Module 5 pgs. 200-259

Throughout the first part of the book each of the ten flatteners as Freidman calls them, were actual events. They took time to develop and happen. When he talks about triple convergence, it seems like a lot of things happened in a short period of time. The first phase of the triple convergence took place when all the ten flatteners started working together and collaborating. An example of this was when Southwest Airlines developed consumer friendly work flow software that allowed individual customers to print off their own airline ticket at home, on their computer, from their printer. There came from this first convergence a new platform by which individuals and companies collaborated. Three things were needed to be successful on this new platform. One had to have the infrastructure to connect to the platform, second one needed education for innovation, working off and tapping into the platform, and lastly, a governance to get the best out of the platform while cushioning its worst side effects.

The business world took hold of the new way of working. Businesses got their employees computers and connected them to the internet but they didn’t see the benefits for a while. A new way of working had to be developed. Businesses had to change from a top down, command and control type model to a side to side model. This allowed for more collaboration and communication. All of a sudden it wasn’t about reporting to your superior it was about talking to someone in accounting to develop smoother way for invoicing and billing.

In the Indiana vs. India story, it was difficult for me to decide who was the exploiter and who was being exploited. On one hand I don’t see a problem paying lowest price for the best product. On the other hand, it’s ridiculous that the state of Indiana was employing workers from India to upgrade Indiana’s unemployment department’s computer systems. Seems to me like they could kill two birds with one stone by hiring unemployed people to fix it, but that’s just me. I felt like the Indians got the short end of the stick. They had the contract, they were doing the work, then big brother comes in and shuts them down because they feel it unethical. It’s not India’s fault. They came in with a bid that was $8,100,000 less than the next closest bid. That’s not even close! I don’t blame the State of Indiana and I don’t blame the Indians performing the job. The party at fault here is the government. They as per the norm, can’t keep themselves out of other people’s business.

Intellectual property seems like a slippery slope. At what point can you patent a person’s thoughts or ideas? However, if someone takes the steps to create or invent something they should have the protection necessary from thieves who clone and distribute your idea or invention. If there were a way to do this, it would encourage others to collaborate and continue to advance in all aspects of life, not just technology.

Module 4, IT Job Research

I’ve got a friend who, up until a few months ago ran his own web based company. So when I got the assignment to interview someone that worked in, on or around computers, I knew he’d be a good one to interview. Basically, Danny owned his own online aftermarket muscle car parts store. Times got tough so he ended up selling his company and started working for the guy he sold his company to. I had no idea the amount of things his job entails. Because he works for a small business it is literally him and the owner that have to do everything.

I asked him what his official job title was and he said, “Internet, web guy” after I told him why I was asking, he adjusted his answer and said either web developer or webmaster. He built and developed the website from nothing, he takes tech support phone calls, as well as sales phone calls.

He does product research, for instance, they are going to start selling short tube headers on their website, so he needs to know the ins and outs of short tube headers so that when a customer calls and has a question about the product, he can answer it, then and there. As part of that, he needs to know about all the different engines in all the different cars and the components so he can help his clients in a more, personal, customized way.

In addition, he posts inventory to the Google website search engine, as well as update negative keywords for their Google products. He handles loss prevention, and the returns department. Finally, he handles the website and the Ebay store they created as another channel to sell parts.

I asked if he had weekly sales meetings or product development meetings, he said that they never have meetings because he is in constant contact with the owner and they answer questions and fix problems as they come up. Danny works from home and has the work phone system linked to his and the owners phone, so that when someone calls to place an order or ask a question, the phone rings at his house, and the owner’s house simultaneously. During all business hours they are on instant messenger so they can communicate even while on business calls.

As I researched the job, webmaster from americasjobexchange.com, he definitely fits into that category, as well as 14 other jobs. That’s an interesting part about working for a small business, you have to be a jack of all trades to keep the business afloat. It reminds me about an article I read about Southwest Airlines. They encourage any and all employees to help in every facet of the job. Pilots, help unload the luggage, the stewardess helps clean the plane restrooms, etc. This has a two-fold benefit. Number one, everyone feels invested. If you are accountable to how the company looks and performs, you will work harder. Number two, the airline runs more efficiently which keeps the cost of flying down. With a small business it’s, all hands on deck, everyone pitch in and get the job done. I like that. However, it's very hard to specialize in any one field if your focus has to be on the whole company.

Module 3: Pages 137-199

Sixty more pages down and three questions to go. During this reading I was asked to focus on offshoring, supply chain and Google. Once again I learned a lot about the progression of technology and business during this reading. I always thought that out sourcing and offshoring went hand in hand. I learned that they kind of do, and they kind of don’t. Outsourcing is when a company takes a specific function from in house, like research, call centers, or accounts receivable, then have another company perform the exact same function for you and then reintegrate their work back into your overall operation.

Offshoring is when a company takes one of its factories that in operating in Canton, Ohio, for instance and they move the entire factory to Canton, China. There it produces the same product in the same way only with cheaper labor, lower taxes, subsidized energy and lower health care costs. In 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization, which meant they would level the playing field and agree to play by the same rules everyone else was playing by. By joining the WTO, China became the number 1 location for offshoring. There are some who oppose offshoring in China, they say China will start setting the standards for low wages and lax labor laws and workplace standards.

Supply chaining wasn’t necessarily created by Wal-Mart but it was certainly perfected by them. The supply chain goes from manufacturers to vendors, to Wal-Mart trucks, to the distribution center, on to conveyors at the distribution center, from there the products are separated onto different conveyors, back onto trucks and out to numerous Wal-Mart stores. Wal-Mart, which is considered to be the best retail store, literally makes none of its own products. The reason they are able to sell their products for 5-10% less than the next store is the fact they were the first to buy products straight from the manufacturers. They broke the mold when they did that. Up to that point everyone went through vendors to get their product, and by cutting out that middleman they shave a lot off the price.

With a supply chain your company can and must take advantage of the best producers at the lowest prices anywhere in the world. The supply chain means a lower price for the consumer.

The third and final focal point of reading was Google. How has Google affected businesses? Never before in the history of the planet has anyone been able to find so much information about so many things and about so many people all on their own. Thanks to Google and other search based websites, everyone has the same basic access to overall research information. Google also tracks your searches and gives you customized advertisements, then charges those companies for every time you click that ad.

With Google, small companies in remote locations have the same possibilities for success that large companies do. If you have a product that can be found on Google, your market no longer has to be restricted to those that walk into a store front. You can literally sell to anyone all over the world. I have a friend that works for an auto parts company, all day everyday his job is to add their parts inventory to the Google search. That way anytime anyone searches that part, his will be the first to pop up. It seems like he has to input all the inventory all over again because Google changed some of the guidelines. It’s a great way to do business if you can stay ahead of the curve.

Module 2 Pgs. 77-136

During this assignment of reading pages 77-136, there were three main aspects and “world flatteners” as they’re called, that I was supposed to learn about and put my thoughts to. The first world flattener of this 2^nd module was workflow software. Picture this, in the old days as warehouse would get a phone call from someone placing an order. The person who answered the phone would then have to walk to shipping to deliver the order. From there, the shipping department walks to the billing department with all the necessary paperwork, for them to create an invoice. Now things are quite a bit different. A warehouse receives an order, through one of many facets of business. Could be a phone call, email, or and online order. Someone receives that order and puts it into the computer. That order goes to shipping and billing and prints out the invoice, all simultaneously.

Workflow software enables more people in more places to design, display, manage and collaborate on business data previously handled manually. The workflow software was also a type of interpreter for all the different computers back in the 90’s. With this software it didn’t matter if you had a Novell, or an IBM computer. Early on these computers all spoke their own languages and could not mix from one manufacturer to another. That turned out to be a huge problem. Even inside the same company Accounting couldn’t talk to shipping etc. Workflow software bridged that gap.

Another flattener that helped software and technology take leaps and bounds was something called Open Source Software. When Netscape started up, they asked you to pay for their software, but if you couldn’t afford to, they still wanted you to use it. There was a reason for that. They knew that if everyone was using their browser it would stimulate massive growth. Open Source Software is a lot like that. Open source software pioneers felt that by making available online the source code, then letting anyone who has something to contribute, improve it and let millions of others download it for free for their own personal use, it would also stimulate growth and perfect the product.

A perfect example as to why this free downloading works better than buying a version from a certain company came when IBM was developing their own server. They had to compete with the Apache servers. Well Apache was an open source server from the beginning and because of that, it had been refined and improved thousands of times. IBM realized there was no way their engineers could come up with anything nearly as efficient as Apache servers, so they scrapped their whole project and adopted Apache.

There was another example of open source software in this portion of the book. A company named Goldcorp Inc. created a competition for geologists. They gave the scientists all the data they had about the Red Lake gold mine and asked geologists around the world to find the next 6 million ounces of gold. The winner would win $105,000. Goldcorp Inc. drilled 4 of the winner’s top 5 locations and hit gold on all 4 sites. So by allowing others, who may be smarter than you, to collaborate with you, you come out with a better product.

The last flattener was outsourcing. I didn’t realize that outsourcing and Y2K went hand in hand. In the late 90’s everyone started freaking out about the Y2K bug that was going to destroy mankind and technology as we knew it. Well apparently, the US had millions of computers that needed this computer remediation and it just so happened that India was the only country with the amount of Engineers it would take to do all the tedious, time consuming work. So, we allowed them to do it, for much less than if we were to do it ourselves. From then on, India put themselves as the front runner for outsourcing. They have highly trained engineers that work for 1/10^th the price.

We are to the point now where companies are seeing a need to remove their accounts payable department and use a company like Infosys, located in India for a fraction of the price. I can’t say I blame them.