Photo Credit: Clara Natoli, MorgueFile
Photo Credit: Clara Natoli, MorgueFile
Posted by Administration on October 13, 2007 at 07:26 PM in News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Pre-9/11 globalization depended on the ongoing expansion of high-trust networks around the world. To move people, ideas, institutions, culture, money across borders -- trust is key. Today, fear has ticked up and trust ticked down. Borders are back and increasingly thick. We need to think through what the consequences of a high-fear globalization are. The outcomes of high-fear integration around the world are going to be different than the strain of globalization driven by the expansion of trust and before terrorism stole the spotlight from many of the other things the world needs to think about.
-- Steve Clemons, www.TheWashingtonNote.com
Posted by Andrew Sullivan on September 27, 2007 at 08:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Travis Northcutt is a college student and a thinker (mutually exclusive for some of his classmates). You can find his thoughts at flatworldblog.com.
In the Flat World, labor no longer has to move where the jobs are. Now, the jobs can be moved to wherever work can be performed with the most speed, the highest quality, and least cost (pick two). Raj Sheelvant wrote an excellent post about this "globalization of labor." He says that ten years ago, globalization meant moving goods (import/export), moving capital (FDI), or both. Raj identifies three things that have changed this trend: Demographic Shift, New Markets, and Technological Advances. Of these, I think technological advances is by far the most important. Communication has become so cheap that companies (or individuals) in developed nations can easily outsource work to areas with a far cheaper labor pool. Cheap communication, combined with a growing trend of ambition for learning in developing nations (India, China, etc.) and advanced work-flow software means that even intellectual, high value-added work can now be split up, sent wherever it can most effectively be accomplished, and seamlessly re-integrated.
What are you doing in the Flat World? The challenge now is not to fight against it (I just shake my head when I hear people complaining about outsourcing) - the challenge is finding a way to gain or maintain a competitive advantage on a playing field that is more level than ever.
Posted by Travis Northcutt on September 25, 2007 at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)