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Not long after
The World is Flat, A Brief History of the
Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman came
out, I read the book. I found the theme of the book
to be an excellent theme for a web site, especially
in internet marketing. My web site
http://www.tmcco.com specializes in
self-publishing, marketing, research and freelance
writing, and uses Friedman’s comments to emphasize
ways to market and reach customers.
I started to see other reviews
of The World is Flat from a variety of
sources. One of those sources was Processor
Magazine. This book review was done by Dean
Takahashi, July 1, 2005.
Processor Magazine
is described on Processor.com as follows:
“Processor
is a leading trade publication that provides
products, news, and information key data center
employees can trust. Processor's format
provides a comprehensive display of corporate
equipment and services, including storage,
communications, and servers. You’ll also find
product announcements, marketplace information, and
other articles designed to keep data center and IT
employees up-to-date with the latest news that
matters most.
Published weekly,
Processor is distributed to data center
managers and other computer buying decision makers
throughout North America.”
I find the review
in Processor to be unique in the sense that this is
a trade publication specifically for IT employees.
It is some of these employees that are being
“out-sourced” from American companies to those
overseas. How can they feel about the premise made
by Friedman that:
“the flattening of the globe, where U.S.
professionals will compete against educated rivals
in other countries who are willing to work for much
smaller salaries.”
According to the
review:
“For many IT managers, Friedman’s explanations of
technologies may come off as pedestrian. But he
delivers his argument with an immediacy and a
breadth that can only come from someone who has
traveled the globe and met with government leaders
and captains of business.”
After reading the
book and reading this and other reviews, I fully
agree with the article when it notes:
“Until you see what Friedman has witnessed, it’s
hard to adsorb just how fast globalization is
transforming the rest of the world and why 3 billion
people across the globe are now ready to compete for
your job.”
Still Friedman
notes that in reacting to this “flattening”, “Don’t
build walls.” His solutions for small, medium and
large companies are more progressive.
Small companies
need to act large. They need to “tap the tools that
can make them global, such as using UPS not only to
ship computers but to repair them as well.”
He states that
“Every company needs to collaborate.” Further he
states about outsourcing:
“If you outsource, do it to innovate and grow
faster, not just to save money and fire more
people.”
About individuals,
he says:
“The flat world will create more jobs for everyone.
But knowledge workers have to strive upward, If your
job as an illustrator is threatened, provide
higher-level service as an illustration consultant.”
However, as the
Processor review notes:
“Friedman warns there is a quiet crisis in the
United States, driven by the decline of its science,
engineering, and manufacturing competitiveness.”
Further the
Processor review states;
“Friedman describes his meetings, whether he’s
sitting across the table from India’s top
outsourcing executive or dining with a venture
capitalist in Palo Alto. He plays golf in downtown
Bangalore, India, when his partner tells him to aim
his ball at IBM or Microsoft. That’s an apt metaphor
for what enterprising young Indians are doing to
American industry.”
In reading both
the book and the Processor review, I agree that
Friedman has a unique perspective. The Processor
review notes:
“He [Friedman] shows familiar technical issues from
a global perspective that weave in social,
political, and cultural analysis.
Friedman has looked at these forces closely and can
dissect them from multiple points of view. U.S. IT
professionals may see offshore-crazy executives as
Benedict Arnolds, but if they could see what
Friedman has seen in his global travels, they might
understand what to do in response to globalization.
Better to manage it then to stand in its way.”
One statement that
is both haunting and ominous, as noted by the
Processor review;
“Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates tells Friedman that
today he would rather be born a genius in China than
an average guy in Poughkeepsie.”
The Processor
review notes the following Key Concepts in
Friedman’s book:
-
The barriers to entry are
leveling across the globe.
-
Globalization’s pace is
accelerating and threatens to overtake anyone
not ready for it.
-
It isn’t always clear who is
exploiting whom. It some aspects, both parties
benefit.
-
Knowledge workers must move up
the value chain.
-
The flat world will bring bigger
markets than everyone can exploit.
I would recommend
this book to any IT or technical professional that
is concerned about job security, future job
prospects or where the corporate world is headed.
Often, outsourcing and job loss due to global
competition tends to make us feel like victims.
Friedman’s book The World is Flat
portrays this new globalization or flattening as a
new force to be reckoned with and to be managed.
However, as Friedman portrays it, we are not
victims, but we do need to be smarter in the ways we
approach the new global markets and look at our
society, culture and business.
H. Court Young
Geologist, author and publisher
Promoting awareness through the written word
http://www.hcourtyoung.com
http://www.tmcco.com
(303) 726 8320
©August, 2007 |
The
Orphan Boy mine was started in Colorado's glory days. It was reopened in
1948 by one man, Herbert T. Young, who had a passion for mining. He was
a member of the "greatest generation."