Read the world is flat by Thomas L. Fried man and read article “Why is the world flat?”“I am very grateful to Professor Nguyen Lan Dung for summarizing the book with 10 factors that flattened the world, but in my opinion (subjective feeling), there are only 7 main factors:
1) National boundaries are blurring:We see that each country is usually a member of one or more different organizations. WTO, ASEAN, APEC, WHO… does not distinguish between borders and territories of operation, it governs the regulations and laws of participating parties into common rules of the game, so geopolitical barriers are increasingly losing their effectiveness.
2) Information technology erases distance: We live in an era of information technology explosion, the acceleration of information processing software, websites are endless data warehouses, the source of human knowledge is opened to infinity, communication technology such as fiber optic cables, satellites help us to instantly chat and exchange information with people halfway around the world.
3) Standardized products: We realize that standard systems are increasingly playing a great role in promoting the trading process. Quality management systems such as ISO, TQM, 5S... and standards for each industry and each type of product are unified according to strict regulations with parameters, features, codes and uses that are increasingly considered mandatory standards for parties participating in the international market.
4) Work is divided into small parts: We can easily see that in the past, an organization or individual completed their work from start to finish. Nowadays, work is divided into smaller and smaller parts, more specialized, deeper, more detailed. Each person participating in the production process is participating in the system. Each different job is standardized and designed into modules, and tends to be smaller, shorter, more specialized. Today's products are often contributed by many people.
5) Outsourcing: Each country has its own advantages in natural resources, labor force, management skills and scientific and technological level. Dividing and assigning work to different countries to exploit the absolute and relative advantages of that country to seek profits is a fairly common trend, aiming to specialize in each industry and exploit the economies of scale to lower product costs.
6) Shift of product lines, technology, equipment, finance: The countries in the world are divided into developed countries such as: USA, Japan, France, Germany, UK..., developing countries such as: Korea, Taiwan, Singapore... and underdeveloped countries such as: Vietnam, African countries... we see a shift in technology, equipment, finance. As we know, products have a life cycle from research and development, launching to the market, saturation and decline. Starting from developed countries, products are researched and produced, launched on the home market until the saturation and decline stage, it is gradually transferred to developing countries and when developing countries also reach the saturation stage, it is gradually transferred to underdeveloped countries, underdeveloped countries after receiving cheap technology of this technology line, mass production with low cost, large quantity will be able to serve the majority of people in underdeveloped countries and transfer this product back to developing and developed countries, while developed countries continue to research new products and technologies and continue the flow of new products and technologies, so the world is increasingly rich in products and prices are getting lower and lower.
7) Participate in global supply chains: Looking at the global picture, we see a flow of products from factories and production facilities like small streams (small means of transport) converging into streams (larger means of transport, delivery points) and many streams converging into rivers (general warehouses, larger means of transport) and from here there is a reverse flow to general agents, points of sale and finally to consumers. Observing, we see a continuous and endless flow.
What makes this flow most effective? It is the participation in the supply chain, each position has a significant role in contributing to the formation of the supply chain. And the just in time theory will be a theory that has a great impact in contributing to the construction of the supply chain.
Looking forward to feedback from members (saganor), in addition, there is a question that I hope to be answered - This is an opportunity (challenge) for Vietnam in the integration period, so what should Vietnamese enterprises do to exploit (deal with) the above opportunity (challenge)?
