Why The World Isn T Flat
I SN
'T
F
LAT
hasboundpeople,countries, andmarketscloserthanever, Globalization ofa b)goneera-or sowe'retold. nationalborders relics
But a close rendering lookat thedata reveals a worldthat's as integrated as theone justa fraction we thought we knew.Infact,more than90 percent of allphonecalls,Web and investment is local.What'smore,eventhissmalllevelof traffic, couldstillslipaway. IBy Pankaj Ghemawat globalization I
deas will spread faster,leaping borders.
Poor countrieswill have immediateaccess to informationthatwas once restrictedto the industrial world
and traveled only slow
ly,ifat all, beyond it.Entire electorateswill learn things that once only a few bureaucrats knew.
Small companieswill offerservicesthatpreviously onlygiantscould provide.In all theseways, thecom munications revolution is profoundlydemocratic and liberating,levelingtheimbalancebetween large and small, richand poor." The global vision that
FrancesCairncross predicted inherDeath ofDis tanceappears to be upon us.We seem to live in a world that is no longer a collection of isolated,
"local" nations, effectivelyseparated by high tar iff walls, poor communicationsnetworksandmutu al suspicion. It's a world that, ifyou believe the
Pankaj Ghemawat
is theAnselmo Rubiralta professor of
global strategyat IESE Business School and theJaime and
JosefinaChua Tiampo professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. His new book isRedefining
Global Strategy (Boston: Harvard Business School Press,
September 2007).
54
FOREIGN POLICY
most prominent proponents of globalization, is and,well, "flat." increasingly wired, informed,
It's an attractiveidea.And ifpublishing trends are any indication,globalization ismore than just a powerfuleconomic and political transformation;
According to the it's a booming cottage industry.
U.S. Library of Congress's catalog, in the 1990s, about 500 books were published on globalization.
Between 2000 and 2004, therewere more than
4,000. In fact,between
'T
F
LAT
hasboundpeople,countries, andmarketscloserthanever, Globalization ofa b)goneera-or sowe'retold. nationalborders relics
But a close rendering lookat thedata reveals a worldthat's as integrated as theone justa fraction we thought we knew.Infact,more than90 percent of allphonecalls,Web and investment is local.What'smore,eventhissmalllevelof traffic, couldstillslipaway. IBy Pankaj Ghemawat globalization I
deas will spread faster,leaping borders.
Poor countrieswill have immediateaccess to informationthatwas once restrictedto the industrial world
and traveled only slow
ly,ifat all, beyond it.Entire electorateswill learn things that once only a few bureaucrats knew.
Small companieswill offerservicesthatpreviously onlygiantscould provide.In all theseways, thecom munications revolution is profoundlydemocratic and liberating,levelingtheimbalancebetween large and small, richand poor." The global vision that
FrancesCairncross predicted inherDeath ofDis tanceappears to be upon us.We seem to live in a world that is no longer a collection of isolated,
"local" nations, effectivelyseparated by high tar iff walls, poor communicationsnetworksandmutu al suspicion. It's a world that, ifyou believe the
Pankaj Ghemawat
is theAnselmo Rubiralta professor of
global strategyat IESE Business School and theJaime and
JosefinaChua Tiampo professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. His new book isRedefining
Global Strategy (Boston: Harvard Business School Press,
September 2007).
54
FOREIGN POLICY
most prominent proponents of globalization, is and,well, "flat." increasingly wired, informed,
It's an attractiveidea.And ifpublishing trends are any indication,globalization ismore than just a powerfuleconomic and political transformation;
According to the it's a booming cottage industry.
U.S. Library of Congress's catalog, in the 1990s, about 500 books were published on globalization.
Between 2000 and 2004, therewere more than
4,000. In fact,between