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.



Succeeding in a Flat World - How to gain an advantage when the playing field is level - To learn more about this author, visit Jim Adams's Website.

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