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38 Part One Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise

Managers routinely use online collaboration and social technologies in
order to make better, faster decisions. As management behavior changes, how
work gets organized, coordinated, and measured also changes. By connect-
ing employees working on teams and projects, the social network is where
works gets done, where plans are executed, and where managers manage.
Collaboration spaces are where employees meet one another—even when
they are separated by continents and time zones.
The strength of cloud computing and the growth of the mobile digital platform
allow organizations to rely more on telework, remote work, and distributed
decision making. This same platform means firms can outsource more work,
and rely on markets (rather than employees) to build value. It also means that
firms can collaborate with suppliers and customers to create new products, or
make existing products more efficiently.
You can see some of these trends at work in the Interactive Session on
Management. Millions of managers rely heavily on the mobile digital platform
to coordinate suppliers and shipments, satisfy customers, and manage their
employees. A business day without these mobile devices or Internet access
would be unthinkable. As you read this case, note how the emerging mobile
platform greatly enhances the accuracy, speed, and richness of decision
making.

GLOBALIZATION CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES: A

FLATTENED WORLD
In 1492, Columbus reaffirmed what astronomers were long saying: the world
was round and the seas could be safely sailed. As it turned out, the world was
populated by peoples and languages living in isolation from one another, with
great disparities in economic and scientific development. The world trade that
ensued after Columbus’s voyages has brought these peoples and cultures closer.
The “industrial revolution” was really a world-wide phenomenon energized by
expansion of trade among nations.
In 2005, journalist Thomas Friedman wrote an influential book declaring the
world was now “flat,” by which he meant that the Internet and global commu-
nications had greatly reduced the economic and cultural advantages of devel-
oped countries. Friedman argued that the U.S. and European countries were
in a fight for their economic lives, competing for jobs, markets, resources, and
even ideas with highly educated, motivated populations in low-wage areas in
the less developed world (Friedman, 2007). This “globalization” presents both
challenges and opportunities for business firms
A growing percentage of the economy of the United States and other
advanced industrial countries in Europe and Asia depends on imports and
exports. In 2012, more than 33 percent of the U.S. economy resulted from
foreign trade, both imports and exports. In Europe and Asia, the number
exceeded 50 percent. Many Fortune 500 U.S. firms derive half their revenues
from foreign operations. For instance, 85 percent of Intel’s revenues in 2011
came from overseas sales of its microprocessors. Eighty percent of the toys
sold in the United States are manufactured in China, while about 90 percent
of the PCs manufactured in China use American-made Intel or Advanced
Micro Design (AMD) chips.
It’s not just goods that move across borders. So too do jobs, some of them
high-level jobs that pay well and require a college degree. In the past decade,
the United States lost several million manufacturing jobs to offshore, low-wage

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