The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman - Book Report/Review Example

When the Portuguese conquistador, Magellan, proved that the earth is round through his travel to the eastern part of world, Friedman wrote a book about global trends to prove otherwise. The book entitled "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman serves to share his views of the world and its "flatness" due to the numerous changes that has taken place throughout time. The Pulitizer-prize winner provides insights as to why his perspective and the truths behind his book. Friedman's work is futuristic and powerful that readers would be surprised about the author's analysis of the events happening around them. Friedman writes: ''Here's the truth that no one wanted to tell you. The world has been flattened. As a result [commerce has] been made cheaper, easier, more friction-free, and more productive for more people from more corners of the earth than at any time in the history of the world." Disregard the thoughts and explorations of Columbus or Magellan for that was way too far ago. The view of the world right now has changed into a flat surface and Friedman is speaking of metaphors in book. Technology has paved the way to shorten distances between countries and strengthen the relationships between people. With this, people feel the need to cope with the changing times and the continuous technological advancement for they can be completely lost in the new age. The author presented the ten forces that "flattened" the world. It commenced in late 1980s with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, which lead to the introduction of free-market prospects. The second force was in mid-1990s when Netscape went public. The capacity to surf" the Internet launched what Friedman labels a ''killer app" for millions of inhabitants. The next force was the improvement of ''work flow software," making it possible for people to ''shape things, design things, create things, sell things, buy things, keep track of inventories, do somebody else's taxes and read somebody else's X-rays from half a world away." The fourth force was ''open-sourcing," concerning ''thousands of people around the world coming together online to collaborate in writing everything from their own software to their own operating systems to their own dictionary." ''Outsourcing" was named the fifth force. As America geared up for Y2K, inspecting computer systems to guarantee their internal system clocks were attuned prior to the year 2000, it recognized the huge expenditure implicated. Once American corporations became conscious that India had the assets and capacity to do a most important reengineering job on the economical cost, it delegated further jobs offshore. The 6th force arrived which is named ''off-shoring," transferring construction out of country and incorporating the course of action into the international market. ''Supply-chaining," ''a technique of working in partnership parallel among contractors, merchants, and clientele to generate value," came next. ''Insourcing" is the 8th force and is considered as ''synchronizing global supply chains for companies large and small." ''In-forming," is the 9th force and is described as 'the capacity to construct and position your own individual supply sequence . . . information, awareness, and amusement" by means of search engines. The last force is a mixture of digital, movable, personal, and virtual technologies that the Friedman labels ''steroids" for the reason that ''they are intensifying and turbo charging all the other flatteners." To cite an example, when a person needs to shop for a dress, she can simply log in to a website that sells clothes and purchase the item directly through an online payment and have the dress delivered right to the customer's doorstep. This innovation is not all advantageous; there are hazards innate in a ''warp-speed" scheme. Terrorists will obliterate or disturb what they can. One of the fundamental inquiries of Friedman's premise is whether or not the world has become too miniature and high-speed for citizens and political organizations to amend rapidly to a catastrophe. A chief element of any calamity preparation should be the abolition of ''single points of failure" in indispensable systems. Where do the forces lead us The author does not have the answers, but Friedman's not self-conscious about contributing investigation. The author warns that obstructions to a frictionless global market" might consist of institutions, habits, cultures, and traditions that people appreciate in particular since they replicate non market principles like social organization, religious devotion, and national pride. Friedman's euphemism for dealing with this and other unsettled concerns is: ''Sort that out." The author's recognition of the problems such as intellectual property rights, global supremacy, remuneration, retraining, human rights, varying political associations, and more require thorough contemplation and resolution. While a lot of of these movements and tools could be existent years back, Friedman declares they really came collectively approximately in year 2000 in a mode that is rapidly converting the earth and connecting billions of people. Friedman agrees to Karl Marx, whose "Communist Manifesto" (1848), written with Friedrich Engels, foresaw that "all fixed, fast, frozen relations" will be brushed off by innovative machinery motivated by industrialist investments.The author is more of an optimist than Marx and many other "technological determinists." He sees outsourcing helping American workers if they can learn to be perpetual learners and develop "lifetime employability." Aside form the ten "flatteners" is Friedman's synergistic philosophy. He proposes a diagram for supervising a flat world that needs headship, power building, moderation, communal participation, and parenting. In the end, Friedman believes that there will be winners and losers. The winners will be those societies who can pull together and sacrifice for the sake of economic development. With this statement of Friedman, it is safe to assume that he believes that there is an existing competition in the world today that is why he believed there will be winners and losers in the end. Friedman's book is a great eye-opener for it gave readers a new perspective of the technological advancements. However, his view of winners as being those who are willing to sacrifice everything including moral and ethical values just to be able to develop economically is so untrue. Nowadays, companies are trying their best to be able pursue the technological advancements that they have planned but it is also now a global trend for businesses to attain sustainable development. They have realized the environmental effects of infrastructure and power plants that may cause potential harm to the environment. People are now more engaged in making their companies up for sustainable development wherein they continuously strive for success and expansion of business but still very willing to promote environment safety and protection. In today's economy hefty and diminutive businesses alike are looking to increase output. Employees are sent to management training, development workshops, and motivational seminars, all of which sound impressive yet, when everyone gets back to the office, the same challenges persist. There's an archetype in the business world. It relies on rational decisions to guide development, yet people make choices based on feeling. While technology swiftly progresses, personal satisfaction continues to turn down. Businesses expect employees to carry out tasks with amplified levels of efficiency, all the while ignoring what motivates them. Companies should ensure that the new and existing companies are all geared toward sustainable development and also motivated in helping alleviate or prevent environmental pollution which also affects economic status and international trade due several reasons stated below. Nations should also ensure that their property rights are specific, encompassing and executed properly so as to prevent losses due to violation of these international laws. A country's comparative advantage in environmentally intensive goods depends on, among other factors, its natural resource endowments, climate, distance to neighboring countries, and length of shared borders. It also depends of density, health, wealth, demographic structure and preferences of its population, including their valuation of environmental resources and amenities, their willingness and ability to pay for conservation, and their tolerance for pollution. Exploitation of natural resources may be sustainable such as in eco-tourism and logging carefully coordinated with reforestation or unsustainable such as when reducing stocks of endangered species and rampant deforestation. Exploitation depends on how property rights are assigned, the level and pace of society's economic and technological development, and possible profit margins and social preferences concerning the environment. Changes in environment can also influence trade patterns. Trade raises welfare only when the gains from the trade more than compensate for environmental degradation. Conversely, environmental policies should balance environmental improvements against reduction in the gains from trade at the margin. There is trade in endangered species, trade in toxic waste and trade in other environmentally hazardous products. Companies do serious business with facing their ethical and moral responsibility to the environment as well as to their consumers. They realized the effect of industrialization on their company as well as the environment. They acknowledged the fact that the technological advancements contribute to enhancing the manufacturing processes as well as making the jobs of their employees faster and manageable but they also understand that there may be adverse effects of this progress for their company. They accepted the truth that they may earn more but endanger the environment as well. Man's vision is to lead the way to the next industrial revolution by having sustainable corporations, and eventually a restoratives enterprise. It's an extraordinarily ambitious endeavor; a mountain to climb that is higher than Everest. This book is really a manual, or an idiot's guide to surviving in the computer age. It provides specific steps for individuals, companies, and poor nations to adapt to a "flat world." Friedman's advice to his own daughters: "Girls, finish your homework - people in China and India are starving for your jobs." But he also gives advice to leaders on such policies as free trade and how to help that half of humanity which still lives in the unflat world. He warns that those not plugged into new technologies can actually do harm, because in a flat world, "if you don't visit a bad neighborhood, it might visit you." He wants business and government to show more imagination in using and expanding this new world. No one today chronicles global shifts in simple and practical terms quite like Friedman. This brilliantly paced, articulate, and accessible explanation of today's world is an ideal title for tech-savvy teens. Friedman's thesis is that connectedness by computer is leveling the playing field, giving individuals the ability to collaborate and compete in real time on a global scale. While the author is optimistic about the future, seeing progress in every field from architecture to zoology, he is aware that terrorists are also using computers to attack the very trends that make progress plausible and reasonable. This is a smart and essential read for those who will be expected to live and work in this new global environment REFERENCES: Bass, Warren. "The Great Leveling." Washinton Post 05 Apr 2008 . Friedman, Thomas. The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Globalised World in the 21st Century. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. Read More