Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century is a bestselling book in which he examines an in depth analysis of globalization in today’s world. It is called the world if flat because it is actually a metaphor for looking at the world as a level playing field in terms of business where all of the competitors have equal opportunities. In this book, Friedman talks about ten different factors that play an important role in explaining why exactly the world is flat. The first of these “flatteners” was the collapse of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. He refers to this in the book with the statement, “When the walls came down, and the windows came up”. This event marked the end of the end of the Cold War, which in turn permitted people from the other side of the wall to join the economic mainstream. This date in time also marked the fall of communism and the ever so great impact that Windows PC has had on individuals to be innovative and creative and connect with one another. It was during this time that the standard for all computer platforms was created. The standard included the following: IBM PC, Windows Operating System, a graphical interface for word processing, dial up modems, a standardized tool for communication, and a global phone network. The second “flattener” as stated in the book was “Netscape”. Netscape went public at a price of $28 dollars on August 9, 1995. Netscape and the World Wide Web made it possible for everyone to enjoy the Internet from kids to elderly people and not just computer geeks. The Internet and digitization made it possible for all types of media to be shared all across the world. The third “flattener” is called the Workflow software which he claims to be the “genesis moment of the flat world” because of the standards and technologies that allowed work to flow between people in an extremely seamless manner. The ability of machines being able to…
1. What is it about the flat world that both excites Friedman and fills him with dread?…
In the article “It's a Flat World After All,” the writer Thomas Friedman, presents his idea by pointing out that Globalization happened right before our eyes yet many of us didn't even know it. He states that technology improvements fundamentally reshaped our lives. As a result of this improvement…
In this chapter, Thomas Friedman looks at how cultures and societies will have to deal with and adapt to the changes that globalization brings to the way of doing business. It affects whole companies and individuals. He gives the perception of the world is flattening by comparing the Industrial Revolution to the IT Revolution that is happening right now. The flattening process was identified by Karl Marx and Frederich Engels in the Communist Manifesto, published in 1848. Marx’s writings about capitalism state “the inexorable march of technology and capital to remove all barriers, boundaries, frictions, and restraints to global commerce (Friedman 234).”…
Technology has also enabled the world to become more interconnected, beyond the economic sphere, with greater access to information and communication which is having a profound impact on societies. The International Labour Organisation has the following view:…
1. “But Friedman’s image of a flat earth is profoundly misleading – a view of the world from a seat in business class. Flatness is another way of describing the transnational search by companies for cheap labor, an image that misses the pervasiveness of global inequality and the fact that much of the developing world remains mired in poverty and misery. It also misses the importance of the global geopolitical hierarchy, which guarantees the provision of stability, property rights, and other international public goods. The rise of China and India is less about flatness than it is about dramatic upheavals in the mountains and valleys of the global geopolitical map”…
In chapter 15, as the world became flat, some parts of the world remained unflat because they could not participate in the flattening process. The unflat world consisted of developing nations while the flat world consisted of developed nations. Since the unflat world could not participate, it has kept them unadvanced, stagnant, and deprived. Rural Africa, China, India, and Latin America were left behind because their nations were plagued with diseases due to their broken government system being unable to treat and prevent these conditions, which has kept these nations sick, dying, and stuck in poverty. In other parts of rural China, India, and Eastern Europe, where people were healthy but poor and stuck between the unflat and the flat world,…
I agree with Friedman’s assessment that the world is flat. According to Friedman a "flat world" mean that there is now a level global competitive playing field. It has now become very possible for many people around the world to collaborate and compete in real time with each other on many different kinds of work, markets and products from many different corners of the planet and on a more equal footing than at any previous time in the history of the world. Due to technological advances, the global financial market has been refined with electronic exchanges, networks, institutions, and communications. While each country may have its own financial market, the world is now so closely tied together, causing global effects when one market is prospering or suffering e.g the Euro crisis. Whereas innovation and scientific inventions used to be done in the developed world, the developing world is now catching up as more and more people are being trained in the vitally important fields of mathematics and science. Globalization that used to be largely controlled by European and American individuals and businesses is now being driven by a more diverse non-Western, non-white group of individuals Technology has also leveled the playing field and made the world to be flat in that any company can make its products available to the whole world in a matter of seconds. It is up to the to consumers to choose from whom to buy from. The internet and related technologies make it possible to conduct business across the organizations' boundaries almost as efficient and effectively as it is to conduct business within the organization. Location is no longer a limiting factor in how organizations design , develop and produce goods and services. With the internet it is now possible to maintain close relationships with suppliers and other business partners at great distances. Countries like China and India have really redefined the way business is being conducted all over the world. Many…
The concept of the flat world according to Thomas Friedman is how, due to recent technology developed in the 21st century, geographic boundaries disappear and cause the world to be metaphorically “flat”. Communication across the globe is easier and more efficient, and also allows people around the world access to information with just a few clicks. Mr. Friedman talks about ten concepts that create his flat world theory.…
Friedman goes on to say that he thinks free trade is a good thing in the long run because it will result in more American goods being bought by overseas markets, thus creating a need for more American jobs. His chief reason for dismissing objections is that economics is not a zero-sum game. He admits; however, that those who are low-skilled are very vulnerable to "current trends," but he expresses an abiding faith in the existence of an infinite array of human wants and needs that can endlessly fuel economic expansion. Friedman quotes Raghuram Rajan, director of research for the International Monetary Fund, who says that "everyone wins" in a world with a "bigger but more complex pie". With this new flat world there will be companies from other countries that will compete with American companies; therefore, I don't see how free trade will definitely result in more jobs for Americans in the long run. If more and more Americans are going to be at risk of losing low-skilled jobs to other workers in other countries, Americans should become embolden to seek higher education and higher-skilled jobs and compete with India and China. Chapter 6 in "The World is Flat" is about The Untouchables and Finding…
Answer 1: Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist and author, claims in his book titled, ‘The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century ’(2005), that globalization and technology has flattened the world to a ‘level playing field’. He analyses the ten ‘flatteners’ or events that happened over a period of around ten years to make the world go flat. The first flattener, that Friedman writes about, was the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and end of the Cold War, that brought forward the idea of a globalized world, where people from either side of the wall could collaborate for the overall economic benefit. It was around this time that Windows powered PC’s changed the way humans interacted with computers by providing a Graphical…
Thomas Friedman’s book The World Is Flat analyzes the progress of globalization and how it has changed core economic concepts. After traveling to numerous countries, he came up with the conclusion that the world is “flat,” in the sense that competitive playing fields between industrial and emerging market countries have been leveled. He provides frequent examples of how countries, such as China and India, are becoming part of large global complex supply chains. Freidman assures that change is inevitable and that internet and outsourcing tactics are shrinking the world from “small to tiny.” Through his use of empirical evidence and first-hand experiences, Friedman is able to provide the reader with a greater insight as to why to world is flat.…
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…
In this day and age that we live in, technology is becoming an essential part of our daily lives. The twenty-first century, largely dubbed as the “Age of Technology” and also the “Era of Globalization,” has brought on the feasibility of an interconnected world. Globalization is considered to be the unavoidable wave of the future. A few texts from Kwame Anthony Appiah, Marshall Poe, and Thomas L. Friedman further elaborate on a few important aspects of globalization. Technology, a major part of globalization, has allowed humans to create the Internet, bringing along many benefits and drawbacks to our society on a social and global level.…
The information and communication technology (ICT) revolution, because of its pervasiveness throughout the whole realm of human activity, has brought out a new shape in the economy, society and culture. In the past few decades, ICT has transformed the world. It’s potential for reducing poverty and fostering growth in developing countries has increased rapidly. By connecting people and places, ICT has played a vital role in national, regional and global development. In the last decade, information and communication technologies (ICT) have become the major factors of growth and development throughout the World. ICT is leading the vast technological revolution based on electronic computers, software, microelectronics, the Internet, and mobile telephones3. ICT has formed the core of the new techno-economical paradigm and centered itself to becoming new techno-economical paradigm leader. In 2003, despite the recent dotcom market collapse accompanied by even larger decline in the value of global telecommunication companies, the world’s adoption to ICT is constantly growing. The adoption to ICT and the avoidance of the emergence of digital divide has become critical for both developed and developing world. Finding the ways to make ICT part of the solution rather than part of the problem is challenging the nation states and international organizations4. It is widely believed that ICT carries enormous potential in establishing technical and organizational innovations, to reduce costs and change the quality of capital…