The World Is Flat By Thomas L. Friedman

Globalization is probably the most debated topic in contemporary global market in recent decades and the use of the term grew exponentially as the planet braced to welcome twenty first century. First half of the first decade of the new century saw the launch Thomas L. Friedman’s book on globalization named “The World is flat”. He argued that the connectivity had lead the businesses to be powerful. He has contended that every company in the globe are at the ‘level playing field’ metaphoric of the word ‘flat’. Thus he suggests that every company operating in today’s competitive world along with countries and individuals requires a change in order to survive or be prepared to be swept by the incessant waves of globalization. In opposition, Pankaj

Written by an American Journalist and weekly columnist at New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman, “The world is flat” depicted the global scenario of business activities being performed around the globe in late 1990s and early 2000s and categorized them under three phase Globalization 1.0, Globalization 2.0 and Globalization 3.0. Discussing the ten important factors responsible for flattening of the world, Friedman was wary of the fact that this flattening could actually impede USA economically thus suggesting the remedies. But is globalization surely making the world flat? Not everybody thinks so. Though the book received number of awards and is indeed a bestseller, many critics slammed the argument including Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and global strategist and economist Pankaj

Friedman ingeniously described the next phase of globalization. The argument made by Friedman may be valid as he have portrayed several situations and examples during his travel abroad and conversation with several business as well as non-business people. The conclusion made by Friedman in the book urges government, organizations and individuals to be wary of the dynamic world and stay ahead of the trends that are most likely to cause shift in the way things is being done today in order to stay competitive in the global marketplace. Several evidences discussed in the book that have caused the world to be flattened may or may not be relevant now as the pace of technological change has surpassed the previous predictions regarding the future. Moreover, Friedman even discussed about the forces and challenges that could hinder the pace of flattening of the world citing the threat of Al-Qaeda. Times have changed by now and Al-Qaeda exert minimal threats in the today’s global scenario, but the threat of terrorism still exists from newer and fresher groups. ISIL has been the major threats to every developed nation now with some deadly attacks still fresh in the memory, latest being the Paris