THOMAS L FRIEDMAN

Thomas Loren Friedman was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on July 20, 1953, and grew up in the middleclass Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park. He is the son of Harold and Margaret Friedman. He has two older sisters, Shelley and Jane. Harold Friedman was vice president of a ball bearing company, United Bearing, started by a friend. Margaret Friedman, who served in the U.S. Navy in World War II and studied home economics at the University of Wisconsin, was a housewife and a part-time bookkeeper. Harold Friedman died of a heart attack in 1973, when Tom was nineteen years old. Margaret Friedman, who was also a Senior Life Master championship bridge player, died in 2008.

From an early age, Friedman, whose father often brought him to the golf course for a round after work, wanted to be a professional golfer. He was captain of the St. Louis Park High golf team; at the 1970 U.S. Open at Hazeltine National Golf Club, he caddied for Chi Chi Rodriquez, who came in 27th. That, alas, was as close as Friedman would get to professional golf. In high school, however, he developed two other passions that would define his life from then on: the Middle East and journalism. It was a visit to Israel with his parents during Christmas vacation in 196869 that stirred his interest in the Middle East, and it was his high school journalism teacher, Hattie Steinberg, who inspired in him a love of reporting and newspapers.

After graduating from high school in 1971, Friedman attended the University of Minnesota and Brandeis University, and graduated summa cum laude in 1975 with a degree in Mediterranean studies. During his undergraduate years, he spent semesters abroad at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the American University in Cairo. Following his graduation from Brandeis, Friedman attended St. Antony's College, Oxford University, on a Marshall Scholarship. In 1978, he received an M.Phil. degree in modern Middle East studies from Oxford. That summer he joined the London Bureau of United Press International (UPI) on Fleet Street, where he worked as a general assignment reporter.

After spending a great deal of time in the Middle East in the years after 9/11, Friedman decided to do some reporting elsewhere, particularly India. In April 2005, FSG published his fourth book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. The book became a #1 New York Times bestseller and received the inaugural Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in November 2005. A revised and expanded edition was published in hardcover in 2006 and a Release 3.0 paperback edition in 2007. The World Is Flat has sold more than 4 million copies in thirty-seven languages. Also in 2007, Friedman wrote the afterword for Classic Shots, a collection of photographs from the United States Golf Association, published by the National Geographic Society.

Friedman has won three Pulitzer Prizes: the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Lebanon), the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (from Israel), and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary. In 2004, he was also awarded the Overseas Press Club Award for lifetime achievement and the honorary title Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. In 2009, he was given the National Press Club's lifetime achievement award. He has been awarded honorary degrees by Brandeis University, Macalester College, Haverford College, the University of Minnesota, Hebrew Union College

INTRODUCTION
In the book, The World is Flat, Friedman recounts a journey to Bangalore, India, when he realized globalization has changed core economic concepts. In his opinion, this flattening is a product of a convergence of personal computer with fiber-optic micro cable with the rise of work flow software. He termed this period as Globalization 3.0, differentiating this period from the previous Globalization 1.0 (in which countries and governments were the main protagonists) and the Globalization 2.0 (in which multinational companies led the way in driving global integration).

 Friedman recounts many examples of companies based

in India and China that, by providing labor from typists and call center operators to accountants and computer programmers, have become integral parts of complex global supply chains for companies such as Dell, AOL, and Microsoft. Friedman's Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention is discussed in the book's penultimate chapter. Friedman repeatedly uses lists as an organizational device to communicate key concepts, usually numbered, and often with a provocative label. Two example lists are the ten forces that flattened the world, and three points of convergence.

What Tom Friedman means by the phrase The World is Flat is that the global competitive playing field is being leveledIt is now possible for more people than ever to collaborate and compete in real time with more other people on more different kinds of work from more different corners of the planet and on a more equal footing than at any previous time in the history of the world. Friedman believes that this flattening of the world is the result of ten factors, which he outlines in chapter 2 of his book.

Thomas Friedmans examination of the influences shaping business and competition in a technology-fueled global environment is a call to action for governments, businesses and individuals who must stay ahead of these trends in order to remain competitive. In a narrative punctuated by case studies, interviews and sometimes surprising statistics, Friedmans message is clear: be prepared, because this phenomenon waits for no one. Without rhetoric or scare tactics, he paints a picture of a world moving faster than most can keep up. As we explore Americas place in the fast-evolving world economic platform, Friedman presents not only the problems we face, but preventative measures and possible solutions.

The World is Flat is an historical and geographical journey, with stories and anecdotes from the days of Columbus to a modern day Indian call center; from the Great Depression to the home office of a Midwestern-USA housewife demonstrating the pervasiveness of the world-flattening trend. Spanning a broad range of industries, cultures and schools of thought, the real-world examples presented as evidence of his theory are undeniable. From teleconferencing to podcasts and manufacturing to restaurant order taking, The World is Flat leaves no stone unturned in a quest for answers to a problem that most cannot even define. Friedmans dissection of globalization is a valiant attempt at explaining and understanding the forces driving the flattening of the world, though he admits that the very nature of beast prevents one from having all of the answers.

This candor is in keeping with the theme of the entire book, in that we must learn how to learn, teaching ourselves to stay curious and innovative, if we are to excel in a global economy. As he moves towards the end of this presentation of his theory, Friedman warns of the forces that could seriously harm or slow the flattening of the world, particularly the threat posed by terrorist networks such as Al-Qaeda. His perspective is refreshing in a media driven largely by scare tactics and fear mongering as he encourages a realistic and objective approach to this threat. As people become more able to collaborate, compete and share with others of different cultures, religions, educational backgrounds and languages, The World is Flat is a necessary reality check to bring these factors into perspective and offer, if not answers to every problem, the drive to uncover working solutions.