Response to The World is Flat

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After finishing the first two chapters of Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat I was overwhelmed with information and felt like my head was going to explode. Hoping this would pass, I decided to take a break and visit with some family since I was on vacation. After the usual meet and greet I was presented with a token from my cousin, a box of Pueblo Colorado mints. As part of the social norm I graciously thanked her and went about the rest of my day not even thinking about the mints. After cleaning up I sat down and saw the mints sitting next to me. As I played with them in my hands something on the back of the packaging caught my eye. In small little white letters was printed, “Tin made in China. Product Made in USA”. After staring at the tin the first 172 pages of Friedman’s book suddenly made sense.

Though I had, before reading this book, realized that goods were made in other countries then exported to America, I had never truly understood the progress that technology had made across the globe. After reading Friedman’s novel I was not only able to see the progress technology had made but also realized that I play an integral part in the process.

What particularly sparked my interest is the way that everything is interconnected in today’s rapidly moving, fast pace world. Take for example the gift from my cousin: the tin was created in China then shipped to the location where the mints were created in the USA, then shipped to the Wal-Mart where they were sold. Then when my cousin bought the mints and they were scanned, a signal was sent from the Wal-Mart to the warehouse where it shows that more mints need to be ordered for that particular Wal-Mart, and the process starts over again. What surprised me even more was how close I was to this process without knowing it. Over the past summer I worked at the local JCPenney, and after discussing the book with my parents was shocked to find that the same process that Wal-Mart uses to ensure that the shelves are always full is the same at JCPenney. Even as a low person on the totem pole, I play a significant role in the Fortune 500 Company, just by scanning every item properly. If I didn’t do my job then the store could be out of the particular goods the customers currently need or want.

My parents also work for JCPenney, however they play a more important role at the corporate office. My mom, being a buyer for the company, deals with a copious amount of e-mails. Until recently, however, my mother was not able to work from home because she could not login to her work e-mail because her home laptop was not able to interface with her office desktop (Page 83). Now, unlike the earlier years, because of the new developments in technology, our home computer and my mom’s work computer are speaking the same language and she can work from home. She can now perform all of the same tasks at home that she could at work except for attend her meetings. Which according to Friedman and in my opinion too may be a thing of the past very soon.

In the future, I believe companies like JCPenney will use conference rooms similar to the ones developed by the Disney Company (Page 77-78). With these conference rooms available and phones being able to be rerouted, like those outsourced to India, many business offices could be obsolete, as we know them today. However some of the one-on-one conferences will still be detrimental to the success of businesses, because there still needs to be, in my opinion, a human connection. There is a trust issue that comes into play with technology, which is why one-on-one meetings are still vital to business today to give comfort to companies. With advances in technology and the way businesses are run rapidly transforming, the world is without a doubt being flattened.

I do agree with Friedman. I think the world is definitely flat. I see where he is coming from with the ten forces that flattened the world. I do however think that there are some spikes and hills that have not yet been flattened. In the next few years, these spikes could very well be gone, some of which are located in the USA and not just in developing nations. Friedman referenced to a train ride in which he was traveling150 miles per hour, and his friend was still able to get a clear WiFi signal and e-mail (Page 165). However while on vacation in Colorado just an hour outside of Colorado Springs, a major city, I was not able to get an Internet signal. I was teetering on a spike in our flat world in ‘my own backyard'.

In the coming years, the entire globe will be flat and smooth and these spikes will be gone. However, what really makes me think is, what country will become entirely flat first? Will it be the USA or will the other countries like India, China, or Japan overtake us and beat us to the next big revolution. The United States can’t expect to be the only country in the race for the next big technological advance. We have our work cut out for us, and to keep up with these countries, we need to become as ‘hungry’ as they are for the next big advance in technology.