The document discusses how the world has become "flat" due to globalization and advances in technology. It explains the three E's of exploring opportunities, establishing operations, and expanding globally. Businesses now face competition from around the world and must understand the interconnected global marketplace. The key is utilizing information technology to explore customer needs, establish an effective strategy and brand, and expand operations through a localized approach in different markets.

1. I remember back in India when I was in school, when we first introduced to
geography and our teacher told us that we are living on top of the earth, one of the
quick questions came to most of the students mind is, what will happen when we go
to the edge of earth? But slowly when get introduced to geography in more detail, we
feel comfortable that we are not going to fall out of earth in fact we will reach in some
other country. Though the journey from a flat earth to flat world not came in one night
or in one month or in one year, it is a constant process of evolution. This journey of
exploring, establishing and expanding started with exploring the truth about the earth
to establishing colonial world of power to currently expanding businesses by leaping all
boundaries.
Few days back I came across one of the video featuring Mr. Thomas Friedman,
where he was delivering a speech to introduce one of his book “World is Flat” at MIT. It
is an interesting video and till date I gone through the video couple of times. I feel he is
trying to deliver very interesting yet very serious topic, not because he is saying the
world is flat, but by pushing me to realize why the world is flat. Now this time, I am
reacting differently than when I was in school and my teacher revealed that the earth is

2. spherical and it has gravity which helps in keeping things on its surface, this time when I
heard the world is no more scattered and encircled within a limited boundary rather
complexly inter connected where people can reach from one place to other in no time,
where there is no boundary restrict spreading of knowledge and data, where people
sitting in their basement and operating businesses throughout the globe, businesses
are operating in distributed business model, one example is Boeing, which
manufactures different parts of jet in different countries and yet assemble the
components seamlessly in a centralized USA location to produce error free jet , also
now you can do financial transaction in a country which is far away from your
homeland. Yes, the world is enough flat to leap the geographical boundaries to connect
and communicate with anyone any place on the earth. Now you don’t need to be
relative of someone to get detail about any individual, the data and massages are no
more intended for a single individuals, the data is broadcasted and distributed via
internet and while you are on your bed, it is up to you to decide what you want to know
and about whom you want to know. In this boundary less global information system
world, you and me are the individuals those who works as news reporter for all major
news agencies for free and news channels are able to show firsthand live updates from
different part of the world without sending any news reporters or analyst to the other
part of world.
History has evidences of scientist, mathematicians and explorers like
Aristarchus to Christopher Columbus and the journey is still continued with corporates
going more global and reaching millions and millions of consumers and producers
around the world. As the changes are happening so fast, no one knows what will

3. happen tomorrow. In past people scared to travel because of ignorance by thinking the
earth is flat and in future we will get ignored if we will not understand the true meaning
of globalized world. In this highly competitive open world where everyone has similar
opportunities and risks, it is interesting to see how the businesses are positioning
themselves to take advantage of it or gets ignored by it. Whether you are aware of it or
not, whether you want to participate or not, you don’t have much choice left because in
past when you spent time to compete with your neighborhood business, when you are
busy in advertising for “Free online banking”, the world moved up faster than your
expectation to create one world global business equipped with global information
system and it is already exposed you to the global business market. If you are not
realized yet, you are already exposed to radiation of global competition where you have
the opportunities to emerge victorious or loose to market competition. The only option
you have is to accept the fact because the radiation of globalization is far bigger than
Japans recent atomic leak due to earthquake and Tsunami. Now someone from some
other place on the globe already implemented the business idea which you are still
evaluating, now when you are planning how to reach customers, someone in some
other place on the globe already changed the customers to their loyal advocate. In this
one world global market, you and your businesses are not safe from the global
economy and from global business battle field. Friends, the bells are ringing now, it is
the time to realize and grab the opportunities as soon as possible otherwise you and
your business will get crushed in the global competition. Again I want to repeat, in
today’s flat globalized world, next door business is not the only competitor for you, now
you have challenges from businesses those who are operating from some other part of

4. world and you also have competition from individuals those who understands the flat
one world and knows how to best use of this complex global business battlefield, in no
time you may get a new business which will challenge your very existence, when we
still going through the biography of Mr. Steve Jobs or reading about how the
outsourcing consulting company Infosys started by few entrepreneurs from the living
room of their house, someone in some other developing country already started an
innovative lab back from their garage.
Now the competition is global, for example Citi Bank which is based here
in North America competing with ICICI Bank and State Bank of India in India, similarly in
North America Citi Bank is competing with other American financial institutes along with
financial institute from European regions and from South Asia, Nokia & RIM the initial
leader in mobile phone technologies are struggling for their survival against Apple and
Google, Ford and GM are competing in South Asia market with new ventures and
opening the manufacturing in Asian countries while at the same time in North America
competing with Japanese and Korean Manufacturers along with German
Manufacturers. Now the business competitions are in three fold- Competition from
community or local competitors, global competitors and competition from individuals
throughout the globe, in every few minutes a new entrepreneur joining the one world
global market to challenge and outperform well established business of the past. In
recent days we have some good example to learn- GM cars are no longer the best
selling cars in North America, Palm one of the early player in smartphone market is no
more in business, Blockbuster lost its competition to RedBox and eventually Netflix
with “we will bring service to your room” approach leading the entertainment market. In

5. current days, people refer Facebook and twitter more than CNN, FOX or BBC. With
long spreading of global Information Technology, source of knowledge is available to
each individual with click of few buttons, in current time the consumers are aware of
what they need and are quick to evaluate available products and services. Now it is not
sufficient to provide a business phone number or email id for customers to reach you
because in today’s global market place, all most all businesses starting from very small
taxi driver to flower seller do that even they have their business portal in multiple
languages, it is the time for you to reach customers. The days are gone when
companies used to force customers to get accustom to your product and services, now
customers have various choices- if not you or your product then someone else or some
other product, because when there is a demand, if not you someone else will supply the
resources to fulfill the demands.
As we discussed about flat one world where the global information system
plays a major role in shaping the global market how you or your business wants to
use the same three E’s which helped in transitioning “the earth is flat” to “the world is
flat”. Now let’s focus on understanding the three E’s - Explore, Establish and Expand.

6. 1. Explore:
First- explore yourself and your business what is the best you have or you can
offer. There are thousands needs and opportunities in the market, but it is difficult for
you to focus and fulfilling all the market needs or grabbing all the market opportunities.
Focus on the services or products you are best on, or the products or services you
are confident in providing efficiently and effectively in a time bound higher competitive
market, don’t always consider best possible scenarios where demand is high and
production is low, explore or create strategy for the market where demand is low but
supply is high and explore how to outperform the competitors in this high supply market.
Always create short term and long term goals and explore various strategies to fulfill
your goals. Second- Explore the need of market, understand and evaluate customers,
don’t think you are going to sale the product and service for single time, explore the
strategy to make your product and services saleable multiple times to your customers.
Also it is important to explore how to make a loyal customer who can work for you for
free like an I-Reporter or online boarding or printing ticket before going to airport. Create

7. strategy how to convert a customer to a loyal customer and a loyal customer to a loyal
advocate in short term and in long term. Be innovative in engaging customers with
you so that it will help in creating strong relationship with customers so that customer
can trust on your product and solution, you need to explore how to exceed customers
expectation, see the example of Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is successful in creating and
selling its brand, because in each and every product of it, Apple Inc. exceeds the
customers expectation and thereby created a unique and successful brand value for it
and for all of its products. Third- Explore how to make relationship with other business
and markets, specifically the businesses which are not your direct competitor and try to
explore new way of providing product and services with the help of your alliance. Now
in this highly competitive global business market it is difficult to continue business to
outperform customer’s expectation on products and services, you may need alliance
with others to create unique value for your product and services.
1. Establish:
Once you explored all your possibilities, understanding customers demand and
more importantly understanding what you serve or produce better which will help you in
leading the market competition, create road map of how to achieve your target, how to
make the process seamless and stay competitive in the market. Establish the timeframe
for realization of your progress, create timeline for various phases of your progress,
create production plan or service approach, create plan for marketing and selling. Keep
option open to evaluate market opinion about your product and services. Mobilize your
partners and share responsibility with them and explain your goal and vision to them so
that they will understand what you are trying to achieve. Don’t hurry in expanding your

8. products or services rather focus on improving the products and services on which you
are master or which is your specialization. Try to create and establish a brand value
for your business as well as for all your products and services. Again don’t ignore what
customer’s wants, even though you will come out with some nice and unique product, it
is not always necessary that customers will accept it, keep room for improvement and
keep tight control on liquidity to continue your business. It is important to understand
what you want is not that important compared to what customers want and how you
want to operate business to how the global business wants you to operate the business.
Let’s establish yourself in such a way that your products and services will make you
market leader and help you in driving the market forces.
1. Expand:
Once you establish yourself as one of the market leader in providing products
and services in your segment explore the possibilities about how to make your products
and services more superior along with the advances of technology and high completion
of global market. Explore the opportunities to expand yourself to reach more customers.
Create expansion plan to increase the products and services. Consider expanding
your relationship with other global business players. Open yourself to adopt new
technologies. Expand your reach by efficiently and effectively marking your brand along
with your products and services in different regions. Be flexible to localize your product
and services as per regional policies, culture and customers need. Keep exploring
market statistics; it will help you to understand where you need to focus for your growth.
Keep yourself open to new innovation and creativity. Keep your options open for both
homogeneous as well as heterogeneous growth. While creating expansion plan keep

9. focus on your current products, services and on your current customer base. When you
make expansion plan, keep your option open for consolidation and contraction, because
global business is complex and are much dependence then never before, now any
issue in any corner of this interlinked flat world affects the global economy and global
business operation.
Conclusion:
With the expansion of Global Information Technology and cross border business
models, the global business environment is very flat and in reach of every individuals
and business who really understand how to utilize it. The data which is available here in
North America is also available to people of Togo in Africa to Bhubaneswar in India to
Qatar in Middle East. Now it is high time for all businesses to understand and accept
this extremely complicated interdependence business model. As we are going to the
future where global information technology and global business environment along
with different individuals those who resides in various part of this world will decide
who is going to survive in the market and who will get wiped out of this global market
place, each businesses need to understand the globalized markets inter dependency
and create the strategy accordingly otherwise they will part of the history and only be
referred in articles like this to prepare case study by discussing their failure stories.