Summary Of The World Is Flat

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The book titled The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman is a book that has 660 pages and has the main purpose of convincing people that the world is indeed flat. Well, perhaps it would be better to say flat with the right regard. The inspiration for this seemingly absurd statement comes to the Friedman after he takes a trip to India and speaks to Nandan Nilekani, the CEO of Infosys Technologies Limited. After speaking with the CEO, the author starts to realize how a recent re-globalization of the world has allowed people to compete on unprecedented levels. For the first time, people’s ability to compete in business is not as limited before. Now fresh ideas in technology are emerging from all over the world, and a lot of them are coming from India. Years ago, this would have been typically unimaginable. So, with this in mind, it can be see that the playing field for competing businesses and people is becoming level. This fact is the main drive for the statement “The World Is Flat.” The book is divided up into 17 chapters. The author talks in the first chapter about how the world has experienced 3 globalizations. The first one was brought on by countries globalizing the world as they explored and expanded their empires. According to the author, this lasted from 1492 until 1800, and during this time the main focuses were how countries could fit into the global competition and opportunities. The other main focus was for countries to go global and collaborate with other countries. The second globalization occurred from 1800 and lasted until 2000. During this time, the world was globalized through multinational companies. These companies not only expanded their labor forces but also markets to include counties other than their home country. The final globalization occurred from 2000 and is still on going. The key difference between this globalization
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