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The World Is Flat   Term Paper ID:40611 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: This paper speaks to Thomas L Friedman's book The World Is Flat identifying five ...... More...

7 Pages / 1575 Words 3 sources, 19 Citations, MLA Format $28.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: This paper speaks to Thomas L. Friedman's book, The World Is Flat, identifying five geographic concepts that Friedman addresses in the book--migration, specialization, location, region, and environment--and defining each in addition to explaining how Friedman addresses them in his book. Paper Introduction: The World Is Flat Thomas L Friedman\'s book The World Is Flat is an insightful andilluminating explanation of how globalization is flattening all theknowledge centers on the planet together into a single global network which if politics and terrorism do not get in the way could usher in anamazing era of prosperity innovation and collaboration by companies communities and individuals Among the concepts that Friedmanexplores in the book with respect to the respective flatness of the worldare location specialization region environment and Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. If the office in Paris can videoconference with the officein New York without a party from either office setting foot on a plane, thegeographical distance no longer matters. For example, New York City isin the northeast segment of the United States, on the Eastern seaboard.However, in the flat world, location is less a precise position defined bycoordinates on the map than a relative position defined by how accessibleit is to what is important to it. While the Internet, for example,flattens the world, people without access to the Internet need to migrateto an area that offers access to it in order to benefit from and becomepart of the flatter world. In much the same way, the virtual environment, the free tradeenvironment, and other environments of condition take the world'sinhabitants to an even playing field on a flat world, where everyone(atleast theoretically(has an equal chance at success. You Are There - History Comes to Television." Rewind the Fifties. That is the relativeinconsequence of location in a flat world. The World Is Flat is much more than a book about geography, althougheach of these concepts is a geographical one. For example, countries thatcan trade without restrictions are said to be in a "free tradeenvironment," while companies that do business over the Internet are in a"virtual environment." In the virtual environment, Friedman points out,"people need not be physically adjacent to each other" (91). The World Is Flat Thomas L. Environment-wise, however, geography isjust relative. In an environment where a remotecall center can service a local customer so seamlessly that the customernever realizes it, location is no longer an obstacle, and in this case itis environment that makes that possible. Friedman describes the same concept again, this timeusing India and China as the example. Specialization is a geography concept that means a great deal in theflat world. Friedmanexplains this by saying, "It would appear that in a flatter world, acountry can and will lose its comparative advantage in one field much morequickly than in the round world" (273). ExtendingFriedman's concept, it is easy to see that migration in the flat world ismerely better positioning. Location inthe round world is thought to be the position that something holds inrelation to the other entities on the globe. Among the concepts that Friedmanexplores in the book with respect to the respective flatness of the worldare location, specialization, region, environment, and migration. Works Cited"Outsourcing the Drive-thru Window." Fast Food News, 6 November 2 6. Migration is the movement of people from one area to another. Geographically speaking, theworld is still round, and to get from New York to Paris it is necessary tospend about seven hours on a jet. As these people migrate to the city,"they are heading for the flat world," and "this great migration will spura huge surge in demand for cars, houses, steel beams, power plants, schoolbuildings, sewage plants, electricity grids" (Friedman 573). Today's inhabitantsof the earth are like the viewers of the fifties TV show, "You Are There,"which took them, through "the magic of television," to witness historicalevents in the past that they could not reach by virtue of physical travel(Yares). Friedman also discusses the concept of region in his book. The World Is Flat. Friedman, Thomas L. Friedman gives the exampleof calling his stockbroker at UBS one day and hearing a looping commercialover the phone for UBS that featured the idea that "UBS services were nowavailable in 'only' two locations: 'Everywhere, and right next to you'"(44). In the virtual world ofvideoconferencing, the parties can see each other, converse, put up charts,and show slides, just as if everyone from both cities were seated togetherin the same physical conference room. The commercial explained that "because financial solutions have noborders or boundaries," it had placed its analysts in markets all aroundthe world (Friedman 44). What it really is is a bookabout how environment transcends geography. In a globalizedworld, in fact, that is precisely what regions are like. When Friedman talks about "environment," he is not referring togreenhouse gases or the ozone layer; instead, he is talking about theconditions in which business is taking place. It refers to the idea of forming new jobs and career fieldsbased on new needs that arise. Although India is essentially athird-world nation hampered by deep poverty and other issues, China is ahighly prosperous nation with advanced technology. Friedman's book The World Is Flat is an insightful andilluminating explanation of how globalization is "flattening all theknowledge centers on the planet together into a single global network,which(if politics and terrorism do not get in the way(could usher in anamazing era of prosperity, innovation, and collaboration, by companies,communities, and individuals" (8). is shrinking the world from asize small to a size tiny and flattening the playing field at the sametime" (1 ). Ageographic region is nothing more than a particular area of the earth'sgeography that is delimited by either natural or political boundaries.Friedman asks the reader to envision what it would be like "if regions ofthe world were like the neighborhoods of a city" (411). Friedman asserts that "Globalization 3. The customer at a Wendy's restaurant pulls up to the drive-thru order box and places his order, thinking that he is speaking tosomeone a few yards away in Wendy's kitchen, but he may be speaking tosomeone at a remote call center down the street or as far away as India("Outsourcing the Drive-thru Window"). AsFriedman describes it, migration is a prerequisite for some people tobecome part of the flatter world. The example that he gives is that of the 7 to8 million of China's vast population of 1.3 billion people that stilllive in rural areas (Friedman 573). If access to goods and services is limited inArea A but abundant in Area B, then migrating to Area B creates a flatterworld for those doing the migrating and for everyone with whom they conductbusiness. China and India "will lose theircomparative advantage in certain lower-rung fields, like basicmanufacturing or textiles, to places like Vietnam or Madagascar. Even though Samsonite is a well-known company, ifsearch engine searches for "luggage" bring up Tom's Suitcases beforeSamsonite, "More people will likely click on Tom's Suitcases, and becausepeople who click through to a Web site are those most likely to buy, Tom'sSuitcases will enjoy the majority of business" (Friedman 272).Specialization promotes greater accessibility, and accessibility is a keyto business success. For example, a company located in theUnited States that does business in Japan is moments away by phone orInternet, even though it is hours away by plane. Friedmanquotes Jerry Rao, an entrepreneur performing accounting for Americans outof India, who explains, "We are taking apart each task, [standardizing it,]and sending it around to whoever can do it best...and then we arereassembling all the pieces back together at headquarters" (91).Environment is closely tied to the concept of location, because in bothconcepts, where people or companies are located is all but irrelevant in aflat world. New York: Picador, 2 5, 2 6, 2 7.Yares, Pat. People can comefrom one country and work for a company located in another country thatdoes most of its business in yet a third country. Roughly speaking, this translates to an assertion that asphysical geographic distances become increasingly irrelevant due totechnology that reduces the need for physical proximity, the disadvantagesthat used to be associated with physical remoteness vanish, and the mostremote country is on an even par with the closest one. Friedman recalls, "I loved that concept of acompany with only two offices('everywhere, and right next to you'(becauseit captured perfectly the way the flattening of the world allows companiesto be more global than ever and, yet, at the same time, more personal thanever" (45). In a flat world,however, the level playing field makes them relative equals. Location is one of the first geography concepts to change in a flatworld, particularly one connected globally by the Internet. Nocountry is immune to these economic laws of gravity" (Friedman 273).Moreover, Friedman predicts that "there will be an inexorable flow of jobsfrom the developed world to the developing world, as these new jobsregularly become commoditized and more easily tradable(and thereforeadvantageous to do in India or China" (Friedman 273). As Glen Fukushima recalls with respect to when he joinedAirbus, "There is no longer a correlation...among the nationality of aglobal corporation's executives, the geographic location of thecorporation's headquarters, and the market in which their top executivesare doing their most important business" (Friedman 247). Friedman illustrates the concept bycomparing how an unknown company can compete effectively with a globalcompany just by coming up before it does on search engine searches, anadvantage provided by a new type of job produced through specialization(thesearch engine optimizer. When companies can reach their customers within seconds by theInternet or have so many agents situated around the world that time anddistance are no longer an issue, they can develop the kind of intimatecustomer relationships that are more worthwhile for both them and thecustomers. Friedman embellishes on the analogy by comparingEurope to "an assisted-living facility" and the United States to "a gatedcommunity" with "a small opening in the fence for Mexican labor" (411).His point is this somewhat humorous analogy is that "every region of theworld has its strengths and weaknesses, and all are in need of reformretail to some degree," a process that involves upgrading the region'sinfrastructure, education, and other amenities (Friedman 412). The world seemsto shrink under the influence of globalization, and regions do seem assmall as neighborhoods. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.