The Sobering Meaning of a Flat World

If you’ve not been there, I highly recommend that you visit the
Institute for the Future’s blog, Future Now. The Institute does insightful research into “the futures of
emerging technologies, health and global business trends.”

An interesting post last week was a recap by Alex
Soojung-Kim Pang of an address done by New York Times columnist and author
Thomas Friedman.

In addition to talking about the various stages of
globalization and the ten causes of our current “flat” world, here’s what
really caught my eye:

The scale of participation in this world of innovation,
consumption, etc., is so vast that “anything that can be done will be
done.” It’s no longer “finish your dinner, there are people in India
starving,” but “finish your homework, there are people in India
starving for your jobs.” The only ones that won’t be up for grabs are ones
that are highly specialized (Michael Jordan), or highly localized (the corner
baker).

More importantly:

To succeed if you’re not in one of those two, you have to be
a great collaborator (have a facility for languages, ability to
live abroad– Infosys got 9,000 internship applications from all over the
world); great leverager (can seriously boost productivity); great
synthesizer (can think horizontally, creatively); passionate
personalizers (do a conventional job really passionately); anything green
(“3 billion people want the American dream,” but if they get it ); great
localizer (create local services or places that leverage flatteners); great
explainer (like Tom Friedman); or a great adapter (staying
“one step ahead of the Pac Man”).