Critique of Thomas Friedman's Article It's a Flat World, After All - Term Paper Example

? Marketing Information Systems Article Critique In the article written by Friedman, “It’s a Flat World, After All” the is in a trip to Bangalore where sudden events gave him the idea that the globe has become flat. In the current critique, the incidents in the article will be summarized and the author’s view on the various phases on globalization will be analyzed (Queen Margaret University, 2013). The article started with the mention of Columbus and his visit to India. When he returned back to his kingdom, he declared that the world was round. After 500 years, when the author visited India again, and the serious of interactions and observations led him think that world had become flat. The author started the article with the explanation of the various globalisation eras. According to the author, globalization has been categorized into three phases. The first period of globalization was from 1492 to 1800. During this period, globalization of world resources helped in shrinking the world from large to medium size (Headrick, 2000). The second phase of globalization was from 1800 to 2000 where the world shrunk from medium to small, as a result of globalization of labour and market forces. The third phase of globalization which started from 2000 has seen a drastic shift in the driving forces. It is a comprehensive mix where not only the big players but smaller enterprises are also influencing the globalisation process (Webster, 2005). Most of the parts of first and second globalisations were motivated by American and European economies and countries. But in case of third globalisation phase, it is mostly influenced by individuals and diversified businesses. When the author is saying that the world is flat, he signifies that innovation can take place without emigration. The author has sarcastically explained the idea of cross-cultural businesses and the emergence of new IT hubs such as India. The first part of the article is an eye opener. It clearly explains the current situation where the Americans and other western countries are no longer the only influencing forces. Today, the western countries are competing with the eastern counterparts. Earlier, even after having required skills and knowledge, employees and workers from developing countries were left out in terms of proper opportunities. With the advent of globalisation, the scenario has changed and so are the available options. In the second phase, the author describes the various forces that helped in flattening the world. In the year 1989 the Berlin Wall came down. According to author and many other eminent writes, this was the first mark of globalisation (Gang, Rivera-Batiz and Yun, 2010). As the fall of the Berlin wall symbolised economic freedom for Germany in the year 1995, Netscape was announced public. This opened up the era of fibre-optic telecommunication system and the stocks of Netscape triggered the boom. This boom influenced huge amount of investments in the fibre-optic cable systems. The opening of Netscape gave people to people connectivity as the browser data and images could be stored (Garnham, 2000). In the last one decade, there have been massive investments in information technology. Undersea cables, broadband connectivity through satellites, all have changed the shape and image of the world. Global communications have become real abundant and cheap as well as readily accessible. Thus, even smaller business enterprises are able to communicate with clients and business partners anywhere in the world, without any physical presence (Stehr, 2000). The greatest flaw of the article is that the fundamental base of the article is based on a single man’s perception. The author is thrusting on one big notion that the world is flat, which ironically, has never emerged in the entire article directly. Poverty and increasing gap between rich and poor is one of the aspects which were entirely left out by the author (Slabbert and Ukpere, 2011). The author recapitulated the words of Nandan Nilekani, CEO of Infosys in an entirely different meaning. The meaning of ‘levelled’ is understood as a qualitative idea that means competitive balance and equality. On the other hand, flat, is a complete geographical, physical description according to the author, which is very clear from the earlier mention of Columbus coming discovering India and announcing the world is flat. Another important contradiction in the article was the significance of the discovery of Columbus. A round earth is apprehended as better interconnected in humanity than a flat earth. The two ends are closer on a round earth, than in a flat one. Contrary to this, the author has turned the flat world into a metaphor for globalisation and global interconnectedness. Also, the author has used the word round to describe geographically isolated, old and disconnected world. In a nutshell, the author has imagined himself as Columbus, rediscovering India after 500 years. The quotes and travel patterns of the author are deliberately explained in such a way so as to imitate the journey of Columbus. According to the author, technological forces created the flat world. Ironically, there was a crucial role played by the dot com bubble. Huge investment was made on companies such as global crossing dealing with fibre optics. This resulted in the introduction of cheap communication era. The cost of internet connections, phone calls and data connected became almost negligible. Even though this made most of the cable company’s bankrupt, the world was opening up to a new reform. Dot com bust was the next blow. With the crash in the stock market, majority of the company’s started cutting costs. During this time, outsourcing became the perfect solution. Western economy needed cheap labour and their eastern counterparts needed jobs and career. Thus, a new globalisation era had started. Most of the America and European companies realised that the technicians from Asia are equipped with required knowledge and skills to perform most of the jobs (McManus, 2011). Even though the author has explained the dot com bubble, most of the writings are a personification of the author’s limited ideas. In actual terms, the dot-com bubble brought more than just technical evolutions (Hannabuss, 2007). The author explains the importance of software and technology in bringing people from faraway places to a common platform. But the major problem with the article is that nothing is related to the statement which is made by the author. Flattening of the world and global acceptance of outsourcing has no relation. The author is known for unique writing style and this article issue followed by the book seems to be a desperate attempt by the author to be in limelight. Many sections of the articles are just plain descriptions of the surrounding and author’s experience about the city of Bangalore. The metaphors and sarcastic humours used in the article are in no way related to the actual article ingredient. The major danger that can arise from Friedman’s flat world thesis is that it can be taken in an entirely opposite interpretation by the executives. The executives can misinterpret the trends in the businesses they observe and take decisions which are strategically incorrect. For example, instead of pursuing a strategy for aggressive localisation, these executives can keep waiting for the operations to stabilise and fail to invest in the potential market (Kallinikos, 2010). The corporate globalisation, on which Friedman has laid down all hopes, is coming down at an alarming stage. The terror lies not only in the poor states but also for the working people in America, Europe and global south. Freidman is all praise for Reagan Thatcher for bringing down the unions. According to the author, striking the air controlled and breaking the unions restored a balance between the workers and management. He also stated that though it was not one of the milestones in America, it has a severe impact on the workforce. Also, the author shoved on the fact that though it was easier to fire workers, it was a lot more easily to incentivise and get more work out of these workers. This was a win-win situation for all. Since United States broke its union strategy and other European countries did not, according to the author United States developed into a more dynamic nation. The above analysis of Friedman is essentially flawed in the sense that he failed to follow the real economic and social condition of the US workers since then. The author has related breaking down of the unions as an initiative to globalisation. However, it can be observed that the wages of the workforce have remained stagnant since the 1970s, even though the working hours have increased to a high level. Compares to its western counterparts, an average US worker put on 350 hours more each year, which is equivalent to nine weeks extra. Looking at these harsh realities, the labour workers now wish that the union breakout never happened. The situation revered in case of America as they were overloaded with industrialization. A critical part to be noted is that in the entire article, the author has not written anything against longer work hours or lesser wages given to the Americans. Even, he has been found supporting it. He has termed European capitalists as obsolete, even though they are better capitalist nations than America. The author has also urged that these European nations are running on obsolete versions of capitalism and they need to shift themselves to US standards. Ironically, European countries such as Sweden have done extremely well in the recent past and they have successfully maintained high standards in their work life as well as overall quality of the society. In another phase of the article, the author criticises the French. According to him, they should be considered as an inflexible and ageing economy, which spend half of their time relaxing and taken holidays. The author has argued that workers from India and China are far better as they ready to work harder and put more effort. According to the author, retirement benefits, insurance cover for layoffs and unemployment and paid vacations, which are generally taken as signs of a civilised and developed economy must be taken back or sacrificed. Instead, the author gives importance to working harder, or overloading yourself with works. It is clear from the examples in the article where the author has commented that employees from Japan like to work 56-16 hours a day and they did not mind working in the weekends. This is a very dubious sign of global progress, as represented by the author. His definition of global successes is working hard and sacrificing more, which itself is uncertain. The author represents himself as an average individual, but he belongs to an elite family which cannot be covered from the media. It is clear that the author understands of work and sacrificing is just a projection of his own ideas and not the reality of the developing countries (May, 2002). Another botched metaphor given by the author is his explanation of racing to the top. In the entire article, the author has tried to make the reader believe that India and China are actually eminent contenders who are trying hard to achieve a significant place in the economy. However, it is not the Indian or Americans, but capitalism itself. The places where union forces are weak, workers are helpless. Even if they demand for a better wage or lesser work hours, the manufacturer shifts its plant to another place. Even though the author has tried to raise these issues, he has utterly failed to reach a dynamic conclusion or offer a considerable solution to the problems. In the entire article, the author has thrown much light on how Indian and Chinese are raising on these information technologies and how they are going to replace the Americans in the IT sector. From the quotations and examples given by the author about Indians working harder and ready to settle in a much lower price, the author is actually trying to warn the capitalist and bigger economies. However, the author fails to realise the fact that IT is just a small fraction of the Indian economy. There is no mention of the huge agricultural sector, the increasing rate of unemployment and other factors which are bringing the country down. It can be said that the world is far from flat, as of now. Executives and managers should not rely only on this theory (Mansell and Steinmueller, 2000). Instead, they should always go by analytical measurements and look for patters so that they are able to take the right decisions in the future. Reference List Gang, I.N., Rivera-Batiz, F.L. and Yun, M., 2010. Changes in attitudes toward immigrants in Europe: Before and after the fall of the Berlin wall. Frontiers of Economics and Globalization, 8, pp. 649-676. Garnham, N., 2000. Emancipation, the media and modernity: Arguments about the media and social theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hannabuss, S., 2007. Digital phoenix: Why the information economy collapsed and how it will rise again. Library Review, 56(1), pp.73 – 74. Headrick, D., 2000. When information came of age. United Kingdom: Oxford UP. Kallinikos, J., 2010. Governing through technology: Information artefacts and social practice. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Mansell, R. and Steinmueller, W. E., 2000. Mobilizing the information society: Strategies for growth and opportunity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. May, C., 2002. The information society: a sceptical view. United States: Polity Press. McManus, J., 2011. China's emerging software industry. International Journal of Emerging Markets, 6(3), pp.276 – 283. Queen Margaret University, 2013. Planning a critical review. [pdf] Available at < http://www.qmu.ac.uk/els/docs/Critical%20review.pdf> [Accessed 13 August 2013]. Slabbert, A.D. and Ukpere, W.I., 2011. Poverty as a transient reality in a globalised world: An economic choice. International Journal of Social Economics, 38(10), pp.858 – 868. Stehr, N., 2000. Deciphering information technologies: Modern societies as networks. European Journal of Social Theory, 3(1), pp. 83-84. Webster, F., 2005. Making sense of the information age. Information, Communication and Society, 8(4), pp. 439-458. Read More