JEAN PHILIP DE TENDER

Het heeft een paar maanden geduurd vooraleer ik me door The World is Flat heb kunnen worstelen. Release 2.0 telt net 600 pagina’s. Zojuist kwam release 3.0 uit op paperback. Thomas Friedman is columnist bij The New York Times. Z’n columns ken je misschien via De Morgen. Eerder won hij  The Pulitzer Prize met z’n boek The Lexus and the Olive Tree.

Een paar kerngedachten uit het boek :

Globalization 3.0

1.0 : from 1492 (Columbus) till 1800 =

world evolves from size large to size medium

countries rule : power (muscle, horse, steam …) and how to deploy it

2.0 : from 1800 till 2000 =

world evolves from size medium to size small

multinationals rule : global economy + hardware

3.0 : from 2000 > =world evolves from size small to tinyindividuals rule : digital ero + flat-world platform

Ten Flatteners

1 # 11.09.1989 : The new age of creativity : when the walls come down and the windows went up.

– Fall of the Berlin wall = the world is a seamless whole.Global policy instead of Eastern and Western policy.

– Windows PC = people become the authors of their own content in digital form and they can share that far and awide.

2 # 09.08.1995 : The new age of connectivity : when the public went around and Netscape went public.

– Me and my computer interacting with anyone anywhere (browser) on any machine (internet protocol).

3 # Work flow software.

– Work flow software platforms that enable you to create virtual global offices, not limited either by the boundaries of your office or your country, and to access talent sitting in different parts of the world and have them complete tasks that you need completed in real time.

4 # Uploading : harnessing the power of communities.

– Community developed software : the open source software.

– Community developed answers.

– Blogging : uploading news and commentary.

– Wikipedia : community-uploaded content.

5 # Outsourcing : Y2K & India.

Due to Y2K America and India started dating. It demonstrated to so many different businesses that the combination of the PC, the internet and fiber-optic cable had created the possibility of a whole new form of collaboration and horizontal value creation : outsourcing. Any service, call center, business support operation, or knowledge work that could be digitized could be sourced globally to the cheapest, smartest, most efficient provider. Using fiber-optic-cable-connected workstations, Indian techies could get under the hood of your company’s computer and do all the adjustments, even though they were located halfway around the world.

6 # Offshoring to China.

On December 11 2001 China formally joined the World Trade Organization, which meant Beijing agreed to follow the same global rules governing imports, exports, and foreign investments that most countries in the world were following. One of the biggest countries in the world is eager to learn …

7 # Supply-chaining.

If you lift a product from the shelves from Wall Mart and the cashier scans it, a signal will be generated. That signal will go out across the Wall Mart network to the supplier of that product – whether that supplier’s factory is in coastal China or coastal Maine. That signal will pop up on the supplier’s computer screen and prompt him to make another of that item and ship it via the Wal-Mart suplly chain and the whole cycle will start anew.

8 # Insourcing.

UPS is your laptop repairer. If you own a Toshiba laptop computer that is under warranty and it breaks and you call Toshiba to have it repaired, Toshiba will tell you to drop it off at u UPS store and have it shipped to Toshiba, and it will get repaired and then be shipped back to you. But here’s what they don’t tell you : UPS doesn’t just pick up and deliver your Toshiba laptop. UPS actually repairs the computer in its own UPS-run workshop dedicated to computer and printer repairs at its Louisville hub.

9 # In-forming : Google, Yahoo!, MSN Web Search.

In-forming is the individual’s personal analog to uploading, outsourcing, insourcing, supply-chaining, and offshoring. In-forming is the ability to build and develop your own personal supply-chain – a supply chain of information, knowledge, and entertainment.  In-forming is about self-collaboration – becoming your own self-directed and self-empowered researcher, editor, and selector of entertainment, without having to go to the library or the movie-theater or through network television.

10 # The Steroids : digital, mobile, personal and virtual.

– Digitzation.

– Instant messaging and file sharing.

– VOIP : making phone calls over the internet.

– Videoconferencing.

– Computer graphics.

– New wireless technologies and devices.

The Triple Convergence :

• CONVERGENCE I: Up until the year 2000 the ten flatteners were semi-independent from one another. However around the year 2000, all of the flatteners converged with one another. This convergence could be compared to complementary goods, in that each flattener enhanced all of the other flatteners; the more one flattener developed, the more the global playing field was leveled.

• CONVERGENCE II: After the emergence of the ten flatteners, a new platform had to be built in order to do business. Businesses had to begin collaborating horizontally as opposed to vertically (top down method of collaboration where innovation comes from the top). Horizontalization meant that companies and people had to start collaborating with other departments or companies in order to add value creation or innovation. However, the convergence occurred when horizontalization and the ten flatteners began to reinforce each other. In other words when people began to reorient themselves and their businesses to new technologies the world flattened a little more.

• CONVERGENCE III: After the fall of the Berlin Wall, countries such as: China, India, Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Central Asia that followed a Soviet economic plan began to open up their economies to the world. When these new players converged with the rest of the global playing field, they added new brain power to that field. Therefore, the convergence enhanced horizontal collaboration across the globe. In turn, this convergence was the most important force in shaping politics and economics in the early twenty-first century.