Seminar in Global Business Strategy

SEMINAR IN GLOBAL BUSINESS STRATEGY

The World Is Flat

Thomas L. Friedman

MBS151072

Joseph Simong Libau

MBS151074

SEMESTER 3

2016/2017 SESSION

GBS: MBSA2223 – Seminar in Global Business Strategy

Master of Business Administration

UTM – International Business School

Prepared for: Dr Amin Vakilbashi

Submission date: October 9, 2016

THE WORLD IS FLAT: What Does It Mean?

In the word of Friedman, the competitive playing field between industrial and emerging markets is levelling. Individual and entrepreneurs as well as firms, are becoming a part of a much larger, complex, and global supply chain that extends globally. It is we and all the mentioned components that created a world of collaboration.

Friedman suggests that the trigger of flattening of the world was the collapse of communism, the dot-com bubble, and the outsourcing of engineers to fix the perceived Y2K problem.

Why Should We Care About It?

We are all affected by the flattening of the world, whether we like it or not; consciously or subconsciously. It is evident especially in today’s Google generation. We find people are becoming very reliant on the internet for information. It is a very useful tool that indexes information, which individuals and firms use daily for research.

How Does This Flattening World Affect Us?

The world is moving faster than the rate that we can keep up with. Individuals and firms’ decision making and responses to the daily scenarios are affected by the globalisation. The vast readily available information affected the way individuals live their daily lives, and the way firms perform their daily business operations.

What Are the Darker Sides?

Now that information is readily available and accessible via the world wide web, it also makes it easier to disseminate unethical and illegal information and contents. Think of pornography, racism, lies, and conspiracies. Setting up of communities that supports these unethical practices are made easy, and what worse is that people are interconnected globally. It created communities that are much stronger when they come together to support the similar school of thoughts. For example, people are paying for pornography subscription using the payment platform such as Paypal.com. While the payment platform made transactions easier, it also means that it opens door for illegal money making with willing payers to access such unethical content or information. Another example is how terrorist movements use the internet to form networks of people for the purpose of destruction.

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