Module 3: Off-shoring, supply chaining and Google!

     As I continue to read Friedman's book about our world becoming flat I am constantly pondering how this statement has changed my perspective on life. I've always been technically savvy, and enjoyed how technology has changed our world, but never from the big picture that he takes it. As I learn more I begin to realize just how serious the statement is, and how much we can do nothing to really get away from it. Globalization 3.0 is real, it's continuing today.
     Offshoring is yet another component to the flattening of this world. Off-shoring is when a company physically moves a part of it's company out of it's original country and into a new one. It is different than outsourcing, where a service it moved to a separate company or group overseas, this is the relocation of a part of this company to a new place. This move has many advantages, primarily for overhead reasons. Property in certain areas of other countries could be much cheaper, and the salaries of employees could be much cheaper as well. This alone make offshoring a great choice for a business as long as the right skilled people can be acquired at the new location. Friedman's way to explain offshoring in relation to a gazelle and lion really helped me understand the concept. He talks about a gazelle waking up every morning determined to run faster than the fastest lion, or it will not survive. On the flip side, he talks about the lion waking up every morning determined to run faster to catch the slowest gazelle, otherwise it will starve. This is the concept behind offshoring. Businesses must find better ways to be more efficient and beat their competitor to survive. Offshoring is a huge part of this idea, and will continue into the coming years as offshoring becomes even easier.
     Another one of the "flatteners" that Friedman talks about is supply chaining. The story about Wal-Mart and how they used supply chaining sent my mind in a never-ending loop of amazement. I've always wondered how Wal-Mart came around, and how their prices were so slow, now I know. The answer is supply chaining. Wal-Mart found a way to purchase good directly from the manufacturers to allow them to cut costs. They got familiar with what worked, and they turned it into a fine oiled machine. This is what made Wal-Mart what it is today. Because of this they have been able to allow their suppliers to actually bid to Wal-Mart, which allows them to pick and choose who their goods come from. This made them more competitive, and allowed them to drop their prices. With supply chaining and the help of newer technologies they are able to keep prices down and profits up.
     My last "flattener" for my blog post today is one of the biggest ones, and that is Google. A word that has gained a meaning of "to search the entire web for something." Nowadays "Googling" something is something that we just do. Google, is a huge flattener. Google has brought a world of information to our finger-tips. What's ironic is that Google doesn't make their money off of your searches, it makes money off of the advertisers that want their ads to show up when you search for certain things. Google has taken search to a level that only they could envision. Google has taken such a simple business model, and put a ton of firepower behind it to make Google into the empire that it is today. Because of this information being at our fingertips businesses have both prevailed a suffered. Finding dirt on companies has never been easier, but also finding positive reviews on a companies services are just as easy to find. Due to the ad model behind Google businesses will continue to learn the system and find better ways to become relevant when certain searches are performed in specific areas at specific times during the day. That's how smart Google is.
     So far I am really enjoying this book. The experiences that he has had over the years are mind-blowing. He sees everything, and he sees this all from a new perspective that I've never really thought about. Our world is truly flat, and the reasons are just piling up!