The World is Flat

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I just finished reading a book about globalization. I thought I would summarize the author’s basic understanding of globalization. I am still reflecting on what all this means for the Church.

The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

Thomas L. Friedman analyzes the key factors that are driving the global economy and politics. In the first half of the book he identifies ten factors he believes are “flattening” the world. Then he suggests three ways these factors are converging to reshape the world. In the second half of the book, he analyzes how this will impact America, developing countries, corporations and geopolitics.

TEN FLATTNERS

1.  11/9/89 When the Walls Came Down and the Windows Went Up

The Berlin wall came down on 11/9, marking the end of competition between free markets and global communism. Borders were opened. People, goods, and capital were freed to flow over a much greater portion of the world.

Six months later, Windows 3.0 was released allowing people to access computer technology through a graphic interface. Anyone could learn to use a computer without knowing programming languages.

2.  8/9/95 When Netscape Went Public

Netscape developed the first full-scale mass distributed web-browser and went public on 8/9/95. Until the web-browser, one had to learn cryptic Unix code to access information on the internet. The web-browser made seamless the storage and retrieval of information on the internet.

3.  Work Flow Software

There was a time when a business might have customer service using one computer application, manufacturing another, and distribution yet another. Often these applications could not interface with each other. Work flow software came along and created a seamless integration of applications and computers.

4.  Open-Sourcing. Self-Organizing Collaborative Communities

Microsoft, Netscape, Oracle, Sun and IBM, (to name a few) spent millions of dollars developing Web server software. Who won out? Not these folks. University of Illinois’ National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) was the place where the initial software code written for today’s Web environment came from. As the NCSA became overwhelmed with internet growth, an online community of computer “geeks” collaboratively wrote patches and made improvements. The software was free for anyone to take and modify as along as they acknowledged the underlying NCSA contribution and shared any improvements with the rest of the community. This made the technology open and available to anyone with programming knowledge and insured an ever improving Web environment.

5.  Outsourcing Y2K

India had developed some of the best technical schools in the world the last half of the 20th Century, but because of a socialist bureaucratic economy there were never enough technical jobs. Only a small minority of technicians could manage to go to the US or Europe for jobs. Most of these MIT equivalent trained professionals were resigned to whatever work they could find, which was usually way below their skill level.

A decade ago, a worldwide concern developed about computer software that registered dates as two, rather than four, digits. It was feared that on 1/1/2000, that computers would read the day as 1/1/1900, and thereby cause massive computer failures. Fixing these problems was a massive undertaking requiring an army of technicians.

Meantime, fiber-optic cable had been laid around the world in anticipation of a dot.com bonanza and India could now connect to US computers by hi-speed internet. When the dot.com bubble burst millions of miles of cable was sitting virtually unused and available for virtually nothing.

US corporations who had been skittish about doing business with Indians before changed their tune. With the new technology and a cheap reservoir of technicians, the Indians were the best hope. The venture worked. The experience was highly profitable and effective for everyone. An ever expanding effort has been made ever since to take advantage of untapped human resources in areas like programming, technical support, customer service, and back-room activities in any number of industries.

6.  Offshoring.

China joined the World Trade Organization on December 11, 2001, which meant they were obligated to follow the standards of other nations in trade. Because of an enormous untapped cheap labor pool, corporations have been willing to move large numbers of labor intensive manufacturing operations to China. (This is different from outsourcing where a corporation may “outsource” one function of their operations to another location.)

7.  Supply-Chaining.

Wal-Mart is one of the biggest and best examples of a company that has worked to create as friction free and environment as it can from extracting raw materials to placing a product in a customer’s hands. Because of there purchasing volume they virtually dictate price and quality standards. They compel seamless integration into their supply chain and thus with each other. Their competing suppliers and direct competitors are compelled to meet Wal-Mart standards in order to compete. This story is repeated across a number of industries.

8.  Insourcing.

UPS used to just deliver packages. Now they do things like laptop computer repair at their distribution hubs and logistics for Papa John’s Pizza. The help even a small company have a big presence anywhere in the world. No need to create a supply chain because UPS will be that for you. Even large corporations find the global shipping and logistics issues to complex and have invited UPS and similar companies into their back offices to run certain aspects of their businesses.

9.  In-forming.

Google, Yahoo!, MSN Web Search, and the like are the way to creating a world where anyone with access to a computer can find out anything anyplace. Search engines allow for information to be queried in ways that are only limited by the imagination of the inquirer.

10.  The Steroids. Digital, Mobile, Personal, and Virtual

Digital, mobile, and personal devices have made access to information and communication more accessible than ever before. Even in relatively underdeveloped regions with undependable power, there are devices that can access satellite delivered data. Virtual meetings allow people half a planet apart have the experience of being in the same room.


THREE WAY CONVERGENCE

Convergence I

The combination of the ten factors led to iterative and accelerating development of new technologies and collaboration without regard to geography, distance, time, and increasingly language.

Convergence II

The reshaping of business practices and cultures that facilitate and maximize the use of the new technologies and collaborations.

Convergence III

The incorporation of the half of the planet that is still largely untouched by the “flattening” of the world. Thereby, tapping even more creativity and innovation.


Observations

I can’t say I agree with all of Friedman’s politics but I do think his on to the major themes. I particularly liked his assessment of militant Islam and globalization.

In the early part of the 20th Century, as urbanization/industrialization reached a fever pitch, a worldwide depression set in. Disgruntled workers and intellectuals turned to socialism as a remedy (US included). Totalitarianism emerged in Germany from a people who were destitute and humiliated by the allied powers of World War I. They sought to usher in the Third Reich.

Communist-Leninism sought to bring in the workers paradise in Russia by instigating revolution against capitalist forces. Their brand of communism was then exported and supported around the world to places where people felt humiliated and oppressed by capitalist interests.

Today the issue is globalization. Friedman writes of the terrorist threats from Islamo-Leninist. Muslims are people with a proud heritage and ancient culture. Many feel humiliated by the forces of globalization. Many are poor and disenfranchised for many reasons. The terrorists seeks to reverse globalization and usher in an Islamic paradise. Their strategy is to paralyze open societies (and thus globalization) through terror and export their revolution where ever they can. (“History doesn’t repeat itself  but it rhymes.”)

Friedman argues that globalization is a powerful force sweeping the planet but it is not inevitable. A retrenchment by hardliners in China or a terrorist nuclear explosion in a major city could bring things to a screeching halt. He also writes about what America must to do to thrive in globalization and how to bring the other half of the planet into the mix. He also gave a quote by Michael Hammer that I thought was particularly appropriate for this forum

“One thing that tells me a company is in trouble is when they tell me how good they were in the past. Same with countries. You don’t want to forget your identity. I am glad you were great in the fourteenth century, but that was then and this is now. When memories exceed dreams, the end is near. The hallmark of a truly successful organization is the willingness to abandon what made it successful and start fresh.” p. 451

Then Friedman wrote:

“In societies that have more memories than dreams, too many people are spending too many days looking backward. They see dignity, affirmation, and self-worth not by mining the present but by chewing on the past. And even then it is usually not a real past but an imagined and adorned past.” p. 451

It is a great book. Like I said, I am still reflecting on what this means for the church.


From Tom Bandy

It's an interesting book. The three basic convergences Friedman identifies are business oriented ... information sharing, organizational alliances, and larger labor force.

I think globalization (and the three convergences above) have resulted in a clash of "desirable futures". It's like a climatic weather front in which two zones of pressure converge ... with a resulting storm.

On the one hand, First World resources and innovation have begun to peak, resulting in threats to lifestyle and frustrating expectations for progressive steps toward utopia, leading affluent countries to use new technologies that manipulate the resources of the world for their personal benefit.

But having "opened the door" to let themselves out, they have also "opened the door" to let other people in.

So on the other hand, Third World social and spiritual vitality that had chafed under economic and political restrictions (frustrating expectations for progressive steps to a different utopia), have now been able to expand into the vacuum of meaning in the First World.

Its a clash of conflicting utopias, precipitated by this new "open door" of global influences. And there is a big storm. Here is the dilemma: If the First World closes the door out of fear of terrorism, they must accept diminished quality of life and lifestyle and surrender their utopian dreams. If the Third World closes the door out of fear of westernization, they must accept an eventual marginalization of their religious convictions fragmentation of social habits in the face of poverty, and surrender their utopian dreams.

Where then is the the church, Christ, and God's Realm? It goes without saying that the church must present a compelling vision of the future that is an alternative to either of the two utopias ... but which incorporates some elements of both utopias. Oddly enough, this should actually drive the church and the state to work in greater cooperation to a common interest. Currently, corporate business and religious fundamentalism are the two forces that are fueling the "storm" and pursuing competing utopias. The state needs to distance itself from both ... but it requires the moral support of the church to recapture credibility and core values.

That's my immediate, not-very-well-thought-out response to your question ...