Research Paper on "Flat Thomas L. Friedman's First Books"

Research Paper 6 pages (1978 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Flat

Thomas L. Friedman's first books on globalization, such as the Lexus and the Olive Tree, written in 1998, focused on the second era of globalization, that according to the author lasted from 1800 to 2000, when "the Internet and e-commerce were just taking off." The more recent "The World is Flat," on the other hand, focuses on the evolution of the third era of Globalization, that started in 2000, put in motion by the power of the individuals to go global, compared to the forces that activated the first two eras, that were the power of the countries to go global and respectively that of the companies (Friedman, 2007, pg. 10). Friedman has a sort of epiphany when an Indian engineer in Bangalore tells him about the "leveling" of the world. The developing of outsourcing of various services enabled by the technological achievements of the last years, starting with the launching of the world wide web made possible the collaboration and competition of companies and individuals on a scale never seen before. "Because it is flattening and shrinking the world, Globalization 3.0 is going to be more and more driven not only by individuals but also by a much more diverse - non-Western, non-white - group of individuals"(idem, pg. 11). Computers and the Internet made almost anything possible due to the endless possibilities they offered to those who were willing to put their minds to the invention and innovation of new products. The optic cable, satellites, Wikipedia, Google, new improved methods to compress files, the iPod and the disposition of people all over the world to adapt the new technologies and bring them to countries like China, India and Russia, brought the process of flattening at a very high speed on a course that seems irreversible.

David Schlesinger, Reuter's global managing editor said in a memo to his all editorial employees: "But change is natural; change is not new; change is important. The current debate about off-shoring is dangerously hot. But the debate about work going to India, China and Mexico is actually no different from the debate once held about submarine work leaving New London or shoe work leaving Massachusetts or textile work leaving North Carolina. Work gets done where it can be done most effectively and efficiently" (Friedman, 2005, pg. 21). Friedman uses these words of a leader of one of the most prestigious mass media in the world to support his idea that the globalization is legitimate and sustained by important players in the business world who were the first to see its advantages and profit from it. On the other hand, he draws attention on the other side of the coin, the negative effects of the globalization effects. Today people work together world wide due to all those means of communication made possible by the latest technologies, but they are not always in the services of well doing. Terrorists can also use these new means and they did not hesitate to put themselves up-to-date with everything computer science could offer. The author is also raising questions about what the future will be shaped like, in the light of the accelerated and indisputable flattening and more important, of what the e parents are supposed to answer their children or grandchildren when they are either asking simple questions about the source of automobiles of software or more difficult questions implying advice related to the filed they are expected to cover with their studies so that thy can have some certainty to their future employment chances.

When it come to the former kind of questions young children may ask, that may sound like they are convinced that products like software come from India, Friedman writes a possible answer to his granddaughter: "No, not yet, honey. Every new product - from software to widgets - goes through a cycle that begins with basic research, then applied research, then incubation, then development, then testing, then manufacturing, then deployment, then support, then continuation engineering in order to add improvements. Each of these phases is specialized and unique, and neither India, nor China nor Russia has a critical mass of talent that can handle the whole product cycle for a big American multinational"(Friedman, 2005, pg.29-30). " but, when it comes to more serious questions asking for a thorough judgment, like what is an average accountant trained in an average U.S. college supposed to expect from his future in an industry that is exponentially growing by the year due to all those accountants from India who are making the routine work he used to do for a fraction of the cost, the author is only able to point to the most simple and useful solution of professional reorienting. This is, of course, not the first time in history when people had to adapt to changes and according to the above mentioned of the memo send to the editorial employees from Reuters, completely natural and to be expected.

Friedman makes a list of the ten forces that contributed and are still making the world change in this direction and shows how politics, international relations and technological advance intertwined to change the face of the world almost overnight. In his view, everything started with the Berlin Wall fall that gave the incentive for breaking physical borders and led the globalization that was according to the author coming close to its second age end toward the introduction of the new laws of the economic world into countries that could offer cheap workforce, perfectly capable to quickly adapt to the new technologies and to hungry for profit and living standards. The Fall of the Berlin Wall, Netscape and the software that gave manufacturers the possibility to use machines with a handful of people operating them instead of thousands of workers they previously needed for their production, are considered the three main forces that laid the foundations for the process of flattening that was on its way. The fourth element of flattening that seems to have made an essential contribution to the whole process is that of information available at the strike of a computer key through searching engines, and more importantly, the willingness of people to work together for the creation of huge databases like Wikipedia or public blogs. I would add here the electronic format newspapers and magazines adopted to be able to face the competition and the effects of such never before seen means of reading New York Times or the Times online, on the day of its publication, without paying a subscription, from home, using the personal computer. News travel the world almost instantly nowadays and that make the competition in the business world more fierce than ever. One of the effects of the increased competition was as it would normally be expected, the search for new ways to cut costs and find cost effective ways of producing something that was not only cheaper than what the competition had to offer, but also a better quality. From this search, the outsourcing and the off-shoring were born. Another distinct "flattening element" is the supply-chain in Friedman's vision. He takes the example of Wal-Mart and considers it very thoroughly in a whole chapter. After visiting the Wal-Mart headquarters in Arkansas, where they have a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution center, the author describes what he witnessed there: "the Wal-Mart symphony...with no finale. It just plays over and over 24/7/365: delivery, sorting, packing, distribution, buying, manufacturing, reordering, delivery, sorting, packing..." (Friedman, 2005, pg. 152) - this is an element of supply- chaining. Wal -Mart is just "a hyper efficient supply chain. There were debates and law suits involving Wal-Mart's ways of doing business. There were even activist who encouraged people not to buy from Wal-Mart shops as a manifest against its support of illegal employment, chap forms of health insurance offered to its employees and other cost cutting means that created dangerous conditions for an unfair competition destined to encourage such ways of improving business on the cost of the average Wal-Mart employee. "One can only hope that all the bad publicity Wall Mart has received in the last few years will force it to understand that there is a fine line between a hyper efficient global supply chain that is helping people save money and improve their lives and one that has pursued cost cutting and profit margins to such a degree that whatever social benefits it is offering wit one hand, it is taking away with the other" (Friedman, 2005, pg. 163).

The third era of globalization is in Friedman's eyes less humane than the era before. The human contact became thanks to the internet more anonymous than ever. On the other hand, people from other countries are given a chance to win money they never had before. The author poses the question of what is more right from an ethical point-of-view. He is trying to find out an answer to such questions in an interview with a specialist in politics from Harvard, Michael J.… READ MORE

How to Reference "Flat Thomas L. Friedman's First Books" Research Paper in a Bibliography

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