Module 9

Dell is a company that is known for their custom built laptops and desktops. Due to a very efficient supply chain and assembly line, Dell can mass produce these customized computers. After reading how fast the process is, I began to wonder how well these computers are actually put together and how many issues result from the fast pace supply chain, but the computers must work well enough for Dell to be a very wide known and successful company.

Friedman states that Dell is comprised of six factories. Only two of the factories actually reside in the United States. Each of these factories have their own supplier logistics center (SLC) which is practically a warehouse full of all the parts needed to produce around twenty-five thousand computers six days a week. The SLC receives their parts from over twenty five different suppliers. Because of the massive amount of computers that are produced within the hour, the SLC must be prepared to deliver parts to Dell factories every two hours.  These deliveries are based on the customer’s order.

Once the parts arrive at the Dell factory they go through an assembly of workers who put together each individual part. The computer is then prepared with the software and operating system requested by the customer. Next the computer is boxed up and shipped to the buyer via large 747 airplanes and UPS trucks.

Sadly strategic supply chaining can also be used for malicious purposes. Dell uses their supply chain to provide customers with their products in a timely manner, while at the same time, Al-Qaeda uses their supply chain to pass information and perform well planned attacks. Osama bin-Laden was able to outsource the task and planning for the 9/11 bombing to terrorists who specialized in the needed areas of expertise. Due to the “flattening of the world” bin-Laden was able to put together a team of skilled professionals that contained individuals from all over the world.

Al-Qaeda supply chain doesn’t only consist of executing terrorist attacks; it also consists of multiple charities and pro Al-Qaeda organizations. These charities and organizations were able to receive their money through propaganda campaigns. To prepare for the 9/11 attack, bin-laden was able to receive the funding needed from these organizations through the use of the internet. He used this global network for wire transfers, online transfers from overseas bank accounts and many other methods. Al-Qaeda definitely uses supply chaining from propaganda campaigns all the way up to the final attack.

The curse of oil, according to Friedman, refers to nations run by dictators and monarchs who have spent all of their time and money drilling for oil and leave little or no money and effort to be put towards the people.  In this type of economy the rich definitely get richer and the poor definitely become poorer. Because of oil, the talents of the people become viewed as being much lower in importance. As long as the oil continues to flow, the dictators and monarchs can keep a tight hold on their power. These nations tend to have weak education systems and very little or no rule of law.

 I can see many reasons why dictators who care about nothing other than power would suppress on the peoples education and freedom. First off they only care about investing in themselves, so dispersing money towards an education program would seem like a waste of money to them. Secondly if the people were able to gain an education they, as dictators, would have less of a grasp on the people’s freedom and would then have more competition in their oil drilling businesses. Friedman also explains that their actually are some Arab countries that are innovating and successful in today’s world. And wouldn’t you believe, these countries are the countries promoting educational opportunity and creating job growth for the people.

Module 7

During the past twenty years, many technological advancements have taken place to allow a more global economy surrounded by free trade. As the opportunities of global trade have risen, successful nations have whole heartedly taken advantage of these new advantages. But just signing a contract to be part of free trade isn’t nearly enough to obtain a successful and profitable country, based on the example of Mexico.  Mexico entered free trade in the 1990’s, but didn’t make the proper adaptations to efficiently use the benefits resulting from the contract.

Friedman explains that countries must be honest with themselves and find where they stand in the flattening world and what adaptions need to be made to take advantage of the new platform. He also gives four adaptions and systems that need to be in place for nations to be successful in a free trade market. First a nation must have the correct infrastructure needed to connect to the rest of the world. A country will have a hard time competing or collaborating with other countries across the world if they have no internet access.

 Second is education. Although learning trades like agriculture and carpentry is still beneficial, new systems of schooling must take place. A country cannot compete in the global economy and invent new technology if they don’t have any education on computers and new technology. Even farmers need to know a great deal about computers if they are using modern technology for irrigation or harvesting.

The third aspect is governance and the ability to motivate workers to be more successful in their businesses and strive for bigger and better things. If the government of a country doesn’t have the ability to summon and focus local energies on reform retail, then it will take forever for decisions to be made and will possibly halt the progress of their economy on a global scale.

 Fourth is the right environment. If countries spend all their time industrializing instead of thinking about the effects on the environment, often times once the environment is at an awful state the economy ends up backtracking. Take for example the dustbowl. So much time and effort was spent in growing cotton and ignoring the effects to the soil from producing so much cotton that it became impossible for any farming on the soil. The soil was so dry that any wind produced major sandstorms. Because of this, all the families had to uproot themselves and start over.

One of the most important aspects of any business is customer service. In any retail or restaurant job there is always the saying “the customer comes first,” and this is completely true. Not very many people will go to a store repeatedly if they know the store has horrible customer service.  This is what makes fitting the needs of a “self-directed customer” so important.

 I would definitely consider myself a self-directed customer. One example would be the new online ordering method for Dominoes. They allow the customers to choose a variety of options for almost every step in the pizza making process. This allows the customers to make decisions at their own pace in their own home while making them feel like they are the chef creating their pizza. To me, this new way of ordering is one of the best ways of customer service.

During the early stages of globalization, other nations were worried that they would lose their culture due to America’s position as a strong global economic force, but I don’t think this is the case.  Before globalization most of our information about foreign countries was brought forth by media in a stereotypical fashion. But because of globalization, we now have a broader range of information about other nation’s cultures. Now this will only remain true if other nations take part in this new global platform. Granted there are American companies all over the world now, but as other nations grow they have just as much, or maybe even more, of a chance as American’s do to push the cultures out to the world.

 

Module 6

The idea of free trade was a theory brought forth by David Ricardo, an English economist. In my opinion this Idea explains that if each nation specializes in the production of their own goods and trades these goods with each other then, theoretically, the gain in trade and overall income should rise. This theory only works if the nations do not interfere in over regulating the imports and exports to other countries.  

I feel as though free trade would be beneficial to our global economy. I realize that many Americans have lost their jobs due to offshoring and outsourcing but overtime we can adapt to the changes of the global economy and be able to compete with other nations. The idea of a global economy is a lot like the second step of triple convergence discussed in my previous module. This new found Idea of free trade could become a useless and very unbeneficial theory if all the countries decide to open up to free trade while making no adaptions whatsoever to take advantage of the benefits and functions of a global economy with limited regulations.

Like any company going through a new upgrade in their system, company time is spent trying to learn this new system instead of making new business with other customers and bringing in profit. This time can feel pointless and frustrating in the beginning when typical functions in the company now take twice the amount of time because of unfamiliarity. But once the employees become familiarized with the upgrade, the system will become streamlined usually resulting in an increase of profit and a decrease in company time wasted. In my opinion we, being Americans, are in the learning stage of this new global upgrade and as we continue to adapt to these changes by an improvement in education we will see an increase in trade and overall income.

The term “new middler” refers to Friedman’s theory which includes eight characteristic traits that will help the common people become a successful middle class individual in our new technological world. He explains that those jobs that we once thought were untouchable are now disposable and if we don’t adapt to these changes in time we can become disposable too.

 The first is Great Collaborators and Orchestrators: These are those who have a great ability to communicate with others and orchestrate a team that works successfully around the clock. Second is The Great Synthesizers: these are the innovators that can bring together the global flatteners in new and creative ways. Third, The Great Explainers: those with the ability to explain complex concepts in a way that others can understand.  Fourth, The Great Leveragers: the people who can brainstorm ways of competing with the increasing size of laborers. Fifth, The Great Adapters: individuals who can roll with the punches of the changing economy and job pool, while adapting to the job changes. Sixth, The Green people: Those who are concerned about the environment and devoted in finding ways to create renewable and sustainable products. Seventh, The Math Lovers: These people have a love and have obtained great skills in the math department. The math lovers have the ability to design and control the new and upcoming technologies. Last but not least The Great Localizers: Those who are conscious about creating local jobs in all sizes of business.

When trying to understand Friedman’s equation of CQ + PQ > IQ, one must first understand what each variable stands for. CQ stands for curiosity quotient. PQ refers to the passion quotient. And Finally IQ which as most know is the intelligence quotient. In this equation Friedman is stating that curiosity and passion combined are greater in value then the pure power of intelligence. I couldn’t agree more with this statement. If a person possesses the curiosity and passion to learn everything they can learn this becomes far greater than someone who is able to spew out facts and knowledge. At the same time, I believe that by utilizing ones curiosity and passion to the objective of learning one can raise their IQ. In this competitive world a lot more than just smarts is needed to be successful.