The one-sentence summary
The Internet has effectively flattened the world to the point where businesses can view the entire thing as both a potential resource and a market.
WHAT THE BOOK SAYS
Knowledge and resources are connecting all over the world, effectively flattening it.
- These forces, which include blogging, online encyclopedias and podcasting can be a force for good – for business, the environment and people everywhere.
- There are ten forces that flattened the world;
- 11/9/89: the day the Berlin Wall came down
- 8/9/95: the launch of the World Wide Web
- Work Flow Software: making much more stuff happen seamlessly
- Uploading: everybody can contribute to online communities
- Outsourcing: your company may not do much of what it sells to customers
- Offshoring: many US services are provided in India
- Supply-chaining: making sure everything arrives in the right place, fast
- Insourcing: for example, UPS repair all of Toshiba’s laptops
- In-forming: Google, Yahoo! and MSN websearch inform people at the touch of a button
- The steroids: digital, mobile, personal, and virtual devices all fuel the machine
- He also outlines The Triple Convergence. This is where new players, a new playing field, and new processes all come together in “horizontal collaboration”.
WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT
- It is a superb synthesis of all the developments you can think of in modern communications.
- Many of the elements of globalisation are recorded in a fragmented way. Here they are all drawn together in one place.
- It is very thought-provoking because it highlights how recent so many of the developments we now take for granted are.
- There are lots of anecdotes and examples to bring the drier technological points to life.
WHAT YOU HAVE TO WATCH
- It is very long, so you need a bit of stamina to get through it.