World Is Flat [Paperback]

 

 

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"The world is flat" is a book about globalization. It describes the various processes of the latest wave of globalization, and the revolutionary impact it has on leveling the playing field for social, political and especially economic interactions among people worldwide.

The title of the book is a metaphor for globalization that the author derived after he was told by an Indian businessman that "the playing field of the global economy is being leveled". This notion "awakened" Mr. Friedman, who had been busy covering the Middle East after 9/11 for the New York Times, and inspired him to write this book in order to investigate the origins and implications of such a "flat world": What does it mean to individuals, communities, businesses and nations around the world? How is it changing the way we interact and do business? And what are the benefits and challenges for emerging, developing and developed countries and especially for America?

The book begins with a series of stories, interviews and statistics that demonstrate the changing nature of doing business and collaborating around the world: the Indian accounting firm which prepares tax returns for Americans (India processed 400,000 US tax return in 2005!); digitized CT scans are analyzed in India overnight and sent back to hospitals in the US; news reports, investment research, call centers, even part of the haircut service (the reservation) is now done in India; Japanese-speaking service providers and home designers in China; and retired seniors working from their homes in the US as airline reservation agents. The author marvels at how cutting-edge real-time multimedia technologies are shrinking and flattening the world by empowering individuals and groups and allowing them to bypass borders and hierarchies.

Friedman argues that this "flat world" is the product of simultaneous advances in key information and communication technologies. He dedicates a significant part of the book describing the ten major factors that converged to flatten the world, what he calls the ten "flatteners". These are the fall of the Berlin Wall, the emergence of the Internet and Web technologies, the workflow software, uploading, outsourcing, offshoring, supply-chaining, insourcing, search engines and smart phones.

Friedman then argues that, around the year 2000, a triple convergence occurred. First, all ten flatteners started to converge and work together in ways that created a new flatter global playing field. Then both businesses and individuals began to adopt new habits, skills and processes to get the best out of it. At the same time, a whole new group of people from China, India, and the former Soviet Empire walked out onto the playing field.

Globalization for Friedman is an external phenomenon - it was not planned, it is happening to us - and there is no way stopping it. Those who resist its forces will lose and those who adapt to them will be the winners. Such is Friedman's advice to many of his fellow Americans who became to view this flattening world as a threat to their jobs and security. Friedman suggests that people in the developed world must be open for change, update their skills and find ways to move up the value chain to provide complex and superior products and solutions. He gives many examples of such successful business transitions from America and beyond.

The book presents a powerful idea about how globalization is changing the way people interact and do business, and provides numerous examples and stories to illustrate and support these ideas. But the book also has many weaknesses. Friedman's definition of the eras of globalization is imprecise. Friedman also assumes that globalization is a natural phenomenon determined by technological forces, totally ignoring the idea that it is as much a political project. The author spends very little time talking about the tensions between market interests and social and cultural values that are becoming more visible as a result of this flattening world.

Also, the author dedicated only a small chapter identifying developing countries that are left behind, mainly in Africa and the Middle East. He advises those countries to focus on building their infrastructure, educate their people and fix their governance in order to better fit into the global economy. Such unworthy advice is totally oblivious to the tremendous constraints facing these countries and the competitive pressures that globalization imposes on them. Mr. Friedman talked about universal connectivity to the Internet as "as the ultimate equalizer", but he failed to take into account that such connectivity, though proliferating in the emerging economies, remains a distant reality for billions of people across the planet. And although many skilled and educated people reached prosperity in China and India, worldwide inequality has been on the rise for the past twenty years.

In order to provide evidence for his flat-world thesis, the author recounts hundreds of stories, anecdotes and interviews that he gathered from his travels especially to India, China and Japan, and from his interactions with his family, friends and acquaintances in high positions in business, government and academia around the world. At some point, the reader gets the feeling that many stories are redundant and the book becomes repetitive, and excessive name-dropping becomes overwhelming. Some might find his style nonacademic, padded or imprecise, and I agree. But it is Mr. Friedman's knack for interviewing and storytelling, a talent perfected through his long experience as a top journalist, what makes this book accessible and fun to read. "The world is flat" is an enlightening and amusing book about globalization, which can be even more gratifying if the reader skips every other page.

Many reviewers have pointed to the shortcomings of this book. Namely that this book doesn't say anything new or insightful about globalization. So let me focus on the author.

I got the impression that Friedman had just awoken to the reality of globalization when he wrote this book. It seems that this is a whole new concept for him. Of course it's something that's been coagulating since the dawn of time and he notes this with his mention of Columbus at the beginning of the book. However, he seems to believe that everyone else has been living under the same rock as him! He assumes that the reader is as oblivious to globalization as he is.

One painful example of this is his enumeration of the so called 'ten flatteners'; which essentially boils down to one word 'internet'. It's not that these ideas are obvious that they bother me. It's that Friedman thinks he's the one who's discovered them. However all the 'flatteners' are either events in history or an advancement of process. They are more or less the evidence that the world has become flat; not the causes of the world being flat. To say that the fall of the Berlin wall is one of the flattening forces is commensurate to saying that the Big Bang (the theory) is the cause of globalization as well. In other words, the world has been in a constant flux towards globalization. To say that one event flattened the world and claim it as your own original idea is pointless as we must then consider all other causes of that event.

Friedman also seems to relish the subjective notion that he has written an all too important book and basks himself too much in this light. In the chapter 'The Great Sorting Out' he mentions how Michael Sandel compared the ideas of this book with Communist Manifesto. Of course what Sandel wanted to say was 'Hey Tommy, you're a little late to the party'. But Friedman reacts with, 'ohhh myyyy gahhhhhhh. I'm..as important as...Marx!'. Read the chapter. You'll know what I mean.

I can't recommend this book to anyone. It keeps saying 1+1=2 (for instance, as a solution for developing countries struggling with globalization, he proposes that these countries 'introspect'; meaning that they assess themselves and their problems. Thank you Tommy.) This book isn't about globalization. It's about Thomas Friedman.

I ordered the book "The World is Flat" to Amazon.com. The supplier took some time to delivery and the book was not received in time. But the condition was excellent.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Get Informed
I read this book on my daily commute to work and I have to say I felt much smarter after I finished the book. Thomas Friedman is a very credible journalist. Read more

Published on Nov 3 2008 by Horace McPherson

5.0 out of 5 stars The World Was Flat
Thomas Friedman, he who observes, analyses and writes extremely well, came up with a tremoundously interesting and important book. Read more

Published on Sep 22 2008 by mehmet gok

5.0 out of 5 stars But this book isn't
I thought Thomas L. Friedman had done a superb job with his book THE LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE, and he did. Read more

Published on Mar 7 2006 by J.T. Waterhouse

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