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Slide 1: A presentation on “Flat world and Kern Communications” Based on the book
Slide 2: What do you understand by “Flat world”?  Possible for more people  More other people  More and different kind of work  More and different corners of the planet  More equal footing than at any previous time in the history of the world to collaborate and compete in real time with  Connected knowledge centers all over the globe in a single network
Slide 3: When did this flattening start?  Globalization 1  1492 – 1800  World changed from Large to Medium  Countries competing  Globalization 2 1800 – 2000 World changed from Medium to Small  Companies competing   A T F L  Globalization 3 2000 – till date World changed from Small to Tiny  Individuals competing   N G N I T E
Slide 4: What are the reasons of flattening? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11/9/89 – Fall of Berlin Wall 8/9/95 – Boost to connectivity Work flow software Uploading Out-sourcing Off-shoring Supply chaining In-sourcing In-forming The steroids
Slide 5: 11/9/89 – Fall of Berlin Wall  Represents decline of communism (believes in making people equally poor)  Represents rise of capitalism (believes in making people unequally rich)  Removed restrictions on flow of information,---ideas, knowledge, best practices Irony is, the seeds of 9/11 were sown at 11/9 because some people thought it was Osama who brought down USSR (and communism)
Slide 6: 8/9/95 – Boost to connectivity  This flattener is a combination of three events in 1990’s.  These three form the platform for other flatteners  Emergence of internet as a tool for low-cost global connectivity  Emergence of world wide web on top of internet  Spread of commercial browser These three flatteners also lead to over investment and the “IT-bubble” which benefited India after 2000
Slide 7: 8/9/95 – Boost to connectivity  Emergence of internet as a tool for low-cost global connectivity  Internet was in existence since 1960’s and its use was spreading by 1990’s  It enabled to send data and information in form of “packets”  The transfer of data would take in few seconds  It was possible to send data to any corner of the world  Different protocols were developed to transfer different type of information and enable communication between different computer systems
Slide 8: 8/9/95 – Boost to connectivity  Emergence of world wide web on top of internet  First website was created by Tim Berners- Lee  He designed it and fought to keep it open, non-proprietary and free  Time magazine (June 14 1999) identified him as one of the most important person in 20th century http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=1IQFjTnDozo
Slide 9: 8/9/95 – Boost to connectivity  Spread of commercial browser  Other browsers existed before Netscape but they were for scientists and computer experts  Jim Clark and Marc Andreessen in 1993 created browser called “Mosaic” which worked on different range of computers (IBM-PC, Apple-Mac and Unix computer) had graphic interface and was easy to use for a common man. “Netscape” by December 1994  Mosaic was commercially available as  Mosaic renamed as Netscape made a successful IPO on 8/9/95 (became Public Ltd company)
Slide 10: Connectivity at Kern Communications  Internet, web and browsers are like life lines of Kern communications.  Almost all of the Kern’s business is run with the help of these tools
Slide 11: Work flow software  Enabled creation the creation of VPN(Virtual Private Networks)  Internet based service companies provide business applications and software on rent  A small company or individual who cannot afford to buy a software can rent it at reasonable rates.  Facilitates mobility of business
Slide 12: Work flow at Kern Communications  Kerns communications utilizes tools like SharePoint, FTP file transfers regularly and has increased the data carrying or data transferring capacity of its work flow  Kern Communication has formed a its own VPN with its foreign clients with the help of such tools
Slide 13: Uploading  Enabled open source communities to share and develop products by collaborating(Apache server, Mozilla, Linux, Open office)  Prevented monopoly of big companies by keeping these products free for all.  Blogging-Podcasting allowed individuals to publish their opinions and news for free (Tehnorati.com says that a new blog is created every 7 seconds)  Online Encyclopedia (Wikipedia) enabled all people to contribute to these knowledge databases
Slide 14: Uploading at Kern communications  Kernites are frequent bloggers and write quiet regularly on variety of subjects. They are fond of letting the world know what they think.  Kern’s official blog is http://elearning.kern-comm.com/  Kern also utilizes open source softwares that are uploaded on the internet/www.
Slide 15: Outsourcing  Y2K problem gave India opportunity to prove its worth  As the companies in developed countries were pressed to reduce cost they started finding new destinations like China, South America, Eastern Europe.  These countries started attracting high end jobs such as design, development and R&D centers and started competing with developed countries (IT and tech jobs to India, Manufacturing jobs to China etc).  Author also mentions that there is no such thing as “American job” any more. People in developing countries compete directly with people in developed countries for the jobs.
Slide 16: Outsourcing and Kern communications  Kern has undertaken and successfully completed projects in the field of Usability which were outsourced by its European clients
Slide 17: Off shoring  What “Out-sourcing” did for India, “Off-shoring” did for China  China became manufacturing hub after joining WTO.  Companies moved their manufacturing facilities to china to  Reduce manufacturing cost and compete in their own local markets  Serve Chinese market  Serve other international markets  These industries are helping china to slowly change from “Manufactured in China” to “Designed and developed in China”
Slide 18: Off shoring and Kern communications  Kern is gradually moving towards off shoring as well.  We will handle entire projects for our foreign partners with whom we have a joint venture.
Slide 19: Supply chaining  Horizontal collaboration of Suppliers, Retailers, Manufacturers, and Customers all over the world and need is for global optimization the companies to help improve other contributors to the supply chain. (Wal-Mart helps its local and international suppliers to implement new electronic system and adopt new business practices to maintain its low prices)  These players are distributed  Global Optimization requires  Best example of successful supply chain is Wal-Mart. It is the biggest retail business and doesn't manufacture anything.
Slide 20: Supply chaining and Kern communications  Kern’s (Usability and Learning Solutions ) supply chain is also based on IT and electronic transfer of information.  The basic information we need to start our projects is electronically transferred to Kern and the Kern also ships the projects deliverables in the form of electronic files  This has greatly simplified our supply chain, we need not worry much about maintaining our supply chain.
Slide 21: In Sourcing  Hiring a company to manage ones own internal operations and business processes  Enables small companies to compete with big companies  Enables big companies to be flexible like small companies Examples: UPS Fully manages and runs repair and maintenance centers for Toshiba Scheduling deliveries and picking up raw material for Papa Johns Running and maintaining ware house for Nike and fulfill on line orders for shoes.  Helping Ford in running their distribution system.  Still most of its customers are small companies which benefit from the global supply chain and logistics infrastructure of UPS    
Slide 22: In-sourcing and Kern communications  Its not always necessary that you need to be a big company to provide “In-sourcing” services to your client as in case of UPS. Important thing is gain trust of the client, maintain the trust and keep adding value to the clients work process, product, etc.  Kern does exactly that for its foreign clients and Kerns employees are working inside our clients company to improve the usability of their products
Slide 23: In forming  Different search engines help     to find any information without any discrimination Gives universal access to knowledge It is equalizer as it provides same level of accessibility to people across the world Enables to find like minded people Provide forums / platforms to people to have private, semi-private or public gatherings
Slide 24: In forming at Kern communications  Its impossible to imagine Kerns work place without Google, Yahoo etc…………….
Slide 25: The steroids  Computational capacity, storage capacity, input/output capability  Reducing size of chips and their increasing capacity Peer to peer models Skype  Instant messaging and file sharing   VOIP   Videoconferencing  Collaboration of HP and Dreamworks for videoconferencing suite  Advances in computer graphics  Use of highly visual and interactive interfaces in medical, educational, business and science field.  Wireless technologies and devices
Slide 26: Steroids used by Kern communications  We at Kern fully utilize the “Steroids” like using digital voice recorders, messaging and file transfer software, Skype etc to expedite and simplify our work
Slide 27: Conclusion  There is no doubt that the world is becoming flat and I am glad that we at Kern are rightly taking advantage of these changes.