Within a year, "The World is Flat" has been published in expanded version. The book has become quite popular and informative. It tells how the world now looks like compare with previous years.
Globalization is the main topic being discussed nowadays. Little did we know that globalization took place way back in 16 centuries where the European set out to discover the new world. It was about land.
The next wave of globalization was the industry revolution. Mass production, new invention and wars. It was about materialism.
Until late 90s, the new age of globalization emerged. The dot-com era. The introduction of world wide web, PC, networking, telecommunication and media. We are living in this era though.
How does this new globalization make the world flat? What does it mean by the world is flat? It simply means everybody can communicate with everybody around the globe. Transaction can be made within a second. News and comments posted within a second. The play field has been leveled.
Scenario 1
About 20% of US people outsourced the taxation task to third party last year. Guess who did the job. Some IT companies in India.
Scenario 2
Most of the companies have customer service like call center. You have problem, just call the help center. These centers largely reside in India. Even my company also outsources the IT service to India. You call them and thought they are local. In fact they are miles away. If we look to the east, Japan also outsource the call center service to China. Chineses serve the Japaneses? Well, when it comes to economy, Chinese won't care who you are.
Scenario 3
A kid get ready for online tutorial program. The tutor interacts with the student who is miles away. Yes, the tutor is in India.
Scenario 4
In the late night in one of the hospitals in US, patient needs fast and accurate analysis. Local doctors have gone home I guess. Send the result or observation to an appointed analyst and within a minute, the diagnosis is ready. The analyst is in India as well. Remember these Indians also study medical in US before.
Are India and China getting better these days? This is just a beginning of outsourcing trend.
What is the rationale? Fast, accessible, reliable and low cost. Someone next door is doing a project which is requested by someone in other side of the world. Internet makes this happen. If we are not up to this competitiveness, we will loss out. Think about our nation.....the protected will always get protected. It's a wake up call for us?
A fact to ponder:
An ordinary man bumped with CEO of one company. With the mobile phone, he conducted a quick interview with the CEO. Snapped some photo with his mobile phone. Recorded the interview session with the mobile phone. Then he went back and uploaded the article to the internet. The next hours, thousand of people visited his website. Later, major news agent bought the article. Individual contribution is driving the economy here.
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