"I thinks the world is flat", this is what Thomas L. Friedman told his wife when they were about to sleep. Before I am to give my reaction to his statement let me give you a brief background on how did he come to this conclusion.
It all started when he went to Infosys; one of the jewels of the Indian information technology world, and Nilekani, the company's CEO. He went their with the Discovery Times crew to tour the facility and interview Nilekani. Infosys headquarters is located at Bengaluru, India. The company is one of the largest IT companies in India with 122,468 employees (including subsidiaries) as of 2010. Infosys employees are writing specific software programs for American or European-based multinatioanls - everything from computer maintenance to specific research projects to answering customer calls rooted all over the world. After the tour around the place Thomas finally got his interview with Nilekani and what strike me the most this statement of Nilekani to Thomas: "Tom, the playing field is being leveled." He meant that other countries like India are now able to compete for global knowledge work as never before and that America had better get ready for this. At that point the interview was over and Thomas and his crew went back to America.
"The world is flat" and "The Playing field is being leveled" these are the statements that I would like to share my ideas. Now the first statement, "The world is flat", I believe that this statement is really true since countries such as America, Europe, and Asia are now competing to which one has the upper hand when it comes to economic development. With the rapid technological advancement of Asia both Europe and America should prepare themselves for global competition. Not only that Asia's sleeping giant, China, is awake and in the top 5 richest countries around the world three of them are from Asia namely: China, Japan, and India. "The Playing field is being leveled" the second statement is more like the effect of the first statement. America and Europe are countries that have been affecting the global economy with its industrialized company. But now Asia is joining the competition and I wonder how America and Europe will respond.
