Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Friedman)
By Mike Lee
This force meant taking some specific, but limited, function that your company is doing in-house and having another company perform that exact same function for you and then reintegrating their work back into your overall operation. 6. Offshoring This force meant being able to manufacture the very same product in the very same way, only with cheaper labor, lower taxes, subsidized energy, and lower health-care costs in another country, then integrating it into [your] global supply chains. 7. Supply-Chaining This force allowed [horizontal collaboration]among suppliers, retailers, and customersto create value, resulting in the adoption of common standards between companies and more efficient global collaboration. 8. Insourcing This force allowed small companies could suddenly see around the world and sell their products and services globally, while large companies could act really small and customize products at the last minute. 9. In-forming This force gave all the worlds knowledge, or even just a big chunk of it to anyone and everyone, anytime, anywhere, resulting in 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 Steriods (computers, the Internet, wireless, and personalization) This force, made up of specific technologies, supercharged all the other flatteners.
2. Convergence II This is the emergence of a large cadre of managers, innovators, business consultants, business schools, designers, IT specialists, CEOs, and workers. 3. Convergence III This is the creation of horizontal collaboration and value-creation processes and habits that could take advantage of this new, flatter playing field.
5. Who Owns What? This is where we need to decide whether we build legal barriers to protect an innovators intellectual property so he or she can reap its financial benefits and plow those profits into a new invention, [or] keep [the] walls low enough so that we encourage the sharing of intellectual property, which is required more and more to do cutting-edge innovation. 6. Death of the Salesmen This is where efficiency and automation is replacing human beings. Its hard to create a human bond with e-mail and streaming Internet.
humans are innovating back into the system to make the whole that much more productive. 5. The Great Adapters These are jobs that involve being adaptable and versatile and are capable not only of constantly adapting but also of constantly learning and growing. 6. The Green People These are jobs that involve designing and building renewable energies and environmentally sustainable systems. 7. The Passionate Personalizers These are jobs that involve pure passion pure entertainment [and] a creative touch that no one else thought of adding. 8. The Great Localizers These are jobs that involve [understanding] the emerging global infrastructure, and then [adapting] all the new tools it offers to local needs and demands.
This is where we need politicians who are able and willing to help educate and explain to people what world they are living in and what they need to do if they want to thrive in it. Summoning all our [nation's] strengths and skills to produce a twenty-firstcentury renewable energy source is George W. Bushs opportunity to be both Nison going to China and JFK going to the moon in one move. 2. Muscles This is where the government and companies can guarantee you that [they] will concentrate on giving you the tools to make yourself more lifetime employablemore able to acquire the knowledge or the experience needed to be a good adapter, synthesizer, collaborator, etc. 3. Cushioning This is the concept of wage insurance that would compensate you for your old specific skills, for a set period of time, while you take a new job and learn new specific skills. 4. Social Activism This is where global corporations must develop moral consciences because they are going to command more power, not only to create value but also to transmit values, than any transnational institutions on the planet. 5. Parenting This is where we need a new generation of parents ready to administer tough love: There comes a time when youve got to put away the Game Boys, turn off the television, shut off the iPod, and get your kids down to work.
3. Reform Retail This is where a country [looks] at infrastructure, education, and governance and [upgrades] each one [on a tactical, detailed level], so more of your people have the tools and legal framework to innovate and collaborate at the highest levels. 4. Culture and Glocalization This is where a country asks itself how outward your culture is: To what degree is it open to foreign influence and ideas? How well does it glocalize [(adopt foreign ideas)]? as well as how inward your culture is: To what degree is there a sense of national solidarity and a focus on development, to what degree is there trust within the society for strangers to collaborate together, and to what degree are the elites in the country concerned with the masses and ready to invest at home? 5. The Intangible Things This is where a society increases its ability and willingness to pull together and sacrifice for the sake of economic development as well as has leaders with the vision to see what needs to be done in terms of development and the willingness to use power to push for change rather than to enrich themselves and preserve the status quo.
This is where companies take advantage of the triple convergence to collaborate with the smartest, most efficient people you can find anywhere in the world. 5. Get Regular X-rays This is where companies constantly identify and strengthen their niches and outsource the stuff that is not very differentiating. 6. Outsource to Win This is where companies [outsource] to acquire knowledge talent to grow their business faster, not simply to cut costs and cut back. 7. Be Socially Responsible This is where companies pioneer socially responsible outsourcing [where it's not just about] saving money they can invest somewhere else, [it's about] creating better lives for some of the poor citizens of the world.
This is the phenomenon that allows diaspora communities around the world to use todays global media networks to cling to their local mores, news, traditions, and friendsno matter where they are living. It is not the global which comes and envelops us. It is the local which goes global.