Module 3

            With the world becoming flatter and flatter we might begin to wonder is there a strategy to run a profitable business more effective? In the reading this week we learn about offshoring and how it can profit the company. We also learned about supply chaining and how Walmart become one of the largest companies because of its ability to restock and be organized in a timely manner. Lastly we learn about Google, and how they learned to become a successful business by having other companies pay them to advertise on their search engine and watching what we look at and show us advertisements based on our interests.            

Outsourcing is paying other companions outside of the country to do some of your work for a cheaper price then you could do it in your country. Offshoring is taking part of your company to another to country for cheaper labor, or for better resources. The difference I think mainly outsourcing you are hiring outside company help. Offshoring you are moving or creating a work place on another country to take advantage of the cheaper resources, while keeping the work still in company. I would think the difference is if you have the money up front to build off shore then why contract it out to other companies when you can build a new building have taken advantage of the more efficient resource whatever it may be. On the other hand if you are not a huge company and don’t have the financial standing or desire for more offices then why not contract it out and share your business with other companies for a mutual gain.

            With offshoring, you have to make sure you can transport all your goods in a timely manner. This is called a supply chain. Walmart has become one the best at utilizing a supply chain, helping them to become one of the biggest companies. Walmart is able to know what you buy at the store and as soon as you buy it orders the exact thing you just bought to replace it. They are also able to see what stores or selling what best based on location so they can manage stock to the best of their control and control sending to many of an item that people won’t buy in that location. So they can run one of the largest franchises in the world, with minimal loss from overstocking and replenish supplies as fast as needed. Since Walmart is one of the biggest companies it can demand more from suppliers. Walmart doesn’t anything so they have to insure that they get the very best deals they can. With the amount of goods they buy they have the ability to demand a better price or threaten to take their business elsewhere.

            Google came along and gave every person with a computer and access to the internet the ability to search for anything online that they could think of. As Google grew larger they realized that they could track what you searching and provided advertisements on the things that you searched, making it very easy to find things that you were interested in buying. This made it so that Google could actually become a profitable business without pushing merchandise at every person. People would search things on Google and then an advertisement would come up that would interest them and they would sell themselves the products while Google charging the companies to advertise made a profit.  Google gave everyone the power to inform themselves whether it was on entertainment or stores.

            With the world being flatter and flatter we have learned different ways business have thrived in this flat world. First is by offshoring to make products at a fraction of the cost. Second, having a supply chain so that products can be restocked in an orderly fashion and maintain it without having to turn away customers. The last way is by taking advantage of the technology in the world today and being able to advertise on online sites such as Google and Yahoo. This requiring no work on the part of the company just simply putting an advertisement up and waiting for the people to sell themselves.

module 2

        Work flow software is the ability for digital data to be transferred to anyone anywhere as long as they have an internet connection. For example let’s say you are looking to buy a car. You have a very specific kind of car in mind. You go to the dealership and ask if they have that car. The car salesman looks at their inventory, he doesn’t see the car you are looking for but, because of work flow software he is able to check other branches of the dealership. He is able to go through other dealerships inventory and check to see if they have the desired car. If one of them did. He would be able to pull up the picture and you. Then he could proceed to e-mail the other dealership and have them bring that car over for you to test drive. It wouldn’t stop there. The salesman then could send all of the information over to the accountant, who could then have all the paper work and everything needed at the touch of a button.

            The work flow software is what it says it increases work flow it enables companies to increase the amount of work they can get done, now being able to do the same amount of work they use to do in a fraction of the time and with less effort. You could share documents, pictures, music, anything that is digital data you can share at the click of a button.

            Open sourcing is software that is free. It is created by groups of computer savvy people. Who create the software and allow anyone to download it for free. Open sourcing also always anyone to add to the programs, to make them better.  All of the programmers can check the software and they can together or singly create something better then what is currently available. It is also a way for the programmers to fraternize and challenge each other.

            Outsourcing is having work being done for your company somewhere else, in the books example India. It having the work get done for cheaper somewhere else that is better suited for the work and not having to move your home base. For example you need engineers, but America doesn’t have enough of the engineers that you need or it would cost too much money. You world look around the world and see who has engineers to spare? Well India has the work force of engineers you are looking for and what would they charge to do the work? Any business man knows the cheaper you can get the work done the more profit and the better you look in the eyes of the buyers than the competition. The thing that I most like about outsourcing is that it has the potential to give every country something in common. The flat world would be all connected through doing what their own country can do the best and for the cheapest amount of money for the business. The only problem I can think of right now is, what about those countries that don’t have it quite figured out yet. Would they be left behind as the rest of the world is united by working together? I realize that this has nothing to do with software side of it, but it does get me thinking. If we can all work together to get work done the most efficient way. Would the world be a better place? Back to the point though. Outsourcing is genius. It also talks about how because of the time differences most of the software work can be done while we in America are asleep and when we go to work, it is ready for us to do our part again.

            It is interesting to see how the world has changed in just the last 20 years. It is exciting to think about what can happen. With all of the software out there it has never been easier to work together and quickly too.    

                

Module 1

Thomas L. Friedman, author of The World Is Flat, brings to light how the world is changing today. In his book he explains how globalization is coming about. He tells of how companies can become more successful and how any job can in some way be outsourced. In his first chapter of his book he explains how he came upon this information, and also the three things have caused globalization to change and advance. He talks about companies outsources and thereby becoming global companies. In the second chapter he describes how the world came to be the way it is as far as globalization. He tells of his experiences and major historical events that have transpired. He tells of a business that successfully made the power of the World Wide Web accessible to every child and adult.  

Within the first 15 pages Friedman tells us of the three different eras of globalization, globalization 1.0, globalization 2.0, and globalization 3.0. Globalization 1.0 he describes as the time period of 1492-1800 he explains the world went from large too medium. This era he describes as the muscle and brawn era, your countries status in the world was based on how much power and ability to travel, and how usefully you could use that power. In this era new trade routes were formed, goods were more easily traded with farther away countries. Globalization 2.0 is 1800-2000, with the exceptions of the Great Depression and World 1 and 2. The world went from medium to small. The key change in this area is the beginning of multinational companies. This era also was the dawn of many of the inventions that bring about globalization 3.0. Such inventions as the steam engine, computers and personal computers, telephones and so on so forth. Which brings us to our last ear thus far globalizations 3.0, which is from 2000 on tell today. Brings the world from small to tiny. Friedman describes that in this year many business with have to find there place in this world’s economy system. The potential of the world’s current economy is amazing.

Friedman also talks about outsourcing in this first chapter the uses of it seem extremely beneficial to the business. This increases the work force of the company and opens up your employees back at home base to maintain more face time with customers, more time for customer service, more time for sells, increases everyone’s productivity. He also mentions a position called “remote executive assistant.” The person in this position helps you with research for a project can do your PowerPoints. The best part is with the time difference it’s almost like you go to bed with all this work to do and you wake up and it’s all done. The assistant will e-mail you all the research and work they did. How nice would that be? Outsourcing seems like a excellent way to cut costs and increase productivity. How was all of this able to happen now and not during the globalization 2.0 era though?

            November 9, 1989, the day that the Berlin Wall fell. This wall falling tipped the scales of the world. With the Berlin Wall down governments were able to change/revolutionize. Countries were able to build from the ground up. Information was able to flow more freely. It effected the whole world. Nations were able to reestablish themselves. In India alone increased its growth by over 100% in three years. “The fall of the Berlin Wall didn’t just flatten the alternatives to free-market capitalism and unlock enormous pent-up energies for hundreds of millions of people in places like India, Brazil, China, and the former Soviet Empire. It also allowed us to thik about the world differently-to see it as more of seamless whole.”(Friedman.) The fall of the Berlin Wall allowed for companies to start to grow to multinational companies to employ people from all over the world.

            Companies being able to grow so much more now needed a way to connect to each other. The World Wide Web was created a way for companies to be able to link pictures, research, videos, so you could show them to anyone. Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. With people being able to create links to different pages of their research, it was mostly used by scientists. Until Netscape, Netscape created a browser that gave anyone with a PC the power of knowledge at their fingertips, Netscape revolutionized the WWW. Making it possible for anyone to gain access to information they needed. Unfortunately we also learn another lesson from Netscape, you have to be able to keep up with your competitors if you plan to keep afloat. Netscape was bought out by AOL. Netscape did connect everything, It took everything on the web from anywhere in the world and it connected it all together and made it easier to find what you were looking for. A big part to play in leveling the playing field of the world and flatten the world.