Book Report Part 2

Book Report Part 2

Book: The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

The seventh big flattener of the world has been Supply-Chaining, and interestingly enough, in this chapter, the corporation, Wal-Mart, and it’s practices are given as the most extensive example of effective supply-chaining. To define “supply-chaining”, the book details Wal-Mart’s amazing synchronization of the manufacturing, buying, delivery, packing, sorting, distribution, and reordering processes. This synchronization, done on a global level by the powerhouse that is Wal-Mart, is attained by advanced technology dedicated to instantaneous communication between the stores, manufacturers, and distribution centers…all over the globe. It’s like Wal-Mart not only has a hand in every process of it’s manufacturing and distribution because they own practically every part of it, but each part works like a vital organ in the body, with utmost togetherness. These two things, the fact that Wal-Mart owns almost each part, and the fact that they communicate with amazing synchronization is the reason that Wal-Mart has been so financially successful, according to Friedman. And Friedman points out that this type of communication has been studied and implemented by many other companies since Wal-Mart’s recent success with it’s once thought risky investments in this technology.

The eighth flattener is Insourcing. Freidman’s example of the company, UPS, and their role in this type of flattener was very interesting to me and I was shocked by the amazing things that are handled by the company. UPS was a company I once understood to be just a courier and delivery service company. But, it astounds me that it has become so much more than that. The book details UPS as the example in this category probably because of it’s amazingly vast and varied reach into the world of “Insourcing”. Insourcing is basically when a company like UPS comes inside another corporation and takes over either their entire supply-chaining or just a part of it. So, for example, no longer does UPS simply pick up and deliver Nike’s shoes, but they actually warehouse them, inspect them, fulfill online orders for them, and THEN deliver them to the consumer. And they do this for many other companies as well. And in some company’s cases, UPS handles all of the warehousing, shipping, and monetary exchange and the company never touches their products at all!

Regarding Insourcing (and UPS), the book cited one example that I found particularly incredible. When you send in your Toshiba Laptop for warranty repairs, oftentimes, that laptop never leaves the UPS distribution Hub, and instead a UPS employee, fully trained and ready to fix laptops, actually sits down and fixes the item him or herself. And then they box it back up, slap Toshiba’s label back on the box, and deliver it back to the anxiously awaiting customer. There is genius in this in that EVERYONE is happy. UPS makes money off of Toshiba for handling the job. Toshiba has happy customers who will return to them for their next laptop, and the customer knows nothing about it except for the fact that their laptop was repaired in a few short days instead of a few weeks! In addition to this, companies like Toshiba, employ out-of-country repairmen to go out to homes and fix products onsite! So, there’s no problem if your laptop breaks while you are on a business trip in Mumbai…because UPS is everywhere! This…well…this is amazing to me. It makes me wonder how many other areas are handled by UPS and other companies like it. I wonder if the people who manage my apartment are really UPS employees?!

The ninth flattener is In-Forming which is the idea that humanity, from anywhere in the world, has an amazing amount of information at our fingertips through the Internet and search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Web Search. This information is available from virtually anywhere (anywhere that has access to the internet). It is about almost anyone. And it is searchable by anyone who can type and has a connection. I think this is one of the better-known flatteners. However, it is the capabilities of this flattener that are astounding. Because the technology is increasing and becoming more and more advanced by the minute, search engines are able to discriminate more precisely and information is MUCH easier to find than it was, say 10 years ago. And the fear in this is that people are gathering information about each other. If you exist…you can probably be found somewhere on the Internet…and that can threaten the beloved privacy that so many of us have taken for granted.

The tenth flattener is named “The Steroids” and it is dedicated to the amazing leap in technology that our world has recently experienced which further boosts the effectiveness and possibility of all the other nine flatteners. For an example, VoIP software is making it possible to connect to the world over the phone through the Internet at a cheaper or free format (as in the case of Skype). So what money-saving implications does that sort of phone technology have for the worldwide connectivity needs of outsourcing!? Technology is finally there…and many new “Steroids” have popped up as if from nowhere, which really make the face of the world that much more flat.

Some more examples of “The Steroids” are:

• That computers have more storage
  
• File sharing and instant messaging capabilities have soared
  
• Phone calls and videoconferencing enhanced and cheap (as in through Skype, mentioned above)
  
• Computer graphics advancement makes technology soar
  
• And finally, wireless technologies and devices, along with the expansion of better connectivity, making the world that much more connected so that we can actually USE all this new technology!

What an exciting time we live - The Information Age!

There is much more goodness to this book. But you’ll have to tune in next time to hear about all it’s wonders. See you then!

Book Report Part 1

Book: The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

This book starts out explaining about the experiences of many Americans and Europeans calling their software company, their bank, or Credit Card company and having the pleasure (or for some, difficulty) of speaking with someone bearing an Indian accent. Some of our taxes are even being done in India! This is evidence of the flat world. The fact that it is cheaper and in some cases, easier to route company calls to a call center in Mumbai, India or give software development jobs to Indian nationals, instead of keep it in the Silicon Valley is fascinatingly flattening the world. The idea for the flat world comes from the fact that Columbus “discovered” that the world was not flat, but was round. And when he did, he traveled the globe and the expansion to the west began. Now, the world is being flattened again as the “playing field” is being leveled. Where Columbus thought he had found India in 1492, ironically, India is where we come back to in recent years…as the world is flattened and India and America are more easily and lastingly connected. The world is flat!

The book is not about India, necessarily. It is in fact about the entire globe coming together under a force that some call “globalization”. The world is becoming smaller and smaller and flatter and the author of this book gives 10 main reasons for this. The fall of the Berlin wall is what Friedman claims started it all. The wall itself, not being the physical barrier that was keeping the west from the east, but in fact the mental barrier. When the Berlin wall fell, communism’s strength and allure also fell with it and the world was opened up. At this time information had just begun to flow more easily. People began to become empowered as the personal computer, and Windows operating systems became available. The next big flattener was the Internet, with Netscape as the portal and new and fast fiber optic technology to make transmission across the globe, possible. Next came workflow software so that work could be done on compatible applications from any part of the globe. Information was more easily transferred, and people could work from anywhere. The world was flattened as we began to share the load with others from other places. And speaking of sharing, the fourth phenomenon has been Shareware. Or free software applications (and even operating systems) obtained on the web. Now, the average Joe (or geek, as the book names them) can make software and share it with others. Information is no longer in the hands of corporations only!

Now, we come to the idea of Outsourcing. The idea that companies would use a company in India to get specific jobs done - like small pieces of a puzzle, where one piece is made in India. And ironically, India again is where outsourcing first began with the Y2K scare. Companies contracted Indians to help us with the “crisis”. And at this time, we began to experience another flattener, offshoring. The difference between outsourcing and offshoring is this: Outsourcing is contracting another company to do a specific job, whereas offshoring is picking up and moving an entire branch of a company or an entire factory and placing it’s entire operation in another locale. China has been the biggest contributor to our offshoring. We have multiple factories in China as of now, and their zeal and work ethic are causing our companies to work even harder to catch up! The final four are Supply-Chaining, Insourcing, In-forming, and The-Steroids and you’ll have to wait and see what these final four are about until the next entry!

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