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Georgia Tech College of Management's IMPACT Speaker Series: Thomas Friedman Monday, November 7th, 2005 at 4:30pm Summary: Thomas Friedman Says Georgia Tech Ready for Globalization New York Times foreign affairs columnist and best-selling author Thomas Friedman said the Georgia Institute of Technology is an institution that is preparing future businesspersons for the increasingly "flat," or globalized, world of business.Mr. Friedman, who has also been a guest columnist for the Atlanta Journal Constitution and who wrote the recent book, "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century," spoke at Georgia Tech's College of Management on Nov. 7. "In a flat world, there's no such thing as an American job, there's just a job. And it's going to go to the smartest, fastest, most efficient person to do that job," Mr. Friedman said of the global economy that allows individuals all over the world to perform jobs in countries other than where they live through new technologies. "Georgia Tech is a school that gets what's going on," he said, of the current era of globalization that is making the world "flat" through new forms of collaboration. New communications technologies allow companies to outsource jobs to India, China or other developing countries to cut costs, or move operations entirely to other offshore, cost-effective locations, for better efficiency, he said. This increasingly global supply chain of business operations needs individuals, like students training at Georgia Tech, who can "globalize themselves," Mr. Friedman said. Georgia Tech is giving its students the ability to "learn how to learn," he said, adding that this is the single key to American companies' future success. Georgia companies are facing increasing competition from foreign companies, so they will need the innovative, creative skills young people can bring to the table, he said. "What one individual imagines really matters," Mr. Friedman asserted. "Stretch yourself. Learn something totally different than the discipline you're in," he advised the audience of some 300 students and Atlanta businesspersons. Mr. Friedman's latest book, "The World is Flat," describes how new technologies have converged in this century to produce a world in which space, time and geography do not inhibit companies' and individuals' opportunities in the global marketplace. Mr. Friedman is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, whose foreign affairs column appears twice a week in the New York Times, discussing global issues including U.S. domestic and foreign policy, international economics, conflicts abroad and terrorism. He is the author of From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989) about the Middle East conflict, and The Lexus and the Olive Tree (1999), about globalization. His book Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11 (2002) contains columns he published about Sept. 11 and accounts from his reporting on the post-Sept. 11 world. Visit www.thomaslfriedman.com for more information about Mr. Friedman and his latest work. Program Description: Events for the series take place in the LeCraw Auditorium in the College of Management building at 4:30 PM on Wednesdays unless otherwise noted. The series is open to the public, and reservations are not required.For five years the IMPACT Speaker Series has brought highly successful business leaders from a variety of industries to campus to share their experiences and give advice to students and other entrepreneurs on topics ranging from "building a venture around intellectual capital" to "successful entrepreneurship in large organizations." The weekly series provides Georgia Tech students, alumni, and the Atlanta community an opportunity to network and learn from high tech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and notable business leaders. For more details, please check the program website: http://mgt.gatech.edu/fac_research/centers_initiatives/speaker.html |