The World Is Flat by Thomas L Friedman - Book Report/Review Example

? The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman Thomas L. Friedman: information on the Thomas L. Friedman, a Jewish by religion is an American columnist, journalist and an author who has won the Pulitzer Prize thrice in his illustrious career so far. Thomas Loren Friedman is the son of Harold Friedman and Margaret Friedman. Thomas Friedman was born on 20th July, 1953 in St. Louis Park, Minnesota in United States of America. Friedman is the third child of their parents and has two elder sisters. At the age of nineteen, Thomas L. Friedman lost his father who was a vice-president of United Bearing, a ball-bearing company in US. Harold Friedman died of a heart attack. Thomas’s mother Margaret Friedman was a housewife and a part time book-keeper who was a student of economics in the University of Wisconsin. She served in the US Navy during the second world-war. Thomas lost his mother in 2008. Thomas L. Friedman is a resident of Bethesda in Maryland and is married to Ann Bucksbaum. The couple has two children. Thomas L. Friedman spent his high school years in Israel after getting attracted to the place during a visit in 1968. His high school years are characterized by Israel’s victory in the six-day war. The list of alma-mater for Thomas L. Friedman includes University of Minnesota, Brandeis University and St. Antony’s College in Oxford. After completing his master’s education, Friedman joined the London Bureau of United Press International where he undertook several challenging assignments before he was hired by The New York Times in 1981. The American columnist writes twice a week in the columns of the New York Times daily. His works exclusively cover topics on foreign affairs such as global trade, globalization and environmental issues. Thomas L. Friedman won the first two Pulitzer prizes for his international reporting on Israel, Palestine and their war conflicts during the time of his foreign posting for journalism in The New York Times (The New York Times Company, p.1). The third prize was awarded to Thomas L. Friedman for his works on terrorism. He is the author of some of the famous books namely, “From Beirut to Jerusalem”, “The Lexus and the Olive Tree”, “The World is Flat”, etc. He has won several prizes throughout is his career in recognition to his works on journalism. Most significant concepts in the book The book named, “The World is flat” exhibits some of the most important concepts of globalization in international business where the factors of globalization have emerged a forces to flatten the world. This means that there has been no significant difference between the emerging economies and the developed economies as the gap has been narrowed down by the application of advanced technologies creating a level platform for the nations, adoption of standard business practices to narrow the gap in performance results and induction of large number of manpower in the common platform to reduce the gap in productivity. The flatteners described in the book are the fall of Berlin wall; US computer services Netscape issuing shares to the public, spread of outsourcing, etc. All these flatteners are proponents of globalization which are metaphors for elimination of geographical boundaries and convergence of economic gaps and spread of international business. The companies issuing public shares include disinvestment policies to bring about efficiency in operations and increase in profitability. The spread of outsourcing evolved the role of emerging economies into a common platform of knowledge base and development. The spread of outsourcing business led to flow of knowledge from talent rich economies to the wealthy and developed economies. This led to the exchange of knowledge and foreign currencies which created a level playing ground between the nations across the globe. These were the effects of globalization that created a level playing ground between the nations and resulted into a world getting flattened. In the second part of the book, Friedman illustrated the concepts of economic liberalization and free trade between the emerging economies and the United States of America. The free trade of the goods and services between the developed and emerging economies has led to the overall development of the international economy. The exports and imports of the countries are based on the theory of comparative advantage. Emerging economies of Asia like India and China have made rapid progress in their economic developments and has created a platform of foreign direct investment that have fostered economic growth. The markets for expansion of business have found promising opportunities outside US and other developed nations. The rise of economic superpowers have created level playing ground in the global platform has flattened the world by proper distribution of resources and manpower. This is how the world became flattened reducing the gaps between the developed nations like US and the other economies all over the world. The third section of the book demonstrates the concepts of the flatness of the world and the developing countries. This provides an explanation on the gap bridged between the developing nations and the developed countries. The development of the economies is dependent on several factors such as openness of the economy to foreign investments, privatization of services and creating environment of competition within the economy. Apart from this a strong system of governance helped to foster economic growth of the developing nations. A strong system of governance identifies the areas of opportunities and frames strategic policies for implantation in order to boost the economic progress. The developing economies attracted foreign investments and created favorable business environment for foreign investors to invest in the countries that would lead to development of the economy. The governments also invested in infrastructural development and allowed subsidies to the investors which ultimately paved the path for economic development. It may be noted that even with these initiatives, some countries have failed to make economic progress, for example Mexico. Thus the initiatives for economic development need to be supported by a willing society and a leadership with vision for future. The fourth section depicts the concept of adaptability of the companies in creating a flat world. The companies which have been successful over the years and have sustained their long term growth have been flexible with their strategies and policies and have been open to changes in the market and economic conditions. The companies have adapted themselves with the changes in the government policies and the changes in the industry. The market competition has been dealt effectively by the companies through strategic measures by the management. The companies have focused on outsourcing their operation to achieve cost efficiency and increased efficiency of operations. The expertise in the knowledge and business processes have been outsourced which has led to sharing of risk and increase in returns. Thus the outsourcing activities have helped companies to reach the pinnacle of the industries and create a flat world by reducing the gap with international market leaders (Aronica and Ramdoo, p.29). The fifth part emphasizes the concept of equality in environment as a result of the collaboration between the energy resources by the nations. However, the flattening of the world may create environmental imbalance due to presence of a large number of people from the weaker parts as well as dominance of people from the powerful economies. The contribution of wastage to the environment by the US could create a menace for which they should collaborate with economies like India and China for optimizing energy consumption. The final concept introduced in the book is the competition of imaginations that shook the world in the recent decades. The fall of the Berlin Wall for example was a good symbol of openness and integration while the terrorist attacks of 9/11 was a shame for the society with evil effects trying to overcome the good. The world, however, is getting complicated day by day with flatness in shape and availability in advanced technologies in the common platform as much depends on the users of the technology to use it for the benefits of the society. Works cited The New York Times Company. Thomas L. Friedman. 2013. Web. 22 May. 2013. . Aronica, R. and Ramdoo, M. World is flat?: a critical analysis of Thomas L. Friedman's New York times bestseller. USA: Meghan-Kiffer Press, 2006. Print. Read More