The forces of globalization have flattened our world. New players have entered the “playing field” from every corner of the world. What does that mean for you and the level of productivity you will need to remain competitive?
The follow African parable imprinted on the floor of a factory in China gives a powerful hint, and a powerful warning:
“Every Morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.”
The message: in our global world, whoever you are, you are going to have to run a lot faster. I first read that quote in the book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. It is an eye opening book. It lists ten forces that are flattening the world, tearing down walls and increasing competition for jobs and everything else many times fold. This flattening will require you to develop new and better organizational skills. It also graciously will give you many new tools for productivity, and thank goodness because you are going to need them!
We will look at each of the ten flattening forces and how they effect you in the next post of this series on “A Flat World.”
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Additional posts in the series:
A Flat World: How these ten forces are flattening the world and effecting your productivity