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Succeeding in a Flat World - How to gain an advantage when the playing field is level

Written by: Jim Adams

Article Overview: 10 major technological and social events in the final 11 years of the 20th century radically changed the competitive landscape in North America.

Succeeding in a Flat World - How to gain an advantage when the playing field is level

Canadian businesses have been facing a completely new set of challenges and over the past decade. We read about these challenges all the time and some times we aren’t even aware that they are. Headlines in the business section tell us about manufacturing jobs being shifted to China, Malaysia and Taiwan. White collar jobs being shifted to India such as programming and customer service agents in call centres.

We read about how the price of long distance telephony, internet access and air travel is making it easier to communicate and travel. Often we only think about these in terms of holidays and communicating with the cousins in Sydney Australia or the college buddy who is working the oil fields in Saudi Arabia.

We often marvel at how WalMart manages to provide low prices and keep their shelves filled and how does Dell deliver a custom designed laptop to us in just a week.

These are all issues that Thomas Friedman deals with in The World is Flat – A Brief History of the 21st Century. As a journalist for the New York Times, Friedman has been watching and documenting the massive economic changes that have been occurring in North America.

The cause of these changes are all well know events that have taken place since 1989 and he describes them as events that have caused the world to become flat. A flat world is one where people and companies can compete directly, easily and on a level playing field.

10 Flatteners

1. 11/9/89 – Berlin Wall Came Down and suddenly everyone in Russia and Eastern Europe can communicate and compete freely with the rest of the world.
2. 8/9/95 – Netscape went Public providing average people with
3. Work Flow Software – Collaborative Software
4. Open-Sourcing – Making Source Code Public
5. Outsourcing – Maybe someone outside of your company can do it better (and cheaper too)
6. Offshoring – Maybe someone somewhere else can do it better (and cheaper too)
7. Supply Chaining – Integrating everyone’s systems for more efficient production
8. Insourcing – Maybe that company should become integrated into my company for even better results
9. In-forming – Google everything
10. The Steroids – Wireless, Digital and Personal communications are pushing the ability for global personalized communications


These 10 flatteners now created a triple threat or opportunity for North American businesses:

1. New Playing Field
The growth of personal computing power with the growth of bandwidth means companies can operate from anywhere with anyone and not have to have everyone in the same room.

2. New Processes & Habits
Companies now build horizontal value chains vs. vertical command chains
Instant communication from client purchasing an item to manufacturer for a shelf replacement and collaborating with other companies to build new products rather than building them completely by themselves.

3. New Players
All of a sudden there are a whole new range of competitors for North American and European business including:

• China
• India
• Russia
• Eastern Europe
• Middle East

Friedman went a step further and analyzed companies that succeeded in the face of Flat World competition. He broke it down into seven different strategies that companies need to implement:

1. Understand yourself – Look at what your company does best. Focus on that.
2. Act Big – Even if you are a small company by taking advantage of the collaboration tools it is possible to make your target audience think you are a big organization.
3. Act Small – Let your clients take control by allowing them to ask for and get customized solutions.
4. Collaborate – Create value by working together with other companies
5. Really, Really, Really know your customers and sell them the information
6. Outsource to win – not to shrink
7. Outsourcing to third world countries can be good too. By sending work overseas you can help strengthen local economies and to help educated workers get employment locally and to keep their wages in the local economy.

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Related Forum Posts
Try manufacturing in New Zealand - In New Zealand you can work on a level playing field where capital and labour costs are relatively cheap, labour skilled and the ability to start a business extremely uncomplicated. Make the product in NZ and export take care
Re: Art of Marketing - Differences, at some basic level, will always level the playing field - for the better. Take a look at the franchise fast food industry. Yes, the top concepts are there year after year, but if you take a step back, smaller concepts are always gaining market share. People love fast food. But people also love variety. Apply this to the Art of Marketing, there is a customer base everytime - however, its more how much of an artist you are in your customers eyes, not yours keep in mind.
Re: Introducing a New Management Innovation - Trust Enablement - Well, I have many favourite books. The World is Flat is just one of them. It is a very important book for our times. For me it sets the strategic business and policy agenda for this period in history. It also lends support for the increasing importance of optimizing conditions for trust (services my company provides) in a more open and less hierarchical, global marketplace.
Re: Did you buy into the iPhone 3G craze? - BTW, on the whole cellphone thing. I heard that Bell (most probably Telus too since they share Bells network) will be moving over to a GSM network like Rogers - that should level the playing field and give you access to a whole range of cool unlocked phones. Eventually Rogers, Bell and Telus will be moving over to new standard that is a level up from GSM....LTE I think?!? Anyways I believe the Canadian government is also making space for a new provider by selling some frequencys. Exciting times ahead for communications in Canada and maybe we'll start seeing the competitive rates they have in the US?
Tale of a success story! - First, Shonika, thanks for that link! I'll check it out. Now, yahoooo! I'm so excited right now that I hope I'll be forgiven if I gush gush gush on what's turning out to be a success story. And one that I planned. I had a feeling, back in September when the Red Sox were leading their division so comfortably (before those dang Yankees made it tight!) that the Sox would be going to the World Series. So, I'm thinking to myself, they've got this rookie, Jacoby Ellsbury, first Navajo in the major leagues. That type of thing always draws readers, as does the first Japanese player, etc. etc. And not only was the the first Navajo, but he was also an exciting, star in the making type of player. So I created a website for him, really only a two page biography...and the site took off immediately. Everyone who saw him on TV wanted to read about him. And my google ads on the site took off as well. (But not the Amazon ads, darn it!!!! Never the Amazon ads!) Then, at the end of September the injured player he'd been subbing for came back, and Jacoby went back to the bench. And the hits - and Google clicks - dropped off dramatically when he was on the bench during the ACLS, while their regular center fielder, stuck it up on offense. But, finally yesterday, he got the start in center field because their regular center fielder couldn't hit anything at hte plate. And Jacoby got a hit, scored a run, and made some good plays in the field. And the hits - and clicks - to the website started ramping up again, and tonight, with him also making two "highlight" reel type catches in the field as well as delivering a timely hit, they're going through the roof. Also, he is bound to be on the sports news tomorrow - along with his teammates of course - because of those two plays in the field. So all this free publicity is playing right into my hands - just as I planned and expected it to do. And, even better, the World Series starts on Wednesday and he will be starting in center field again. I expect his defense to be stellar, which will catch people's eyes again, and if he can only do well at the plate.. Even if people aren't baseball fans, they usually tune in to the World Serious. And with Jacoby's background, people are going to be bound to want to read about him. So I am expecting much, much more traffic to my site, and I'm just so proud of myself for seeing this opportunity and capitalizing on it, and I am sooo happy that the Red Sox got into the World Series, because they were down 1 - 3 and I came *that* close to losing all my free publicity! Whew. Okay, sorry for the gush, but I am just really looking forward to seeing what happens in the next few days. Of course it will tail off after the World Series ends, but next year will be Jacoby's first official season as a Rookie, so then it should ramp up again... Now I've got to find a rookie football player whom people might like to read about, on a football team that [i:3c74rhpr]should [/i:3c74rhpr]get to the Superbowl... for example the Colts, and see if lightning will strike twice!


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