The World is Flat

After being busy with the reporting of post 9/11 and Mid eastern developments the award winning N.Y. Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman says that he suddenly woke up to realization that world is "flat". In April 2005, he published the new book, “The world is flat” which is now on track to sell more than the million copies. Beyond just sales figures, it's important to note that this book is being read by people in government, universities are assigning it college courses, and it has become required reading in the lot of businesses.

Obviously, this book is not about world being physically flat; Instead, Friedman is referring to forces of globalization. More specifically, "triple convergence" among flattening forces, the new business model emphasizing horizontal collaboration, and opening of India, Russia, China and other closed societies after fall of Berlin Wall. This triple convergence created the more global and level economic playing field. Companies are no longer discrete entities residing in one or two countries, but span globe (Peter 84-93). Supply chains reach across continents and cultures while Americans no longer compete only among themselves for top jobs; but across entire world.

The book's material and metaphors are still being discussed on TV, in magazine articles and in many webzines and weblogs. After joining in some of these discussions, I keep re-reading sections of book, the lot of which rings true. I've always followed Friedman's articles and liked his last book: "Longitudes & Attitudes". This latest book is significant in that it synthesizes the lot of seemingly disjointed events and trends.

Friedman trumpeted his new book with an incisive N.Y. Times article (3 Apr.2005) which has now been archived, available only to subscribers. But you can read some of it, plus an interview with Friedman, through web links below (Florida 45-47).

Discovering Flatness

Tom Friedman had some impressive editorial assistance with his book. Bill Gates spent the day with him to critique theory. He presented sections of book to strategic planning unit at IBM and to Michael Dell. But those things came after book was already in preparation. His initial “discovery” came while he was on another, totally different journalistic assignment.

Friedman says he encountered flattening of world quite by chance when he was visiting India. His most important collaborators were two Indians: Nandan Nilekani of Infosys, and Vivek Paul of Wipro, executives of two billion-$ software companies based in Indian high-tech capital, Bangalore (Fox 124). He describes his experiences with these people with awestruck hyperbole that he previously reserved for encounters with heroes of Silicon Valley.

By way, this becomes somewhat personal here. I was born and educated in Bangalore; I moved to England when I was 20, and then to US at 30 - I've lived more than half my life in San Diego, California. My background gives me the good perspective of new world-flattening processes that Friedman discusses, and I have first-hand experiences with some of companies he writes about. Indeed, I'll be visiting both Infosys and Wipro ...