Throughout his whole book, Friedman did an excellent job of backing up and painting the picture of his theories. The fact that he has actually traveled to all of these places really increased my interest in what he had to say. He is obviously a “big man on campus” in the business world. He has so many important contacts with highly ranked famous people. All of these people that he speaks with disclose valuable information to the readers. As MBA students, we can use this book to open our eyes to the fact that business is changing, and we have to be on the ball when it comes to making ourselves marketable in this changing global world if we want to land and hold good jobs.
One key theme this chapter has is Globalization 3.0, where the world has moved from size small to tiny, where we as individuals can compete. We went from large multi-national businesses being able to compete globally, to small businesses and even individual people who can do business globally. This was interesting because I never thought about myself as having so much power. I could sell stuff to things in Russia if I wanted and do not have to rely on some huge corporation anymore.
When Friedman starts off in Bangalore, several things came to my attention. I did not know it was one of the most wired places in the world, nor that it was a rich place for recruiting people with technical and financial skills. I liked how he painted the picture of the call centers and described them as “frat houses.” At first I was kind of freaking out because I didn’t realize how many jobs were being outsourced and thought India was taking over. But I then realized that us employing India is helping their economy. They are now demanding more American goods, so what goes around comes around. We all prosper. I also realized that I used to get mad when I called Verizon and they had someone obviously from a different country speaking to me. But then I realized I should just get over it, because that is the way it is going to be, and its not like someone answering in Georgia could really be physically present anyways. And the job still gets done and I can understand them. So if you can cut costs in your business by outsourcing and the job is done just as well, then why not give jobs to India?
The Indians are encouraged to pursue constant self-improvement and education in their 20’s. It also made me think of the numbers of American high school drop-outs, and how they are making a big mistake in not furthering their education.
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I, also, was very intrigued in that fact that Friedman traveled to all these places to appease his curiosity first-hand. “A wise man can learn from another man's experience; a fool cannot learn even from his own.”
I like that quote Amanda
I agree with you Liz, outsourcing call center jobs to India helps the US since it provides lower cost labor for our companies, resulting in lower Verizon bills for you, and even more importantly as you mentioned, helping to create a middle-class with one of our trading partners allows India to buy more of our higher-value added services and goods. The only potential hiccup in the plan is when you or I can’t understand the person on the phone, but honestly in my experience here in the south I have an equally challenging time deciphering what someone from Georgia has to say as someone from India!
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