The World Is Flat

Or so I’m told. It seems to be getting flatter by the day, that’s for sure.

Personally it scares the hell out of me. but what do you do? Embrace it or bury your head in the sand.

A few days ago I was having lunch with an Interactive Project Manager (one of my oldest friends) who’s about to depart to India to run an outsourcing operation and someone who runs the IT function of a small business (another old friend).

Both were reading ‘The World Is Flat’ by Thomas L Friedman
http://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Is-Flat-Globalized-Twenty-first/dp/0141022728/sr=1-1/qid=1157471391/ref=sr_1_1/026-3915125-8278016?ie=UTF8&s=books

What Friedman is trying to point out to his readers, is that just as everyone turned away from technology after the dot com bust it started to have a truly extraordinary effect on the way the world does business. And we’re only just starting to understand it now. Networked technology is making the world a level playing field that will lead to a whole new world of globalisation.

Friedman is trying to demystify the social and business changes created by new technology by presenting this simple premise: lowering of trade and political barriers, aided by technology, means that globalisation is accelerating as billions of people are ‘connected’ and able to do business together wherever they are on the planet.

It’s not driven by huge corporations, it’s driven by individuals; connected individuals with web based tools.

What does it mean? Well, I argued that it doesn’t mean very much yet. The reality is over-hyped and the number of businesses and individuals affected by this ‘revolution’ are insignificant.

But now I’m not so sure. and that’s what scares the hell out of me. Can I adapt quickly enough?