The World Is Flat Essay

World is flat Essay
1. "But Friedman's image of a flat earth is profoundly misleading – a view of the world from a seat
in business class. Flatness is another way of describing the transnational search by companies for
cheap labor, an image that misses the pervasiveness of global inequality and the fact that much of
the developing world remains mired in poverty and misery. It also misses the importance of the
global geopolitical hierarchy, which guarantees the provision of stability, property rights, and other
international public goods. The rise of China and India is less about flatness than it is about dramatic
upheavals in the mountains and valleys of the global geopolitical map"
Question: Do you agree or disagree with this view by a critic, and to...show more content...
Also, this software has changed some job interview processes. Now, companies can save cost by
interviewing potential employees through the computer. Especially, if the company is looking to
hire a person from abroad. In my opinion, I can potentially see more interviewers using this
software as part of their hiring process. Therefore, this could affect the way I prepare for the
hiring process and communicate to my future boss. The last technology that has affected my life
is online shopping. These days, I do most of my shopping on Amazon.com because the business
has fast shipping if you're a prime member and saves my wallet money. I notice most items I buy
from the business are items that are from other sellers. I believe Amazon has found a way to cut
cost by not making the product and no retail store. Therefore, it seems to me they have saved a lot
of expenses. In my opinion, the Amazon process has affected my shopping habits in the real world.
In conclusion, these three examples have affected my wallet in a positive way and have given me
the ability to communicate from distance.
3. What qualities enabled India to take center stage when the looming Y2K scenario generated
unprecedented demand for programmers? What can other nations learn from India's success in this
realm? What are India's greatest vulnerabilities?
Answer: The qualities that enabled India to take advantage of the approaching Y2K scenario was
investing in education and
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Why The World Is Flat
"The world is flat". For Thomas Friedman and business kin alike, this notion is widely accepted.
Nowadays, there is more integration and interdependence of knowledge and physical resources
between nations than ever before. We operate in a global market place where commerce and its
affects are felt universally. Thus, recognizing how business is conducted in different cultures is
central to creating and sustaining successful beneficial relationships as well as understanding and
promoting the world's greater welfare. The internationally focused programs at the Henley Business
School at the University of Reading in England immerses students into the context of key themes and
emerging challenges facing businesses across the world. As an International

Essay on World is Flat
After reading The World is Flat, I would have to say that I believe the world is flat as according to
the author Thomas L. Friedman. Globalization has taken the world by storm and everything that
we do in this world is done with technology. Ever since the world was introduced to the World
Wide Web in 1993, we have spiraled in a new direction at a rapid speed, and we have yet to slow
down. Technology has advanced so much that nowadays we do not need actual people to run a
business and at that rate we are going a much flatter world. Thomas L. Friedman refers to the world
being flattened while he was sleeping, and I believe that this is the case because it seems as though
it happened overnite.
In my have opinion, the flattening of...show more content...
This is especially important with the Iraq situation continuing for such a lengthy amount of time to
be a world that is just made up of computers and machines.
In his book Friedman refers to the ten forces that helped shape the world as we know it to be today:
1.Collapse of Berlin Wall––11/89: The event not only symbolized the end of the Cold war, it
allowed people from other side of the wall to join the economic mainstream. (11/09/1989)
2.Netscape: Netscape and the Web broadened the audience for the Internet from its roots as a
communications medium used primarily by 'early adopters and geeks' to something that made the
Internet accessible to everyone from five–year–olds to eighty–five–year olds. (8/9/1995)
3.Work Flow Software: The ability of machines to talk to other machines with no humans involved.
Friedman believes these first three forces have become a "crude foundation of a whole new global
platform for collaboration."
4.Uploading: Communities uploading and collaborating on online projects. Examples include open
source software, blogs, and Wikipedia. Friedman considers the phenomenon "the most disruptive
force of all."
5.Outsourcing: Friedman argues that outsourcing has allowed companies to split service and
manufacturing activities into components, with each component performed in most efficient,
cost–effective way.
6.Offshoring:

The World Is Flat
The World Is Flat A Brief History of the Twenty
–First Century by Thomas L. Friedman First
published: 2005 Table of Contents Key Figures Short Summary (Synopsis) Thomas L. Friedman–
Biography Genre | | | | Chapter Summaries with Notes / Analysis Chapters 1 – 4 – How the World
Became Flat Chapters 5 – 9 – America and the Flat World Chapter 10– Developing Countries and
the Flat World Chapter 11– Companies and the Flat World Chapters 12– 14 – Geopolitics and the
Flat World Chapter 15– Conclusion: Imagination Overall Analysis Structure Analysis Key Facts
Important Quotations / Memorable Quotes and Analysis Questions Memorable Quotes Quiz
Vocabulary Study...show more content...
Friedman shows how, as services and goods become increasingly tradable, more jobs are likely to
become outsourced, digitized, or automated. He predicts that untouchable jobs in the new flat
world will fall into three, broad categories: people who are "special or specialized" (e.g. Madonna,
Michael Jordan, or your brain surgeon); people who are "localized and anchored" (e.g. waitresses,
lawyers, plumbers, nurses, etc.); and "the old middle jobs" (e.g. people in the middle class who are
under pressure because their jobs are becoming tradable). Friedman explores what he thinks the new
middle–class jobs will be in the flat world, calling the people who will occupy those jobs––which he
divides into eight categories–– "the new middlers." The eight categories are: "Great Collaborators
and Orchestrators," "The Great Synthesizers," "The Great Explainers," "The Great Leveragers,"
"The Great Adapters," "The Green People," "The Passionate Personalizers," and "The Great
Localizers." Friedman outlines four skill sets and attitudes that educators and employers point to
as "the right stuff" to make it in the flat world. The first skill set individuals must possess is the
ability to "learn how to learn." The second skill set is what Friedman dubs "CQ + PQ > IQ," or that
curiosity and passion, combined, are more important than intelligence. The third skill set/ attitude
Friedman uncovers is "Plays Well with Others." The final skill set

The World Is Flat Essay
ASSIGNMENT: The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman Discuss the book in general and what
he means by a "flat world" and what conditions make it flat. Focus on at least one specific topic
such as 10 flatteners or the 7 rules for companies
The book by Thomas Friedman, "The World is Flat", discusses the enormous changes regarding
technology and communications which have altered the lives of people all over the globe (1). A
large aspect in regards to the "flat world" is that we are competing with foreigners all over the world
for jobs, status, and power.
Friedman states that the world is flat because he sees it as a "level playing field" with converging
opportunities (4). He discusses events such as the creation of global supply...show more content...
Friedman states that these two aspects are exemplified by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and
the initial public offering of Netscape stock in 1995 (2). The 10 flatteners are: The coming of IBM
personal computers, the coming of the Netscape web browser, development of software programs
that allow computers to communicate with one another, development of open–sourcing, outsourcing,
off–shoring, supply–chaining, in–sourcing, in–forming, and coming of wireless technology (1).
Another flattener that Friedman feels is important is the open source movement as something with
a global affect. "Open source" regards the technique of developing software. Open source software
is developed by a team of engineers which distribute the software freely over the Internet and is
available to anyone who has the source code. The problem with open source is that it has become
somewhat of a "cult movement" (2). The increase of the Web has created the "Internet Utopians"
who are constantly in search of free information without the associated costs.
In regards to outsourcing, Friedman discusses the "dirty little secret" his idea of hiring foreign
workers for cost considerations and because foreign workers are often more competent then their
American counterparts (3). The secret is the fact that these workers are more motivated to work
harder because they know they are "lower down the totem pole" (3).
Some of Friedman's proposals and ideas seem

The World is flat
Kassandra Chang 8/21/14 Period 1 APHG Summer Writing assignment The World is Flat By:
Thomas L. Friedman 1. What is it about the flat world that both excites Friedman and fills him
with dread? Friedman gets excited because the flattening of the world means that we as people
who inhabit Earth are collecting all of our knowledge and putting it together into this worldwide
network. By doing this we would start to emerge ourselves in an era of prosperity, innovation, and
collaboration, by company's communities, and individuals. Friedman states that is if terrorism and
politics do not get in the way. The flattening of the world also fills him with dread both on a
personal and professional level. On a more personal level it fills him with dread...show more
content...
Why should we as Americans become good at it? Why should we focus on our personal
"value–add?" The "touchy feely" service stuff is the more intimate type of service and
relationships you have or offer your client on a more personal level rather than have it be
professional all the time. We as Americans, should be relatively good at this because as the book
states "anything that can be digitized can be outsourced to either the smartest or the cheapest
producer, or both." Meaning the more technical work can be taken over to for instance, India, where
someone will do that work for you, which gives you more freedom to connect with your clients. We
should focus on our "value–add" because that is what you as an individual bring to your company.
5. How are the journalism and fast food industries becoming flat? Journalism and fast food
industries are becoming more "flat" because they were two of the few jobs that didn't need
outsourcing help or hadn't been modified to include outsourcing, until now. With journalism you
have stuff going on like the Reuters operation. "Work gets done where it can be done most
effectively and efficiently." These types of professions are slowly changing to be more likely to
start allowing outsource work, which ultimately gives the American workers more free time for
"sophisticated work". These two jobs are not immune to outsourcing. You pull up to a drive through
and think the person inside is taking your order but they aren't,

World Is Flat
In the video/summary of "The world is flat" by Friedman,. he was supporting globalization in the
21st century and he ignored the negative side of it. In his case, the term "World is flat" refers to
the "leveling of the playing field" between the economic dynamics of the West and the rising
economic powers of India and China. Friedman's idea is that because of huge improvements in
technological advances, the society is becoming more and more exceptional. He didn't to take into
consideration the realities concerning the fact that in society, for such a system to work with any
kind of sustainability it needs to create recovery to the ones that have been outsourced. Friedman's
resolution to this is that creativeness will take the place of the work...show more content...
You can experience different circumstances. Friedman's idea is good and it mentioned that some
of our society's well successful enterprise are the ones that are most prepared to change but some
of them are still yet to invent or innovate anything, instead they are relying on finding new means
to produce existing products in a cheaper and faster way than their competitors, therefore raising
an environment that's not very conducive. The technology developers rarely benefit from the
majority of financial benefit from its sales agreement. He also basically he mentioned that you
have to stay educated because your line of work can become outdated in no time and then you
have to get new job skills quick. Personally, I feel that International business development in the
future will become huge as it is rapidly growing now. This particular area of business is often
ignored by professionals when making career decisions however no other sector offer such diverse
and deep learning other than developing. Doing business internationally will give the company
crossbreeding, cultural and organizational qualities in the field of evolution .. Companies that do/are
doing business internationally have the advantage to be exposed to many technical areas; these
positions will be a wide opportunity for the

The World Is Flat Essay
BOOK REPORT: The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty
–First Century is a bestselling
book in which he examines an in depth analysis of globalization in today's world. It is called the
world if flat because it is actually a metaphor for looking at the world as a level playing field in
terms of business where all of the competitors have equal opportunities. In this book, Friedman talks
about ten different factors that play an important role in explaining why exactly the world is flat. The
first of these "flatteners" was the collapse of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. He refers to this
in the book with the statement, "When the walls came down, and the windows came up"....show
more content...
These first three flatteners are the foundation to the next six forces that explain why the world is
flat. The fourth factor is uploading which he considers to be "the most disruptive force of all"
because communities of people all over the world and constantly uploading and collaborating open
source software, blogs and Wikipedias like never before. The fifth force is known as Outsourcing
which allows companies to save a lot of time and money on service and manufacturing activities due
to cheap labor and fast distribution with the introduction of fiber–optic cables. The sixth factor is
known as Off shoring which basically is the internal relocation of a company's manufacturing or
other kinds of processes due to less costly operations. Some good examples are China, Malaysia,
Mexico and Brazil. The seventh factor is the Supply–chaining flattener where Friedman compares the
modern retail supply to a river. As he states in the book "These little conveyor belts fed into a
bigger belt, like streams feeding into a powerful river." Here he is actually comparing the river to
the supply–chain processes of Wal–Mart. He goes on to state that Wal–Mart is in fact the best
example of a company using technology to streamline its shipping, distributing, and overall sales
processes. Next is the eight "flattener" known as Insourcing. Friedman uses UPS as a great example
of insourcing in that the employees of UPS

The World Is Flat Study Guide
Question 1: From our IT News video clip, 'The World is Flat' (5 pts) a)What does Friedman mean
by 'the world is flat'? Response: Friedman is referring to several technological advances that have
leveled the playing field when it comes to collaboration, and the ease of access of the web. These
technological advances have allowed political and social dimensions of society to produce a
global society and economy that allows everyone to have an equal pathway to success without
regarding geography anymore. b)What is a flattener? Describe an additional flattener not
mentioned in the video. Response: A flattener is a new way to view the global; economy as a level
playing field .In a global economy that is considered flat all individuals have...show more content...
While it is achieving incredible product efficiency, no one has looked into what the physiological
factors are of being monitored by a machine. b)As an employer why would you want to use these
systems? Why would you not want to use these systems? Response: As an employer I can see that
these computerized software systems have simplified and accelerated all regular business functions
and transactions, But while these computerized systems are now monitoring human interactions this
deskills the labor of the employees and defeats the purpose of self–actualization and purpose which
is what makes a happy employee and keeps them there working hard. c)As an employee why
would you want to use these systems? Why would you not want to use these systems? Response:
I would want these systems there checking that everything is being done as best it can be but as
an employee I have accumulated years of knowledge and skill that I am proud to put to use. If a
machine is telling me what to do, and I blindly listen I will not feel like a useful

World Is Flat Essay
The phrase: "the world is flat" can be interpreted in many ways. Basically what Friedman means
by "flat" is "linked." The falling of trade and political barriers and technical advances have made it
possible to do business, instantaneously with billions of other people around the world. It has
allowed for parts of the world, which had previously been cut off, like China and India, to
successfully compete in the world market. Thus, the playing field is being leveled, and no one
nation has an advantage. Friedman could also refer to a "flat world" in a metaphorical sense. In a
spherical earth you cannot see around the world and cannot recognize the opportunities far from
where you live. If the world were flat you could see it all. There...show more content...
Soon after, the World Wide Web was created as a system for organizing and linking documents so
they could be viewed over the internet. Individuals could post their digital content so it could be
accessed by almost anyone from any part of the globe. The commercial web browser was kicked
off by Netscape. Netscape was a huge flattening force for many reasons. The Netscape browser
not only brought the internet alive but also made it accessible to everyone. Individuals
immediately found themselves hooked with anybody's website on the internet, and in no time,
they were able to interact and be in touch with virtually anyone. Work flow software: In the late
90s, an abundance of application software hit the marketplace. The rise of this work flow software
was a quiet revolution that took place with few people knowing about it. When it was finally made
more public, its impact was overwhelming. This software enabled more people in more places to
design, manage, and collaborate on business data in real time. This software could shape things,
design things, create things, sell things, buy things, and keep track of things. It carried out
transmission protocols and standards which allowed for businesses to work together to accomplish a
common task. This contributed to the flattening of the world as more and more people were able to
interact with this type of software. Uploading: Uploading harnesses the power of communities and

The World Is Flat Essay

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