.

The third convergence is globalization. He speaks of "new players, on a new playing

field, developing new processes and habits for horizontal collaboration - that I believe isthe most potent force... The scale of the global community that is soon going to be able to

participate in all sorts of discovery and innovation is something the world has simply

never seen before." He sites many examples of international developments.

8/3/2019 World is Flat Summary

3/3

Related Subject MatterIn the 1990s there were a number of books attempting to predict the shape of the post-Cold War world. Paul M. Kennedy wrote The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

expressing the US was a superpower but like many superpowers before, it will lose its

position due to financial and geographic over extension, internal weariness, coalescing

opposition, and changing circumstances.

In The End of History and the Last Man, Francis Fukuyama proclaimed that free markets

and liberal democracy had triumphed and many nations would model themselves onthose principles

Samuel P. Huntington (The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order)talked of major, multi-national cultural groups competing with one another, e.g. Islam

versus liberal, democratic western nations.

Friedman's The Lexus and the Olive Tree describes the power and force for change of the

developing global economy. It also describes the deep rooted emotional reaction andopposition to change.