The Untouchables: An Introduction

1. The Untouchables: An Introduction • Globalization 1.0- countries had to think globally to thrive, or at least survive • Globalization 2.0-companies had to think globally to thrive, or at least survive • Globalization 3.0-individuals have to think globally to thrive, or at least survive • “In many global industries now, you have got to justify your job every day with the value you create and the unique skills you contribute. And if you don’t, that job can fly away from you farther and faster than ever.” (Friedman, 279) • Finishing dinner vs. finishing homework

2. The New Middle *Many of the lost jobs are “outsourced to the past,” not to China or India. -New York Times Washington bureau- telephone receptionist replaced by recorded greeting and voice mail. *Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani- In a flat world, there is “fungible and nonfungible work.” -Fungible- Work that can be easily digitized, automated, or transferred abroad.- -ex.- telephone receptionist

3. The New Middle • Untouchables- People whose jobs cannot be outsourced to another country or “to the past.” • Three categories of untouchables- • “special or specialized” • “localized and anchored” • “old middle” jobs

4. The New Middle Image taken from wallpaperbase.com First category: Jobs that are “special or “specialized.” - Michael Jordan - J.K. Rowling - your brain surgeon Jobs are so specialized, they can’t be fungible. They have a global market for their goods and services.

5. The New Middle Second category: Jobs that are localized and anchored. -Dentist -Plumber *Jobs must be done in a specific location -Involve specific local knowledge -Require personalized interaction

6. The New Middle Third category- “Old Middle” jobs or formerly middle-class jobs -Assembly line work -Data entry to securities analysis Jobs are under pressure from the flattening of the world. - Nilekani- “This middle has not yet grasped the competitive intensity of the future. Unless they [do], they will not make the investments in reskilling themselves and you will end up with a lot of people stranded on an island” (Friedman, 282).

7. The New Middlers: Great Collaborators and Orchestrators *Lots of new middle jobs will involve collaborating with others and/or orchestrating collaboration within and between companies. -Key new middle jobs: Managers who can work in and orchestrate supply chains that run for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and across 7 continents -Managers must have good people skills. -Many manager jobs will involve making supply chains more efficient.

8. The Great Synthesizers The further we push out the boundaries of knowledge and innovation, the more technology will come together to make great things- integration of technology. -Search engine optimizing: Math and marketing experts brought together. -Hypothetical example- Realtors mashing together Craigslist and Google- Online directory of sales of homes combined with Google’s maps.

9. Discussion Question #1: Do you think there will be enough “new middle” jobs to have full employment in the future?

10. The Great Explainers “If you can explain the complexity well, you can see the opportunities better…At the same time, the more content you can search and access, the more important the filters and explainers become.” -Friedman (289) SlideMaster Photo-Imaging of Aspen, Colorado “We used to sell film and develop and print the pictures – and give away the advice for free. Now we are selling the advice and, while not giving away the products, they have become a smaller part of our business.” -Freeman (290)

11. The Great Leveragers EDS Business Process Outsourcing Before and After 100 people to 20 people Screens reading “Error” to screens reading “ The router has a problem.” People without college degrees to computer engineers “They see the problem, stop the problem, and then redesign the system so that that particular problem never, ever happens again…” -Wacker (292) “The only way EDS can compete with low-wage India is by having one person work smarter and faster, rather than cheaper and harder.” -Friedman (291)

12. The Great Adapters The trend from specialization toward employees who are more adaptable and versatile “Versatilists, in contrast, apply depth of skill to a progressively widening scope of situations and experiences, gaining new competencies, building relationships, and assuming new roles.” -Gartner Study (294) “They have to prepare like someone who is training for the Olympics but doesn’t know what sport they are going to enter. They have to be ready to do anything.” -Sperling (294) Marcia Loughry went from a job in the EDS word-processing center all the way to the second highest technology rung at EDS – enterprise architect.

13. The Green People “When three billion people from China, India, and the former Soviet Empire walk onto the flat-world platform in a very short period of time, and every one of them wants a house, a car, a microwave, and a refrigerator, if we don’t learn how to do more things with less energy and lower emissions, we are going to create an environmental disaster and make our planet unlivable for our children.” -Friedman (297) Renewable energies and environmentally sustainable systems “Biological Renaissance” – a new era in which college students, instead of becoming doctors, might instead focus on “bio-derived or bio-inspired solutions to our looming energy and environmental problems.

14. Discussion Question #2: • How will our modern society change if we are unable come up with an alternative fuel source once all known oil reserves have dried up?

15. The Passionate Personalizers • Addition of a personal, intangible dimension • Passion • Entertainment • Creative touch • Taking a routine task and adding something to elevate a routine task into a new middle job • Ex.: Lemonade Server, Coffee Server • Princeton Economist Alan Blinder: “Perhaps, contrary to what we have come to believe in recent years, people skill will become more valuable than computer skills.

16. Math Lovers • More and more of what we write, buy, sell and invent is built on a foundation of math • Friedman: “In a flat world, where getting a jump on your competitors by just a few weeks can make an enormous financial difference, those who can come up with the right mathematical formulas, and apply them, to get that jump will be more valuable than ever” (300). • Businesses are now using mathematical models to formulate predictions about customers within their databases • Modeled as workers, shoppers, voters, and patients • Stolen credit card, defaulting on a loan • Discussion question #3: How comfortable do you feel knowing that businesses can store your personal information in databases and then make predictions about you? • “More and more math and quantitative skills will be needed to do more and more standard new middle jobs” (Friedman, 302). • Politicians and journalists: talk less and analyze more • Mechanics and carpenters: use stress analysis as much as monkey wrenches and hammers

17. The Great Localizers • Small and medium-size businesses really do the majority of hiring and firing • Joel Cawley, an IBM strategist: “There is going to be a huge amount of business for those small and medium-size firms that learn how to take all the global capabilities that are now out there and tailor them to the needs of a local community… It’s the localization of the global and we’re just at the beginning of it. It has enormous potential to be very job-creating.” • Understanding/Finding utility in using tools of connectivity to build businesses • Examples: eBay entrepreneurs, bar owner w/ multiple games, coffee bar w/ wireless access • Understanding the Power of Modeling • Using computer simulation and graphics to bring data together to create models that will show how all kinds of complex things work together • Before: You actually had to go through the expensive process of building them

18. Final Remarks • New strategies will emerge as time passes • No hard-and fast boundaries between these different strategies; mixing them could be even more beneficial Discussion Question #4: Do you implement any of these strategies or skills in your current job, and which ones do you believe will turn out to be the most relevant/applicable in the future? -Collaborators and orchestrators -Great synthesizers -Great explainers -Great leveragers -Great adapters -Green people -Passionate personalizers -Math lovers -Great localizers