Rethinking Work In A Flat World (from "The World is Flat")

I recently finished reading "The World Is Flat" and found the following thoughts from Tom Friedman to be extremely interesting.

* The key to thriving, as an individual, in a flat world is figuring out how to make yourself an "untouchable". "Untouchables" are people whose jobs cannot be outsourced, digitized, or automated.

Couple of key categories that untouchables in a flat world will fall into:
a. People who are really "special or specialized".
b. People who are really "localized" and "anchored" (jobs must be done in a specific location either because they involve some specific local knowledge or because they require face-to-face, personalized contact or interaction with a customer).

* Key Roles in a Flat World
1. Great Collaborators and Orchestrators - Collaborating with others or orchestrating collaboration within and between companies.
2. Great Synthesizers - Creating value by synthesizing disparate parts together.
3. Great Explainers - Seeing the complexity but explaining it with simplicity.
4. Great Leveragers - Leveraging technology, designing programs that enable others to work smarter and faster.
5. Great Adapters - Applying depth of skill to a progressively widening scope of situations and experiences, gaining new competencies, building relationships, and assuming new roles. Capable of not only constantly adapting but also of constantly learning & growing.
6. Passionate Personalizers - Giving personal, special touch and real passion to a normal task.

The most important ability you can develop in a flat world is the ability to "learn how to learn" - to constantly absorb, and teach yourself, new ways of doing old things or new ways of doing new things.

Some thoughts for recruiters and talent acquistion managers

These observations and thoughts for the recruiting funtion seem to be obvious but work pressure and multiple demands prevent these from happening consistently. I believe they could seriously affect a company's image and be a differentiator in today's competitive global talent market.

1. First impressions - Recruiters are the first points of contact for most candidates. Candidates form strong first opinions about the culture, work environment, professionalism etc. of an organization based on their initial interactions and conversations with the recruiters. The behaviors exhibited by the recruiters are critical in defining those impressions. The ability to build trust by being authentic is also an important factor. Recruiters therefore play a critical role in managing a candidate's decisions about an organization and determine the quality of talent entering an organization.

2. Responsiveness - Setting expectations regarding timeframes for responses and being consistent about them are really important. Many times, this could be dependent on hiring managers. It would still be important for a candidate to be consistently updated.

3. Closure - Closing a recruiting process for a candidate by treating him/her with respect, even when he/she is not found to be a fit for the job is a huge step in the process. This can be ensured through consistent behaviors and actions from start to end, irrespective of the final decision. At the end of the day, any candidate can be an existing or potential future employee, customer, investor or community member. They could also communicate with and influence decisions of other talented candidates.

4. Respecting diversity and cultural sensitivity - Recruiters can become increasingly involved with a global workforce. This could only become more common as the labor pools in the US and Europe fall. Cultural sensitivity and respecting diversity is an extremely important topic to be aware of while interacting with candidates from different cultures. This can be clearly portrayed through actions that make a candidate feel welcome.

Why Is The Knowledge Landscape Changing Quickly

The internet has changed the world completely.

Access to information and knowledge in any part of the world today provide great opportunities for anyone with the curiosity, interest and drive to learn. It also enables the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge among all levels of the 'knowledge society'.

'Knowledge power' is not the special privilege for a select few anymore.

Individuals and organizations would have to be very careful not to be arrogant about their past successes, about what they know or where they are currently. Openness to ideas and feedback from individuals or groups from any part of the world could be highly critical to success in the internet world.

This also means higher levels of transperency. Insensitivity to or negative feedback from the customers, markets or communities can quickly be communicated and shared across the world.

More Questions than Answers

My first post relates to my quest to find specific answers for many questions on business management practices and responses from different individuals, in academia and business. I wanted to find one best answer to different questions that could be applied across multiple environments.


I'm learning that though there are multiple possibilities, the key to succeed is to figure out the unique factors and what's most relevant to a particular environment.


There seems to be no one best tailor-made solution or answer for a problem in the world of management. Different variables influence the approach and solution. Some approaches that work really well in one environment might produce undesired results in another. The future world of management and consulting could hold far more interesting challenges, considering the speed of change and global access to information in today's world.

So, how might one navigate through the complex business world?
Being sensitive to the environment and the ability to discern by asking more questions could hold the key.