World is Flat

Just finished reading "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman.

Published in April 2005, this book is one of the few that deals with the global upheavals we have seen in the last few years. As is his style, Friedman dissects the issue to the very core and gives a bird's eye view of its causes and consequences. Presented against the backdrop of the new world economy where the balance of power seems to be shifting towards Asia, this book is a whole new look at globalization as we see it today. Some salient features are

1. Globalization 1.0 in the 1800s was driven by countries, muscle and brute force. The force behind Globalization 2.0, in the 1900 - 2000 era, were corporate entities, industries and companies (like the East India Company in 1850s or more recently WorldCom etc.). But Globalization 3.0 is driven by individuals, all across the globe, who are equally empowered. This empowerment is thanks to the high bandwidth blanket that wraps the globe, open source applications, and a warehouse of information (aka Google) available at the fingertips of the President of USA as well as a villager in Chile.
2. Friedman also deals broadly with outsourcing, the different forms and shapes it has assumed, its why, what and how. He also tries to analyze what its consequences will be, desirable as well as undesirable, and how we, the citizens of the new globe, will deal with it.
3. He describes the ten flatteners of the world and how they came about. From supply chaining (Wal Mart as we know it) to informing (Google) and insourcing (UPS). Just like the Interstate system shrunk the USA in the post war era, so did these factors play an important role in the shrinking of the globe in this century.
4. He discusses how complacency, under-ambition has affected the super-power-for-past-half-century, the United States. He details the challenges faced in terms of incoming competition from countries like India and China, as well as those from terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda.

A great postscript to this book will be an article on Crouching Tigers, Hidden Dragons in the latest BusinessWeek issue. This deals with the matters that are closer to my heart. This article outlines the business models and growth patterns that these countries have adopted to help them sprint faster in this marathon towards being a superpower.

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