The World is Flat

The World is Flat

Introduction

The book 'the world is flat' is written by Thomas Friedman. The book's main theme is globalization in the 21st century. The title of the book emphasizes the world as a field where commerce is played and equal opportunity is provided to the competitors. The title also signifies the shift required by the companies, individuals and countries (Friedman, 2007).

Main argument

The main argument of Friedman is that the globalization is a core economic concept. According to the author, the world is flat because of the convergence of the personal computer with fiber-optic micro cable, which has essentially given rise to the work flow software. The author has differentiated the stages of globalization. According to the author, the level where the governments and countries have been the protagonists is Globalization 1.0. The global integration led by the multinational companies is termed as Globalization 2.0, whereas the current period is termed as Globalization 3.0.

Extent of his success in argument

Friedman has supported his argument through the examples of India and China. He has quoted that they have provided the employees of typists and call centre, accountants and computer programmers to the global chain's integral parts such as AOL, Microsoft and Dell. The author has also presented Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention. Friedman has argued that to avoid the flat world crisis, US should update the skills of its labor on a continuous basis (Friedman, 2007).

Following are the ten flattening points that Friedman presented to prove his argument about 21st century globalization.

Falling walls and rising windows. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was the symbol of the flattening of the political, commercial, and intellectual barriers between the East and West that had seemed fundamental during the Cold War. Freed markets bred opportunity, igniting a new phase of globalization.

Netscape. The invention of the Netscape browser brought the benefits of a modern graphic interface to help increasing numbers of people accessing the Internet. As more people could access and share information, opportunities increased.

Work flow software. Work flow software has created a global web of production: it has shifted from simply connecting people to the Internet to enabling them to collaborate and innovate. Doing for the service industry what Henry Ford did for manufacturing, business operations as diverse as payroll and sales have become automated and digitized, banishing geographical restraints.

Uploading. By enabling people to share information for free on the Internet, individuals can access unprecedented resources and the disparity in opportunities between rich and poor has fallen (Friedman, 2007).

Outsourcing. By enabling companies to concentrate on their core competencies while getting other essential jobs done cheaply overseas, productivity and innovation have increased, “flattening” the world.

Off shoring. With an increasing demand for capital and consumer goods, countries have had to integrate, harmonising both political and economic policy. International Relations theorist Susan Strange termed this “making the world safe for George Soros.” By reducing international risk, companies are increasingly willing to outsource their operations to third parties in offshore ...