The document discusses how globalization and new technologies have "flattened the world" by enabling more collaboration and outsourcing of jobs internationally. It outlines 10 "flatteners" including the rise of the internet, outsourcing, offshoring, and supply chain management. It argues that to succeed in this new environment, workers must constantly upgrade skills and notes shortfalls in US students pursuing STEM fields and American ambition compared to countries like China.

1. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science Note: Almost all of the material in this presentation, much of it verbatim, came from Friedman, T.L. 2004. The World is Flat – A Brief History of the Twenty- First Century . Farrar, Strauss and Giroux Publishers, New York. Excerpts of letter from Bill Brody, President of Johns Hopkins University (and formerly a radiologist), to Thomas Friedman “… In many small and medium-sized hospitals in the U.S., radiologists are outsourcing reading of CAT scans to doctors in India and Australia. . . The advantage is that it is daytime in Australia or India when it is night here – so after-hours coverage becomes more readily done by shipping the images across the globe.”

2. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science The Ten Forces That Flattened the World Finish your dinner. There are children in China and India who are starving. Finish your homework. There are students in China and India who want your job.

3. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science Flattener #1: 11/9/89 When the Walls Came Down and the Windows Went Up The fall of the Berlin Wall had far-reaching effects that tipped the balance of power toward free-market-oriented governance.

4. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science shifting us from a PC -based platform to an Internet-based platform. Flattener #2: 8/9/95 When Went Public “ People will change their habits quickly when they have a strong reason to do so, and people have an innate urge to connect with other people .” Marc Andreessen Co-founder of Mosaic (Netscape)

5. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science Flattener #3: Work Flow Software Let’s Do Lunch: Have Your Application Talk to My Application WildBrain.com – Animation team spread all around the world. Physicians – X-rays taken in Bangor are read in Bangalore. “ We were not just communicating with each other more than ever, we were now able to collaborate – to build coalitions, projects, and products together – more than ever .” IBM Strategist Joel Cawley

7. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science

9. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science Now you can plug into the world from India. Y2K upgrading was the opportunity for India to get its footprint across the globe. It was tedious work that would not give India a competitive advantage, but e-commerce followed, and India has never looked back.

10. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science Flattener #6: Offshoring Running with Gazelles, Eating with Lions December 11, 2001 – China formally joined the World Trade Organization, which meant Beijing agreed the same global rules governing exports, imports, and foreign investments that most countries follow.

11. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science

12. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science ASIMCO Technologies – an American auto parts manufacturer in China has the following African proverb, translated in Mandarin, on the factory floor: Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be eaten. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter if you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better start running.

13. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science Ever since China joined the World Trade Organization, both they and the rest of the world have had to run faster and faster.

14. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science Flattener #7: Supply-Chaining Eating Sushi in Arkansas No one has a more efficient supply chain than Wal-Mart. Of course, ruthless commitment to low prices has down sides. No company epitomizes the tension between the consumer in us and the laborer in us more than Wal-Mart. Point-of-sale terminals linked by satellite continuously keeps track of sales at each location allowing for optimal inventories. Florida stores know exactly how much beer and pop tarts to stock just before a hurricane.

15. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science Flattener #8: Insourcing What the Guys in Funny Brown Shorts Are Really Doing

16. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science UPS – Not just delivering packages anymore. It is synchronizing global supply chains large and small. They will tell you to drop it off at a UPS store and have it shipped to Toshiba. They will repair it and ship it back to you. What really happens? -- It goes to a UPS-run workshop dedicated to computer repairs at the UPS Louisville hub. Eaten Papa John’s Pizza lately? -- UPS dispatches the drivers and schedules supply pickup and delivery. If you own a Toshiba laptop under warranty and it breaks and you call Toshiba to have it repaired…..

17. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science Flattener #9: In-Forming Google, Yahoo!, MSN Web Search

18. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science Flattener #10: The Steroids Digital, Mobile, Personal, and Virtual Taking all forms of collaboration highlighted here – outsourcing, offshoring, open-sourcing, supply-chaining, and in-forming – and making it possible to to each and every one in a way that is digital, mobile, personal and virtual . In Japan you can get uninterrupted wireless internet service on your computer or cell phone while traveling on the bullet train at 150 mph.

19. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science Will free trade benefit America when the world becomes so flat and so many more people can collaborate, and compete, with my kids? Probably There will be plenty of good jobs out there in a flat world for people with the knowledge and ideas to seize them. You have to constantly upgrade your skills.

20. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science You must be Special ( like Michael Jordan or Bill Gates ) Specialized ( specialized lawyers, brain surgeons, cutting edge software engineers ) Anchored ( jobs done at a specific location, involving face-to-face contact, that can not be digitized ) Really Adaptable ( constantly acquiring new skills, knowledge, and expertise that enable you to constantly be able to create value )

21. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science The Numbers Gap A generation of scientists and engineers who were motivated to go into science by the threat of Sputnik are retiring. At present, there are not nearly enough to replace them and keep us at the front of the pack. National Science Board says number of American students earning science degrees has fallen to 17 th in the world. We were 3 rd three decades ago. Science/engineering degrees represent 60% of all B.S. degrees in China, 41% in Taiwan, 31% in U.S. Considering just engineering degrees – 46% in China vs. 5% in U.S.

22. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science The Ambition Gap When American CEOs send jobs abroad, they not only save 75% on wages, they get 100% increase in productivity. But what about the supposed American education advantage – an education that stresses creativity, not rote learning? “I have never met the guy who doesn’t know how to multiply who created software… Who has the most creative video games in the world? Japan! I never met these ‘rote people’… You need to understand things in order to invent beyond them.” -- Bill Gates

23. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science Bill Gates is recognized every where he goes in China. Young people there hang from the rafters and scalp tickets just to hear him speak. In China today, Bill Gates is Brittany Spears. In America today, Brittany Spears is Brittany Spears – and that is our problem.

24. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science The Education Gap 2004 Trends in International Math and Science Study – 44% of 8 th graders in Singapore scored at the most advanced level in math, as did 38% in Taiwan. Only 7% in the U.S. did.

25. College of Engineering & Science: The World is Flat Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science So… Is the world really flat? If it is, what are you doing to prepare for it?