Googol

When China officially joined the World Trade Organization, they paved the way for offshoring. Offshoring started in the 1980’s when investors realized the potential of using the Chinese disciplined labor pool to make things in China, at a much lower cost, and sell them abroad. Offshoring is when a company takes it factories that are based in the U.S. and moves the entire operation to another country, such as China, Mexico, or Japan, where the same products can be made exactly the same way with cheaper labor, lower taxes and lower health care costs. This differs entirely from outsourcing, which is where a company takes a specific function, or job duty that was being done in the U.S. and has another company perform these duties and integrate them back into your operation at a lower cost. Both of these methods greatly increase the chance of success of your business.

Wal-Mart is the king of supply chaining and has shaped the way the distribution of products is handled. Wal-Mart has conquered supply chaining which is the administration of how products and goods are distributed. As Yossi Sheffi states, “Making stuff – that’s easy. Supply chain, now that is really hard.” Wal-Mart has the advantage here, since their supply chain is so strong. They are able to distribute goods across the globe, which involves dozens of suppliers, distributors and carriers. Every company wants to mimic Wal-Mart and its business practices since they have this method down to a science. Once you take a product to the checkout stand, their headquarters are notified of this purchase, a message is then sent to the manufacturer where more products are ordered and shipped to the necessary stores. The faster you can notify your manufacturer of your needs, the quicker they can send products down the supply chain and you can meet your customers demands by stocking your shelves.

I truly cannot fathom the world without Google. I personally use Google at least 20-30 times a day, whether it is to check the traffic on my way to work, find the answer to a random question or look up recipes for dinner that night. Google has allowed everyone access to all of the information in the world with just a click of the mouse. Now a business can quickly do a Google search on you to find out if you are an eligible candidate for a job, or use it to find answers that can better their business. I feel Google was the most important flattener in the world. I essentially carry the world’s information in my pocket, thanks to Google.

I love reading Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (Further Updated and Expanded, 2007) especially since this was written almost a decade ago, and I have been able to see much of these advances he has discussed and so much more. 

Good ol' Netflix

I have continued to read, The World is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (Further Updated and Expanded, 2007), by Thomas L. Friedman. In the next few steps about globalization, he talks about how workflow software helped flatten the world even more. Workflow software enables more people in more places to design, display, manage, and collaborate on business data previously handled manually. It allows software to connect seamlessly no matter where you are located or what software you are running, so people and machines can work together and make your business more productive.

Netflix is a great example of workflow software. I remember when we used to make a special trip to Blockbuster or another local movie rental shop, to browse aisle after aisle of movies. Once you found one you liked, you checked it out for a set number of days, and had to return it on time or be subject to late fees. If it was a little further back in time, you paid a fee if you did not rewind your VHS tapes. ‘Please be kind and rewind’ was on every tape we brought home. The worst part was getting a damaged disc or tape that you couldn’t watch. Since driving ten to fifteen minutes to the rental shop was not always ideal, we always ended up paying a late fee every time we rented and would hardly drive back to return any inoperable movie. But alas, Netflix is born. Netflix is a streaming movie rental service, which allows its users to download and stream a movie instantly. You pay a monthly fee, and the best part is, there are NO LATE FEES! Netflix remembers the titles that you watch and makes recommendations based on this data. You are automatically billed, since you placed a credit card on file when you signed up, and you never have to worry about what you are going to watch at night or worry about getting a bad disc or tape. Digital streaming is the way of the future for all movie platforms.

I never knew how many programs were designed through community-developed software. Community-developed software is software that can be modified by anyone, anywhere in the world without having to license it. It is cool to imagine that someone can take their programming idea, put it out in public, and have other designers and programmers assist in the development and creation of their product, only to make it better for everyone who uses it. This software is free to download and use. The only catch is that anyone who adds on or patches a fix must always give credit to the original designer. This helps keep the competition down from the big companies such as Microsoft, who develop and sell their products. It also allows the collaboration efforts of many bright minds all over the world to give insight, offer ideas, and give solutions like never before.

Outsourcing allows a business to work more efficient for a lower overhead cost. Any backroom service, call center operation, or knowledge work that can be digitized and sourced globally to the cheapest and smartest provider is considered outsourcing. I work for a global airline that is based in the United States, and we actually work very closely with Wipro in India. The amount of back office work we get is extraordinarily high, and we are not able to efficiently manage the workload to meet the needs of our customers. We shifted much of this work to them, which can range from fixing mileage discrepancies, to answering general email questions, and we are finally meeting our stats. Outsourcing to them has been fantastic and beneficial on both ends. Outsourcing not only saved India and their economy, it has helped save so many US businesses from having to close entirely.

Chat Rooms

Technology. It seems like a simple word we all know, that most of us have grown up with, yet we know so little about. I feel as if I am very tech savvy, but I am learning new and wonderful things everyday. I have been reading a book titled, The World is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (Further Updated and Expanded, 2007), by Thomas L. Friedman, that opens your eyes to the world of technology, and how fast and rampant our lives are changing due to this newly discovered phenomenon. He explains Globalization, and the ability for us to communicate with each other as humans, has taken three parts, Globalization 1.0, Globalization 2.0, and simply enough, Globalization 3.0. In my mind I see these as a scale. Globalization 1.0 took over three hundred years, starting with Christopher Columbus in 1492-1800, and really started the communication trade. Globalization 2.0 took two hundred years, from 1800-2000, and really saw a boom towards the end of the 20th century, no thanks in part to the Great Depression and both of the World Wars. We just started Globalization 3.0, and it seems that the sky may not be the only limit. I cannot fathom the abilities we will have to communicate with each other if Globalization 3.0 lasts one hundred years. I think back to Christopher Columbus and his days, and how much time and effort was used to communicate with someone halfway across the world. It took him multiple ships stocked with a full crew and over a decade to make contact on four separate occasions with the new world. It takes me mere seconds to speak with a customer service agent half way across the world with only a few clicks of my mouse. That is if I am not having connectivity issues to my WiFi! The information I have learned from Friedman was written almost a decade ago, and the advances we have had since, have been astronomical. Technology is moving so fast, it is almost impossible to grasp the advances we have seen, let alone explain them, but I am excited to see the direction it takes us.

I believe Friedman hits it on the head when he discusses the fall of the Berlin Wall and what that meant on moving forward and ushering in Globalization 3.0. He explains that the world could not be seen globally when the wall was up. There were Western policies and Eastern policies, and it was blocking the world from operating as a single market. Once the wall fell, it opened up every avenue for this to occur. I was too young to know at the time what this all meant, and the impact it would have on my life. All I remember is the famous quote from President Ronald Reagan, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Once the wall came down, I feel Friedman perceived this as the beginning of new era of knowledge, and he could see the impact this would have on life. The world was a better place with the wall gone, and now the world could begin to communicate from every corner of the globe. The playing field had been leveled, and everyone noticed. As Friedman stated, “To put it another way, the fall of the wall enhanced the free movement of best practices.” 

Gone are the days of the dial up connection, having to watch your minute usage, AOL Keywords and chat rooms, getting kicked off the web because someone picked up the phone or Heaven forbid, someone calling the house for your sibling. These all may be a thing of my past, but I will never forget the struggles as a young teenage boy waiting 10 minutes for a web page to load, or losing my chat session with hot babes. This was all possible because of the Netscape browser. The creation of the web browser allowed anyone with a PC and a modem to share files and made it seamless, efficient, but overall it made it quick. It brought information to your fingertips, no matter your age, and allowed big businesses, governments and individuals to connect like never before. Finally everyone could connect with everyone. It was the world wide web delivered on a disc. Although Netscape paved the way for other browsers, it succumbed to its own success and overwhelming pressure from Microsoft. Netscape boomed so quickly, it could not keep up with the demand of business, and eventually sold out to AOL. As Jim Barksdale, former Netscape CEO said, “We were profitable almost from the start. Netscape was not a dot-com. We did not participate in the dot-com bubble. We started the dot-com bubble.” 

Works Cited

Friedman, Thomas L. The World is Flat, Further Updated and Expanded, Release 3.0

New York: Picador, 2007

President Ronald Reagan, Berlin Wall Speech, West Berlin: June 12, 1987