The World is Flat

I have been fascinated by Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat. I bought the 2005 book in 2006.

I mentioned it in the Learn & Perform E News after a first reading in 2006. This morning, I had a chance to read it again. It is a master piece that no executive can afford to miss. I was at the hospital this morning for a series of check ups. In between the checks I had a re read. Oh, my goodness, it is indeed a powerful book. Full of stories and an underlying message that just does not allow you to put the book away. The hospital staff were pretty annoyed with me. And, I am sure my family is annoyed with me for staying so late to finish this blog post.

I wish I had read it more times much before.

The message that the world is flat, the playing field is levelled and the ten forces that flattened the world are a must to know for any executive. The Triple Convergence and the great sorting out again are powerful tips for survival and relevance in a competitive world. The words that anything you think can be done, will be done by someone else faster, quicker and cheaper from some other part of the world in your market was quite a wake up call. All I can say is you must read the book to get the message. From 11/9 the coming down of the Berlin Wall to 9/11, the coming down of the Twin Towers, Friedman outlines the flattening of the world spectacularly.

In the chapter on the Great Sorting Out, he describes how the world is moving from a primarily vertical - command and control - system for creating value to a more horizontal connect and collaborate - value creation model. In the last few blogs we discussed the collaborative learning/working concept from our worlds and Friedmann is bringing in the concept of collaboration at a much higher level.

He quotes Lou Gerstner, the former Chairman of IBM " Transformation of an enterprise begins with a sense of urgency or crisis. No institution will go through fundamental change unless it believes it is in deep trouble and needs to do something different to survive."

Do we recognise this urgency?

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