Flat World – Triple Convergence 1.Around 2000 of ten of the flatteners started to converge and work together to created a new, flatter, global playing field. 2.In this new flat playing field, businesses and people adopted new habits, skills and processes. They moved from mostly vertical methods to more horizontal methods. 3.Several billion new people came out on the field, mostly from China, India and the former Soviet Empire

Convergence 1 – The Flatteners The flatteners started in about They had to spread, take root and connect. SW Airlines let people make reservations and print their own boarding passes. Several firms built machines that would print, fax, scan, , and copy. Complementary goods are each better because of the other. We had a flat, global, web-enabled playing field for collaboration, sharing of knowledge and work without regard to geography, distance, or (soon) language.

Convergence 2 – New Habits, Skills and Processes New technology and new ways of doing business Wal-Mart’s Big Box stores along with a supply chain that ensured the stock was on the shelf. HP, Cisco and Nokia collaborated on the camera phone. All the airlines are now letting you make your reservations, pick your seats, print your boarding passes.

Convergence 3 – a few billion new players China, India, Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Central Asia brought new players to the game. They did not go to the playing field, the playing field came to them. Because many of these new players did not have legacy systems in place, they could go straight to the latest technology. Many Chinese skipped over land lines for cell phones. South Korea has much greater internet usage and broadband penetration.

Convergence 3 – a few billion new players The new, young, smart, ambitious,… India has ~555 million people < 25 years old. They are smart, educated, hard-working and want the same standard of living that you do. The demand to come to the U.S. for education is enormous… One Chinese applied for a visa and said he want to work on artificial limbs and was awarded a visa. The next day, a large number of Chinese indicated they wanted to come to the U.S. to work on aritificial limbs.

Convergence 3 – a few billion new players A young Chinese girl was accepted to Harvard with a full scholarship. Her parents wrote a book on getting their daughter into Harvard. It was a best seller and sold 3 million copies. But China and India have been (and are) bringing their Universities up to the highest standards. Bill Gates: “I would rather be a genius born in China than an average guy born in San Jose.