The Flat World Concept: The road to Innovation is a bumpy ride, but it's worth every mile...

The World is Flat is not a myth. It's all around us. When I first read the book, I was swept with this grandiose idea of the developing nations spreading their wealth that the developed and industrialized nations have to offer, in the form of jobs. The World is Flat is about the various business practices, such as the change management, the e-commerce and portal management, the internet, the blogs, online social networks and about multitude of other technological advances that the developing countries has seen in the past 15 years or so, and how it has globally flattened the level playing field of a company's and a country's economy. It surely has drastically altered the know-how of business and life in general these days. Even more exciting are the opportunities that lie ahead.

Image courtesy: http://www.businessinnovationinsider.com/

Personally I feel that the concept of The World is Flat is not limited to the competition amongst nations or companies, but it's a competition between me and my imagination. A strange analogy, but yes I feel that it's more about my creativity and innovation, and how I can contribute to the society. Coming from a leading technological firm, whose motto firmly believed with the Flat World concept, I had the privilege of listening to the notions of my childhood hero, Mr. Narayana Murthy. As a honorary chief guest for one of the award ceremonies, he made the mark with the following - Innovation is a journey and not a destination. What it meant was that the moment you feel you have achieved innovation, means that you are no longer innovating.

In this fast changing world, the a new business model is always in the making, and new operating model is always setup to support it. How quickly the transformation of this entire model takes place will determine the success of the new business model. Sometimes, it is enthralling to see new players coming from nowhere and making their mark as new leaders driving their business in all verticals. From my personal experience, I have had the privilege of observing these changes from a different perspective, and at times I respectfully disagree to some points mentioned in the book.

More about Flat World concepts in the next session - Off Offshoring and Flat World...

Day Zero - The New Beginning...

Dear Readers,

Welcome to my first "Experience Speaks" blog. A nice saturday morning in Brussels, with birds chirping around, it's summer around the corner. A hot coffee and some croissant to help with my thought process. Finally after two months of wait since my first registeration of this blog, I have finally decided to start penning down my experiences. I was looking for a perfect start, but later realized that perfection is just a matter of discipline.

I am an Indian, and the things I have experienced staying in Brussels for a little more than two years are more or less the same that I have experienced staying in Mumbai and Pune (India). It's a strange feeling to know that the world has changed a lot in the past decade around me. What was a distant dream of visiting far-off places, that I had read about only in books, is a reality now. The world has indeed gone Flat. Yes, that's the subject I would touch upon for this blog session.

Given my engineering background and my professional interests, I find this idea of a fast moving world, high-end cutting edge technology and changing strategy quiet interesting. Global practice is changing the basic assumptions that each organization has put forth and the policies that the government makes every few years. With all these changes happening quiet frequently, and with the markets tumbling around, marking the black period of U.S economy, 2008, it's right time to be in business. It's the right time to make most of the opportunities and most of the skills one possess. And that is why I anchored to start my blog on Thomas L. Friedman's - The World is Flat.

I personally consider it to be one of the top 10 books I have ever read, and given that I am a science fiction fan, I highly recommend you take a look at it. The readings have really changed my thought process and the perceptions about the life in general that revolves around me.

More to feature in my next blog...

Regards,
Anand