World is Flat, The - Thomas Friedman

This is a must read for anyone who wishes to understand and survive in the 21st century. Friedman traces the development of a technology driven world and what it means for individuals, companies and and countries.

Change is the only constant, and in the 21st century, change is rapid. though who adapt themselves fast save themselves from becoming dinosaurs. The wold is flat also talks about how opportunities have expanded widely with globalization and it is now much easier for people with the right intent and willingness to learn to conquer the world.

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Day by day, the feel of world is flat is simply coming true beyond expectation.

Columbus took years to find but internet took seconds

Destiny today is just impossible to predict, the more you know the less you will be close to your people, home, town, cities and nation too.

World is flat means decisions also become transparent.

Whole world is a big bazar for you, your mind becomes the captial, base and also a nation in building.

How ones mind can be a world apart.

Information flows at ligthening speed and those whose mind can grasp opputtunities that is not in one but dozens at a time, makes effect of flat world true.

Impact of flat world.

Friedman has written years back, its impact is known only after his death but we have already forgotten the effect of his death to affect us but the impact of world is flat is becoming such a reality , in a flat world where is the need to hide.

Dont hide in flat world.

In a flat world need to build a private office is not at all needed, virtual office can be your mind and the gadgets you use, from hand sized laptops to mini mobile phones and also implanted instruments inside your body and head can trigger a mega office right with you.

Flat world and you are infosysis in size.

If your brain can store all the information through the implanted tetra mega bites connectivity, sea of information become a matter of second for others through your modified office right in you and this is not on technological review aspect i am writing but it is future in store for each of us, from ordinary worker to skilled worker and any one who is interested to enjoy virtual world by means of flat world feeling.

You grow more.

From agriculture field to industry field to any type of business or even mega stores you own all by means of world is flat factor.

Again how world is flat can work in favor of you.

When the world was round feeling, take for example fifty years back, even journey to a place say one hundred miles from the native place took years time to decide, now if news flash is fast either you will fly to washington or washington will reach you in 24 hours time.

Usa to europe to any nation will be behind you.

How it can be possible for indians let me explain.

Only indians.

Yes indians have been bestowed with this advantage because whether he is muslim, christian or hindu i dont find any distinction to take the advantage of this wolrd is flat advantage because whole world is awe struck due to indians are simply genius because they are implanted with world is flat right since 4000 years back.

How fast india will rule due to world is fast let me disclose.

Actually this should have been kept since advantage india factor and would it cost my nation india in any way, and my mind tells me, world is flat the power of it will make indian military strongest because at one side indians be they are in india or abroad is one and the same.when capital flows to india unlimited.

Whole world loves to invest in india only.

Forget swiss, foreget swiss once for all, switzerland is a lazy country to live, lazy place to invest how long one wish his money stored for no usefull ness.

India will become bank of the world.

Entire indian banks will be so attractive to invest, each indian bank will gather not in billions but in trillions of dollars.

How this money will be of usefull to india.

When money is no more scare in india, there will be sea of tranquility for indian families, officials to police too.

You will live longer and peaceful too all because.

World loves india because gate way of india will be open for one and all.

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The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century is an international bestselling book by Thomas Friedman that analyzes globalization, primarily in the early 21st century. The title is a metaphor for viewing the world as a level playing field in terms of commerce, where all competitors have an equal opportunity. As the first edition cover illustration indicates, the title also alludes to the perceptual shift required for countries, companies and individuals to remain competitive in a global market where historical and geographical divisions are becoming increasingly irrelevant.

Friedman defines ten "flatteners" that he sees as leveling the global playing field:

Collapse of the Berlin Wall – 11/9/89, Netscape – 8/9/95, Workflow software, Outsourcing and much more. its worth reading book

History of the world twenty years from now, and they come to the chapter "Y2K to March 2004, " what will they say was the most crucial development? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations, giving them a huge new stake in the success of globalization? And with this "flattening" of the globe, which requires us to run faster in order to stay in place, has the world gotten too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner?

With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, Friedman explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; and how governments and societies can, and must, adapt. The World Is Flat is the timely and essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists.

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I heared this is awesome then bye one and start reading. cover page is well desgined and attract readers. This is different and history of the modern world wrote in a different way. once I started can't stop until finish it. words are simple to understand. this really eye opner to those want to thrive professionally.  This is the history of world wrote in 21 st century and different from other histories written. We hae no real idea how the 21 st centuri's history will unfold, but this terifically stimulating book will certainly inspire us to start imagine the history ahead. Hisotry is not  wrote on political context, he added flavour of technoloy to it.

Reading the World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman is like reading one of his columns in the New York Times- It is insightful, well written and a great read. It may not be what its subtitle calls it a brief history of the 21st century but it an excellent book describing the effects of Globalization Globalization 3.0 according to Friedman has taken place due to the convergence of three factors. First the development of tools that allows worldwide collaboration. That collaboration has become possible by the development of web based tools that allowed people throughout the world to work together. That convergence has become possible by worldwide access to the web and tremendous increase in the ability of all people to communicate.

The convergence included the existence of various technologies that came together that allowed people to do things differently- such as the example that Friedman gives as the ability of airlines to offer E-tickets. The second convergence is the ubiquities of technology in corporations and homes.Ê For many years economist wondered why computers did not seem to improve productivity, Then by the 90Õs that productivity kicked in and companies developed new way to work in the ways that bolstered productivity tremendously. The final convergence is the opening of the Indian, Chinese, and Eastern European markets and people to the world market. The opening added 2 billion people to both the world markets- thus creating 2 billion additional potential consumers as well as an additional 2 billion additional competitors.

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The author attributes three factors to globalization viz. development of tools that allow globalization, possibility of collaboration through and by the web based tools and access to world wide web at large for enhancing the convergence. Convergence of technology for benefit of the public and business organizations alike has proved to be a boon in disguise. To support his argument he has quoted an example of an airline to offer an E ticket to the clients.

He has credited the computers in link with the cutting edge technology in the cut throat competitive world as the interface point for bridging the gap between potential customers and market players. Outlining the challenges that America has to face in this flat world the author suggests that right and corrective measures will help America pull through. Expressing his genuine concern towards better education policy, a new national health policy and a crash plan for alternative energy he fears that steps to improve the same may never take place.

A great deal of the book concentrates and revolves around describing the effects and impacts of convergence on America and its economy. There is also a mention of Al Qaida and other terrorist outfits posing enormous threat to the flat world. Their actions have the potential to destroy the flatness of the world. Terrorism is driven by humiliation more so by the societies that have suffered from it to which the terrorists belong. Reasoning the failure of the Arab world in terms of economy, science and technology he states it to be a direct cause of their indulgence into terrorism. Describing the misuse of Internet for the vested interests of the society he says that the technological advancements could have dire consequences in the future.

Towards the end Friedman has presented his views to fight terrorism. According to him those parts of the world which are not flat need to become flatter in order to defuse anger who seeks to harm the others. Ending on a pessimistic note he drops his daughter off to begin college, he relates that he fears that the world that his daughter will be inheriting is a much less certain world then the world he became an adult in.

According to my insights that I have developed after reading the book, I will surely label it as a magazine article overwritten. Also the subtitle is not in tune with the theme of the book; nevertheless the book does make for an interesting reading for anyone who is interested to understand the phenomenon of globalization in intricate details. The book and its writer have very well connected the different stories to prove his point of view to the reader. The stories are extremely interesting and live with for long, the future of the flat world and the polices that a country like America should adopt so as to compete in the future with huge economic power giants like India, China and the East is very well explained in a point form that opens your eyes, to the fact that every nation has to flatten itself to suite the changing nature of the future economic trends. Also the reason for the success of globalization and the tools mentioned are logical to any sane person reading it, the pit falls and the negative approach at the end were he explains his concern as his daughter is entering the college life diverts the way you think through the course of the book.

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THANK YOU MAYA GORMAN

(ISBN 0 - 141- 02272 - 8)

Thomas L.Friedman wrote this book, THE WORLD IS FLAT, it cost Rs.500 (US$ 10) in India, It has 566 pages of very interesting fact loaded book, so much information compressed into short digestible clips. The information is about the changes which occurred with the advent of Internet, what changes Software developers had to make, what changes Business houses had to face, redesigning their traditional run companies into modern global world companies. The many opportunities provided to multinational companies with the broadband connectivity of INDIA and CHINA and other parts of the world.

This book is a first person narrative, it is like reading a report, there is lot of care taken to give as much background of all the major leading concepts of remodeling of already prevailing business and the new startups,the bust and boom days of internet. Maya Gorman is the assistant who deserves credit to arrange facts from so many diverse sources used to compile this wonderful informative business book. What Thomas L.Friedman did was stitch with his insight all information gathered by his assistant into chapters and sub-headings of cohesive attractive and interesting look at new things in business today. This book converted nicely small stories of so many surviving companies into saleable commercial gripping narrative.

Journalist and book writer is Mr.Friedman, he has keen sense of word flow and good grasp of technical facts and details, he converts supply chain network of Wal-Mart into a very grand story like narrative and grips his readers firmly with his constant words asking us to visualize and think and generate a torrent of ideas in the bargain come flooding to us. I was kept glued till the completion of my reading in 3 days, because the pace do not let up, as many things presented well are quiet readable, specially all parts where the writer is discussing BUSINESS is very running, innovative and forcing us to look at the evolving frontiers of business in the new world. Multinationals, multi-synergies, outsourcing, insourcing, globalization are all watch words of this book presented explicitly well.

Me being a keen chaser of lucre (money)enjoyed reading all of it, it opens up our eyes and mind and generates ideas well, I enjoyed all this, I don’t say this book is a must for all who hold decision making positions in business companies, but this book is a must for everyone who are fascinated with INTERNET and what it is doing today and what potential it can have in itself.

This book will open eyes to new way of thinking and doing things, this book will help in understanding days to come in future business world, it has lot of useful tid-bits, all assembled about top business houses, like Jetblue, HP, Rolls Royce, GM, GE, Microsoft, Walt-Mart, I will not give all the names of people and companies, but I must say this book is very useful TODAY, TOMORROW, DAY AFTER TOMORROW.

I hate sermons, specially when I am paying for them, after all I am paying money to make this book a successful publication, but I concede the sermons were short in this book, they were not lengthy and dragging, its not much sweat lost, but there is a attempt to bring a few topics in this book which are not researched well, rumors are printed as facts, there are some places attempts are to spoon feed readers into accepting the writers point of view. Anyway we have all our own shortcomings, we can ignore it in view general beneficial things this book contains.

Economics of this book is there are more benefits to be derived from it than some loose points. Any work of we feeble humans always has loose ends, the big picture should be always in sight, the English is very nice and crispy, there are flowing sentences running like smooth currents with special care given to explain and use all the latest net worthy terminology. The language is very contemporary and hence interesting to read.

My mention of Maya Gorman is very important, as much work in this book was done in gathering real information and blended well by narrative of Mr.Friedman, there is a immense load of information very useable and real we get from this book, to gather all that information is not a mean task, the profits are large if we learn to use this information constructively.

Now that we have analyzed briefly the usability of this book with its content, lets also see if this book is worthy to be stored in our personal library, I know it is a valuable asset, every library must have this book because it can be used as a reference work for many students who are in search of information. This book is fantastic as a reference material for many days in our future world.

Yo information stitched correctly will take a very useful shape always !!!

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I saw this book on the shelves at major bookshops as well as the pirated edition being sold on the road sides. But not being a non-fiction fan, I didn't buy it.

But when I was admitted to the MBA program at a university in the US, I was sent 2 books. "Good to great" and "The world is Flat" to be read as an assignment for a class on the first day.

The world is flat starts out a bit slow with the author telling us of his escapades at Infosys and bangalore. But it was when he exposed the 10 flatteners that truly made the world flat, that I knew why everyone was speaking about this book.

Guys, this book is a must read for anyone who is interested in management, the world, or even the plain joe who wants to spend his time more usefully.

I discovered so many things that are being done around the world and I even managed to get some tips on how to run my organization in the future.

Note that the author does not bore you with a lecture type book. He narrates his experiences and it is truly interesting.

Do buy the expanded edition and don't be put off by the size of the book.

It is well worth your time.

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I'm a pigment challenged American who read this book with great interest, so as to better understand the current status of the capitalistic juggernaut and its far reaching effects on the world. I think this book does that very well, giving reference to India and other countries. As well as shedding light on outsourcing which in America has become a buzz word and concern for many. I would say though that this book was written primarily for Americans.... Unfortunately I don't think enough Americans have read Friedman's book, as their is still a great fear and misunderstanding of outsourcing which persists in the US of A.

As Friedman states, "capitalism is a dynamic process which follows a path of least resistance" and more and more those paths are winding through China and India and I think thats great. Americans will have to reinvent themselves but we've done it before and I think we're ready for the challenge. Those that don't, or feel that entitlement is an inherent right of being an American will find themselves left behind.

I do however think how companies outsource should be regulated to some degree to give Americans the chance to in fact reinvent themselves (ie. specialization, reeducation, or to learn other trades) as well as making sure companies do not destroy the middle class in America by outsourcing anything and everything it can simply b/c its cheaper in the short-term.

An economically strong and vibrant India is in the best interest of Americans, b/c what we sell and make best is unaffordable to most of the world...... Outsourcing and globalization have become the catalysts, for your well educated and hard working individuals that will propel India into the 21st century as an economic contender and partner. I Look forward to a good partnership and relationship with your country, and I hope as your country industrializes environmental concerns parallel your successes...thanks,martin

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Thomas Friedman is an institution in himself thus his Investigative Jourmnalism find a new abode in Bnagalore, Very Much different from his area of Expertise Palastine Blood Shed or tender relationships of Arab World. Book Unfolds with a Just Warning to The Teen generation of America about the Illusive Threat India & China hold on the Intellectual level.

Friedman is a true American from Core of His heart thus the books comes across as the perception of a Journalist about the Much Mligned word ''Outsourcing''. Friedman is able to convey the findings in very crisp & clear way. Outsourcing is going to be Bigger & Bigger in coming days & it will be in favour of World if start accepting as something inevitable specially developed economies & start taking measures to nullify its impact.

Friedman is able to showcase the aspirations of the call centre teenagers who suddenly have found a zip in there life compounded with Spending Power more clearer then even there parents. The Liven In elationships to the Metabolism Disorder everything is taken down with impute details.

The most refreshing thing came out of this Book is that Present Generation doesn't come out as BPO Coolies But are the real Stars of Indian Economic Turnaround. Friedman have shown the Outsourcing industry not as a subject of Ridicule but as sometthing of a stepping Stone for a big Phenomenon which is going to hit really hard on the developed Economies.Friedman have been able to show the other side of India which is still under developed where the Roads are Luxury & Clean Drinking Wate ris the story of Fables. Author have been able to show the Contradiction si n Indian Society with a lucid writing fulll of comparisons with the developed part of india. Book also provide insights to the danger if this distance do get bigger & bigger without any concrete socio-economic steps taken by the Government. Inda is shining in this book atleat but with a warning that it may erupt into something very bad if we don't gap the distance between India (Intellectual capital of world) & Indian( Cradle of Humanity).

A foreigner can see what we indian are not able to see. World is Really getting Flat. World is watching Us. Book is definately recommended.

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Question: What is the truest definition of Globalization?

That, my friend, is Globalization! Finally, an explanation in English''

What is globalization?

How is US of A related/affected with/by it?

What made the worst enemies of World War II to collaborate in 21st century?

Why did China openup its economy?

How did India, which was on the verge of bankruptcy in late 80s, bounceback and become second fastest growing economy?

Where do the third world countries and middle east stand in the current trend of globalization?

What is comparative advantage?

Do the answers for these questions haunt you? If yes, then this book is for you.

Thomas Friedman gives a complete analysis of globalization, the driving factors and the future in his latest book ''World is Flat''.

Target audience of the book is a common man but persons from technical/managerial background are better placed to appreciate the contents.

The book is dotted with examples from across the industry which makes the reading enjoyable.

First half of the book gives a description of the ten forces that helped in flattening the world. These include the ''Fall of Berlin wall'' to

''Recent Technological Advances'', each playing an important role in leveling the playing field. With the live examples/interviews/incidences

from the life of the people/companies, first half of the book moves at a brisk pace. It includes case studies from across the industry including Retail Chain giant ''Wal Mart'' to Tech Gurus ''google''.

However the second part of the book is quite slow where author tries to analyze the comparative advantage of India, China, Russia and other

developing countries over developed countries. He discusses what flattening of world means to developing countries, multinational/domestic

companies and to US of A. How developing countries can take advantage of leveling of playing fields and how US can consistently raise the

bar.

Though author talks about the advantages of emerging China and India in the business world, but he has also raised the issues that might be

cause of concerns with emergence of China and India as global economy specially the Oil Crisis.

Overall the book makes a lively reading and is worth to be in one's collection of books.

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“In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears — and that is our problem.”

Thomas L. Friedman, a three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and currently a foreign affairs columnist for New York Times, is the author of the book The World Is Not Flat. The book explores the political and technological changes that have flattened the world and made it a smaller place. He tells us that globalization is a by-product of technology. This is one of the most entertaining and thought provoking books that I have read in recent times. Even though some of the questions are left unanswered due to lack of a strong solution, yet understanding the forces of change made the book an interesting read.

Friedman has done a metaphorical analysis of the global business environment by calling the world flat. This thought provoking “discovery” of the world’s flatness came to him when he was in Bangalore talking to Nandan Nilekani, CEO of Infosys Technologies. Nilekani had told Friedman - “Tom, the playing field is being leveled.” Friedman’s further excursions into various business set ups in Bangalore exposed him to highly educated graduates who are thriving on “outsourcing” from American businesses: not just workers in call centres but accountants who know all American tax regulations, executive assistants who will research and prepare your next PowerPoint presentation, software designers, and aircraft engineers. And seeing the new business set ups in India and China, the leaders in outsourcing space, provided the impetus to his idea about the flatness of the world.

What created the flat world? Friedman stresses technological forces. “Paradoxically, the dot-com bubble played a crucial role. Telecommunications companies like Global Crossing had hundreds of millions of dollars of cash — given to them by gullible investors — and they used it to pursue incredibly ambitious plans to ‘’wire the world,'’ laying fiber-optic cable across the ocean floors, connecting Bangalore, Bangkok and Beijing to the advanced industrial countries. This excess supply of connectivity meant that the costs of phone calls, Internet connections and data transmission declined dramatically — so dramatically that many of the companies that laid these cables went bankrupt. But the deed was done, the world was wired. Today it costs about as much to connect to Guangdong as it does New Jersey. The next blow in this one-two punch was the dot-com bust. The stock market crash made companies everywhere cut spending. That meant they needed to look for ways to do what they were doing for less money. The solution: outsourcing.”

The basic thought process underlying the book is that globalization, Internet, and increased geopolitical interconnectedness are the key forces shaping up a world where work can be done by just about anyone from anywhere. This has leveled the playing field for everyone, and hence the flatness. The book also talks about the perception and acknowledgement of this idea unconsciously by countries, companies, communities, and individuals. It further goes on to advice how governments and societies can, and must, adapt to this change.

There are a lot of anecdotes and wisdom quotes mentioned in the book. My favourite one being: “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows that it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows that it must out run the slowest gazelle or it will starve. It does not matter whether you are a lion or gazelle. When the sun comes up you had better be running.”

What Friedman has tried to say in the book is that today’s world belongs to those who can learn and adapt. In the current situation, no job or skill is entirely safe from the forces of globalization and economics, but by recognizing these forces for what they are and by accepting adaptation and reinvention as a necessity, anyone can compete and prosper in the global economy. This change in the outlook and modus operandi of each and every business does not spell doom, but addresses financial and political realities which require change to stay on top of them.

Strongly recommended !!! Grab this book as soon as you can.

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Well guys I agree tht 'The World Is Flat' - TWF is a good attempt at making the global picture clear. Have u guys been through the part where he defines the outsourcing phenomenon... I guess He has glorified the proffession from an Indian standpoint tht isn't really true....he goes by saying tht in India it wud be the most coveted proffession and many wud go thru a hard time before making it to work at an outsourced operation.

iam also not being entirely convinced on the analogy - ''Flat World'' - smtimes feel tht we are only buying it cause it comes frm Friedman ....do you guys have anything to say abt this?

iam still midway ....but all said I think it's well written and clear, though cud be a little boring for the non techie at times!

Smthngs I never knew like the fiber optics revolution which got business to India ... netscape story and stuff

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I read this book purely for the hype surrounded Thomas Friedman and his lingo. I saw an interview on NDTV and was intrigued by this New York Times columnist’s use of lingo. He uses terms like globalization 1.0 and globalization 2.0 etc to get your attention. The book is basically from the American perspective about the outsourcing phenomenon. As to why it is happening, what is the history behind it, what will be the impact of it, and are the Americans prepared for it. And because outsourcing is in the picture India has to come in the picture. In fact the book starts with quotes from Infosys’s CEO. He starts out with scenes from Indian call centers and software parks, where thousands of young people were working. For us Indians the book was not much of an insight of the Indian software scene, but it was more of peek in the mind of Americans, their fears and the reason for the high alert. It was noted that this is not the first time that the jobs are being shifted from America. It has happened before in the 80s when the Japanese companies started their quality production. The second exodus was when Chinese factories shifted the mass production to their country. But these were not so severely criticized as the current exodus because in each of the earlier cases it was the factory worker’s job that was outsourced. But now with services being able to be outsourced, it was a white collar worker’s job at stake. Now the American middle class, the lifeline of that country is at stake. This caused much anguish and hence was one of the main issues for the US presidential elections. The book basically tries to calm the fears of the public by telling them what exactly is happening there. He also tries to tell them that whenever this has happened before it has been better for the Americans as better jobs have come their way. But he also warns them that they would have to cope with change and increase their skill set to move up the value chain. Well I found nothing new in the book that I hadn’t already read somewhere or already deduced from the scenario, but the book’s lingo was the most striking part of the book. Making it easy and interesting to read it. Otherwise not much for us here.

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“The World is Flat” says Tom Friedman, three-time Pulitzer prize winner. Pretty apt for a book by a New York Times Columnist who was born in Minneapolis, studied in Oxford, and worked in Beirut and Jerusalem, and who got the title from a statement made by a CEO in Bangalore. In an interview, Nandan Nilekani of Infosys said, “The world is being levelled” – and what he really meant, says Friedman, is that The World is Flat.

Expanding his take on Globalization in his earlier book, Lexus and the Olive Tree, Friedman concentrates on the relatively new phenomenon of High Tech outsourcing, primarily in India and China. Already, companies in these two countries process U.S. Tax Returns, analyze CAT Scans, handle worldwide insurance claims and even do Friedman’s job – journalism. All this, writes Friedman, is part of a fundamental change the world is undergoing – flattening – with nine other forces, including the fall of the Berlin wall, Open source collaboration, Google search technology and the digital “steroids” like Palm pilots and Wireless Technologies.

The book gets overly defensive at times; the author’s nationality shows in his obvious fear that American jobs are at stake in the flattening process. From fright at Indian CEO Jaithirth “Jerry” Rao’s statement, “Any activity where we can digitize and decompose the value chain, and move the work around, will get moved around”, Friedman moves towards realizing that this will mean more meaningful work for Americans. He concludes that the way ahead (for Americans) is not to stop outsourcing, but to upgrade their skills so they can claim their “slice of the bigger but more complex pie”. It’s not going to be simple, he writes, but there’s no option but to be an “untouchable” – a person whose job cannot be outsourced.

Outsourcing today is just a repeat of what happened when the world started to be connected earlier, Friedman notes. And what does he say connects the world today? Technology. With access to the Internet, any individual can empower himself anywhere – noted in the book are interesting examples: people printing Boarding pass online so they can board before other passengers; a friend using wireless access to send email to Kazakhstan from a train in Japan traveling at 240 Km/hr; an Indian company building a game on “American Wild Wild West” using Google to find out what a saloon looked like. The book is laced with enlightening examples, allowing for very individual interpretations to his theory.

India benefited from the overinvestment in undersea fiber optic cables by Americans, writes Friedman. When these investments went bust in 2000, the bankrupt companies were sold at throw away prices, bringing down the cost of bandwidth and therefore, making “remote” business process outsourcing (BPO) possible and profitable in India. Friedman postulates that it started with Y2K – an acronym for the work involved in converting massive legacy systems to accept four digit dates – and spread to running American back offices today. He even suggests that Y2K be India’s Second Independence Day – a day that helped give freedom from unemployment to a large number of Indians. (While this may not be feasible, it does make you stop to think!)

But the book does offer a warning: that no developing country can afford to be complacent, that other developing countries would be more than glad to grab the Indian part of the pie. China, for instance, is “a powerhouse of low cost manufacturing….it can do high-quality low-cost manufacturing better than any country, and increasingly, it can also do high-quality higher-cost manufacturing”. Friedman suggests deeper reform – removing more of the bureaucracy that hinders business, loosening labour laws, bettering infrastructure – something he says is inevitable in the flat world. The message is simple: The more you just sit there, the more you will be run over.

Friedman also warns about the dangers that resulted from 9/11. The flat world, he says, makes it possible for the perpetrators of terror to co-ordinate in a way that has never been possible earlier. “Al-Qaeda has learned to use many of the same instruments for global collaboration that Infosys has”, he writes, but leaves the solutions on shaky ground. How can you stop the Osamas of the world from collaborating without shutting down the Internet and therefore, Friedman’s reason for the “flatness” of the world? This book holds no conclusive answers.

Friedman interviews a large number of people in very different environments – the book contains snippets from people all over the world. From the likes Bill Gates and eBay’s Meg Whitman, to Palestinian militants, to Fadi Ghandour, the CEO of Aramex, a package delivery service in the Arab World. Each interview seems to reiterate Friedman’s point, but will also give you a little more to think about.

“The World is Flat” is quite an enthralling read, filled with simple interpretations of a complex world. Running through the lively and provocative analyses, you will find yourself keeping the book down every few minutes, just to sit back and think. A very stimulating book for those who want to understand where the world is going, but don’t know where to start.

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