Globalization and the New Economy How to remain competitive in the 21 st Century business environment

The Global Business Environment has Changed Businesses and workers need to be flexible, creative and collaborative Opportunities and challenges exist throughout the world Gone are the days of safe, secure employment It is time to adapt or you will be left behind

Globalization Businesses are no longer restricted by national boundaries Businesses look to global markets for suppliers, partners, and customers The key motivating factor for globalization is MONEY –Reduced wages –Cheaper raw materials –Increased efficiency –New markets

How Do Businesses Go Global? Buy or partner with foreign firms Establish an overseas presence Outsourcing: Pay a foreign firm to perform an aspect of a company’s operations Call centers, ticket booking Offshoring: Relocate operations overseas Auto and clothing manufacturing

The World is Flat In his book, Thomas J. Friedman identified 10 flatteners: Ten things that helped break down barriers and promote globalization 11/9/89 – The New Age of Creativity (The fall of the Berlin Wall and the introduction of Windows 3.0) 8/9/95 – The New Age of Connectivity (When Netscape went public)

10 Flatteners (cont’d) Work Flow Software - The entrepreneur doing accounting work for American from India Uploading: Harnessing the Power of Communities Outsourcing Y2K - Y2K problem and the millennium bug, was outsourced oversees because it was cheaper to hire programmers in India

Offshoring - American auto parts manufacturer in China Supply-Chaining: When a consumer picks up one of the products in a Wal-Mart store, the cashier scans it and the generated signal goes to the supplier of that product and pops up on the supplier's computer screen and prompts him to make another of that item and ship it via the Wal-Mart supply chain. Insourcing: If you own a Toshiba laptop under warranty, and it breaks and you call Toshiba to have it repaired, it goes to a UPS workshop dedicated to computer repairs at their Louisville hub.

10 Flattener’s (cont;d) In-Forming: Google, Yahoo!, MSN Web Search The Steroids: Digital Mobile, Personal, and Virtual What is the common element among the 10 Flatteners?

Technology Industrial Age: Men and machines –Automation – machines replacing workers –20 th century phenomenon Information Age: Men and computers –Compumation – computers replacing workers Travel agents, secretaries, repetitive tasks and those that people can complete themselves.

Does Globalization Spell Doom for American Workers? In the old economy, increases in productivity led to increases in employment Today, productivity increases come from compumation and digitization Many “traditional” jobs are no longer available in the US

NAFTA Related Job Losses (Plain Dealer 8/31/08) Since 1994 Ohio unemployment has increased almost 10% Ohio manufacturing jobs fell by almost 9% and US manufacturing jobs fell by 20% Are these declines all due to NAFTA and globalization?

How to Compete World employment is not a zero sum game –There is not a fixed amount of jobs to be shared among workers –Globalization has shifted the type of employment available in the developed world The US and other first world nations must transform into the Expertise Economy

The Expertise Economy Idea based Adaptive, collaborative, service oriented Imagination and training are required Higher education and specialized skills are necessary to become and remain competitive in the expertise economy

What Do You Think? What is the impact of globalization on American workers, the American economy as well as all workers and the global economy. Is globalization a positive or negative?