Essay 3, The world is flat

Jaquelyn Hernandez

9/16/2012

IST

Essay 3, The world is flat

In pages 136-199 of The world is flat By Tomas L Friedman, Friedman begins these pages by discussing how most contraries business offshore to China or other poor countries that offer cheap labor. Friedman then begins to talk about what a supply chain is and how Wal-Mart (one of America’s largest well known grocery store) uses theirs to their advantage. We also learn in these pages how Google affects businesses.

            In 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization. A little later did businesses begin to offshore their companies to China. Offshoring is when a company is moved overseas into a new country that offers cheaper labor. While one may become confused about the different’s in the definitions of Offshoring and Outsourcing they do have a bit of a large different’s. Offshoring is moving a company to another country or place, while Outsourcing is giving work out to another organization. Outsourcing is similar to giving out products to other places, while offshoring is moving the production of the product somewhere else to be built.

Offshoring then created the idea of a supply chain. A supply chain is a system of organization of people, activities, and resources to create the ability of a product to come from the supplier to the customer. When a company is finished with making their product then they will set up a chain with another company that will sell that product. An example of this is Wal-Mart’s supply chain. Wal-Mart uses their Supply chain to their advantage. The moment that you buy something in Wal-Mart the supplier of that something already know that they need to resupply Wal-Mart with that object. Wal-Mart is constantly restocked 24/7 and had a flow in which they never run out of objects or best seller’s.

Google has come to affect nearly all businesses. When you type something into Google’s look-up bar advertisements from hundreds of companies show up. Links to companies of anyone’s interest are setting up webpages, sending out advertisements and Google is supporting them on its pages and pull ups. Google has improved the ability to find companies; it helps companies succeed in ways that companies have never succeeded.  

Over all in these pages, we covered what offshoring is and how it is different from outsourcing. Offshoring is when a company is moved to a location with cheaper labor or just a different location all together. While outsourcing is giving a product to a different company. We have covered what supply chain is and how it helps large companies like Wal-Mart succeed. We also learned how Google has affected how many people find businesses.