Thomas Friedman Says: The World Is Flat

The world is round: this statement is already old news. Some may say that even Aristotle knew it, almost 2,500 years ago, deep in the dusty times of antiquity. Still, in the first decade of the 21^st century, taking a significant time leap since Aristotle’s first affirmations about the world being round, Thomas Friedman challenges all scientists and declares that the world is, actually, flat[1]. In order to demonstrate that, it doesn’t take a physical journey around the globe, but the journey of information, knowledge and businesses that all circulate so fast from one end to another, as if the world was a flat plate and not a slow, round figure. “The World is Flat”, first published in 2005, is a wonderful book that illustrates the effects of globalization from a new perspective and in a very fascinating way.

Let us take a close look to what globalization, or the flattening of the world really means. From an economic point of view, globalization is “the process enabling financial and investment markets to operate internationally, largely as a result of deregulation and improved communications” (The free dictionary). Furthermore, globalization is the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology. It is not hard to spot out relevant examples in the matter: every capital city in Europe has a Pizza Hut, a KFC or a Starbucks, as well as branches of major corporations such as Microsoft, IBM, Procter & Gamble or the well known Fed Ex and UPS. However, globalization is usually recognized as being driven by a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural, political, and biological factors; it is circulation of ideas, languages and information, and it is now a new process. It has, in fact, “been building for a long time. Globalization 1.0 (1492 to 1800) shrank the world from a size large to a size medium, and the dynamic force in that era was countries globalizing for resources and imperial conquest. Globalization 2.0 (1800 to 2000) shrank the world from a size medium to a size small, and it was spearheaded by companies globalizing for markets and labor. Globalization 3.0 (which started around 2000) is shrinking the world from a size small to a size tiny and flattening the playing field at the same time” (Friedman, 2007, 10). In our era, the flat world has become a reality and a well supported fact, as we are not enclosed in the same place anymore, we can be several places at the same time; with no more than a simple click, we are at the other end of the world.

These have been said, I will introduce the first flattener, which is no other than the falling of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which tipped the balance of power across the world towards democratic free market and away from authoritarian rule, ending a 28 year separation between East Germany and West Germany. The collapse of the Berlin Wall (09 November 1989), not only symbolized the end of the Cold war, it also allowed people from other side of the wall to join the economic mainstream. Thomas Friedman viewed this event as the removal of the last fence standing, as it has represented the opening to a global world and a global economy, and, in a way, the abolishment of borders, boundaries and isolation. With the birth of this new world comes a new opportunity for emerging technologies to expand without limits bringing its citizens closer. Within six months of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Microsoft created a global computer interface by introducing Windows 3.0. Here comes the second flattener, which represents the possibility that each of us has not only to author our own content, but also to send it worldwide with the 1995 launch of the Internet. Netscape[2] 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. This flattener opened up the world of communication and e-commerce to an expanding global market. Subsequently, free workflow software was developed, allowing people from around the world to collaborate and work together on projects using a shared medium. As Apache and Wikipedia came into play, we became able to develop and upload web content and community collaboration became the third flattening force. Therefore, Friedman believes these first three forces have become a “crude foundation of a whole new global platform for collaboration” (92).

The forth flattener is nothing else but the process of uploading. “The genesis of the flat-world platform not only enabled people to author more content, and to collaborate on that content. It also enabled them to upload files and globalize that content- individually or as part of self-forming communities- without going through any of the traditional hierarchical organizations or institutions” (Friedman, 2007, 95). Communities were uploading and collaborating on online projects. Examples here include open source software, blogs, and Wikipedia; Friedman considers the phenomenon "the most disruptive force of all." (125). After the implementation of workflow software, companies began to think of new ways to save money while utilizing the new technologies and this is how the fifth flattener appeared. It was proven to be more economical to ship, or outsource, certain jobs to countries where labor was cheaper. The new foreign employees would sometimes earn a tenth of the salary of their American counterparts. For example, the Preparations for Y2K[3] required resources beyond those available in the United States and as a result, India became responsible for a huge portion of these preparations. 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. The sixth flattener, offshoring, using the Chinese manufacturing sector as a prime example, has forced other developing countries to try to keep up with their low cost solutions, resulting in better quality and cheaper products being produced worldwide. The seventh flattening factor is our introduction to supply chaining; the author compares the modern retail supply chain to a river, and points to Wal-Mart as the best example of a company using technology to streamline item sales, distribution, and shipping.

With insourcing, informing and “the steroids”, Friedman finishes up the list of the ten flatteners, as well as the effect they will have on the way we do business in the future. UPS stands as a prime example for insourcing, in which the company's employees perform services-beyond shipping-for another company. For example, UPS itself repairs Toshiba computers on behalf of Toshiba. The work is done at the UPS hub, by UPS employees. Google and other search engines are the prime example of informing. "Never before in the history of the planet have so many people-on their own-had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people", writes Thomas Friedman (183). Technology catches up to the first 9 flatteners. With the capabilities of connecting wirelessly and using VoIP anyone carrying a capable device (cell phone, PDA, MP3 players, PSP’s, etc.) anyone can benefit from the 9 previous flatteners from almost anywhere, which is why the tenth flattener is called “the steroids”.

As a conclusion, do not rush to look out the window and wonder if one walks on a straight line he could reach the edge of the world and fall. Instead, think about how much you use the Internet, all the information you search on Google, your IM list of friends, your profile on Facebook, the headphones that you have just received through shipping from the USA, the Carrefour in the nearest mall where you go shopping every Saturday and where you get everything you need: this is the real meaning of the flat world. It is the interception of business, of information, of ideas, of people that are connected to each other despite the great physical distance between them. This is what globalization really means and everyone is a part of it, every day, even unconsciously.

Sources:

Berger, D. (n.d.). Retrieved May 2, 2010, from MadSci Network: Science History: http://www.madsci.org/

Friedman, T. (n.d.). It's a Flat World, After All. Retrieved April 28, 2010, from New York Times magazine: www.nytimes.com/

Friedman, T. (2007). The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. . New York: Picador.

Friedman's Flatteners., http://wiki.wsu.edu/

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

[1] Metaphor used to describe the next phase of globalization.

[2] The first Internet browser

[3] Programmers dropped the first two digits of the year to save time and computer memory, so on January 1 2000 the date was supposed to go from "99" to "00", which signified going back to year 1900. This could result in a wide variety of malfunctions, many of them unpredictable; therefore, new software had to be developed in order to fix the problem.