Module 6

Jayden Nyman

IST 1100

Module 6

            Freidman explains free trade by using David Ricardo’s theory which states, “If each nation specializes in the production of goods in which it has a comparative cost advantage and then trades with other nations for the goods in which they specialize, there will be an overall gain in trade, and overall income levels should rise in each trading country.” Freidman argues that Ricardo is right, and that more American individuals will benefit if we don’t erect barriers to outsourcing, supply chaining, and offshoring than if we were to allow the barriers. I believe that supply chaining is very important because it allows jobs to potentially be created. This is very important, and with lower trade barriers I would believe that jobs would be easier to come by. Free trade also creates more savings and investment opportunities because of the increase of money and profit that the trade brings in. This is very important because it allows for a better retirement, as well as allows America to give out higher paying jobs. I know that I will want to have benefited from a higher savings and investments when I’m ready to retire.

            Traits that would make up a “new middler” would be “special or specialized.” For example, Friedman says they are the “untouchables”, like Michael Jordan, or Madonna because they are very “specialized” and can’t be copied or matched. Like Michael Jordan, he is looked at as the best to ever play basketball. Not just anybody can copy what he has done, or ever will, this is why he is “specialized.” In order to be a “new middler”, they have to be classified with a middle class job, but only newer. Second are people who are localized and anchored. These people are considered “untouchables” because their jobs have to be done a specific way or in a specific area or place. This could be a plumber, or even your family dentist. The third category includes middle class jobs that would include things such as security analysis, or even radiology. Freidman called these the “old middle” jobs. These jobs are now fungible and tradable because of the ten flatteners, and many of the jobs are now under pressure from the flattening of the world.

            Describing the CQ plus PQ is greater than IQ is quite easy. Freidman describes IQ as the intelligence quotient, CQ as the curiosity quotient, and then PQ as the passion quotient. Friedman argues that IQ matters, but CQ and PQ matter even more. He gives an examples stating, “Give me a kid with passion to learn and a curiosity to discover and I will take him over a less passionate kid with a high IQ every day of the week.” I completely agree with his idea of the entire formula. Everything he said in this chapter makes sense, and I would definitely take the kid with passion and curiosity over someone with only a high IQ. Curiosity in some shape or form is what has lead to some of the great inventions that we have come to know and love. This is why the formula is very important, because we need curious and passionate people in our society working to create better more efficient ways of living.

            What I have read in these chapters has really engaged me to look farther into the essay questions. Free trade, “new middlers”, and CQ+PQ>IQ are all very important topics. These are all things that will help promote a better world around us, as well as change the way that our world operates for the greater good.

Module 5

Jayden Nyman

IST 1100

Module 5

            The triple convergence is when all ten of the worlds flatteners started to converge and work together, which created a new, flatter, global playing field. It was around the year 2000 that the flatteners began to converge. It was called triple convergence because there were 3 different ways that the flatteners converged together. In convergence I, a new global platform was created by combining all ten flatteners. What the platform did was allow us to communicate like we never could before. Convergence II was more related to the business aspect of globalization. The new global platform created from convergence I wouldn’t have been possible without changing the way that we do business. Friedman talked about what he called “horizontalization”, which he explains is practically what it takes to make a businesses process to change and become successful. Convergence is not something that happens over night, it takes time to develop, but Friedman states that it is happening much faster than we think and it’s happening globally. Convergence III consisted of billions of people who where previously locked out now being able to collaborate like they never could before. Friedman says that those who learn the habits, processes, and skills the fastest will win the race. With all the forms of collaboration tons of people from all over the world are now stepping into the competition.

            I believe that Indiana is the exploiter because they are exploiting the Indian workers. They are saving 8.1 million dollars by using their exploiting tactics. I don’t think there really is a fair way to have a right or wrong answer for this question though. They both believe that they caught the good end of the deal. Indiana saved the 8.1 million dollars so they would believe that they won, but the Indians were also in a good position because they were given the job. Because they were given the job, I would say that it is hard to pick a specific side and there is going to be multiple different opinions on this essay question. I do believe that Indiana is doing the state and United States wrong by not providing the jobs to American workers. Our country already struggles with unemployment and paying a different country to come in and do the job instead is a kick in the face. I am curious to see how all the different students will answer this.

            Intellectual Property in the simplest form is knowledge of a product that not meant to be spread for other people to know and share to other people. My father manages a pharmaceutical company where IP really comes into perspective for himself as well as the sales representatives. There are written agreements that state the company’s Intellectual Property. This is important because if companies didn’t have Intellectual Property then there ideas would be spread to people from other companies. If the Intellectual Property was in the wrong hands then the competing company could release the specific new product before the original company had the chance. This puts the original idea out of perspective, and now the idea that was once with one company is now no longer available to them. Intellectual Property is something that is of major importance in the business world.

Jayden Nyman

Module 4

            I decided to interview a close neighbor for this assignment. She serves as the Director of Operations for Telehealth Services throughout the Intermountain system and participates in the development of system plans and execution of those plans across all the system hospitals. Telehealth Involves non-physician practitioners and includes the use of monitoring equipment with or without streaming data to a monitoring center and is supported by qualified nurses to act on the information. She is responsible for leading, managing and facilitating multiple Telehealth efforts. She collaborates with the Medical Director for Telehealth Services as well as other operational directors for the Medical Group and Clinical Programs and is responsible for ensuring that monitoring processes are designed, implemented, and executed to gather the appropriate data for measuring progress in line with ATP philosophy of TQM and GE style Six Sigma Lean Processes.

The reason her job falls under the Information Technology category is because she coordinates outsourced and offshore software development collaborations and consulting services, which is awesome because we have gone over this in The World is Flat book we are reading. The majority of what she does is creating software that is more organized and efficient for the doctors’ use. When I was interviewing her she explained to me what her team had just accomplished. To whoever reads this if you are familiar with Skype then think of it in that sense. A baby was born 4 weeks early, shortly after her birth their family medicine physician recognized that the baby could be suffering from a collapsed lung. The baby needed to be transported to another medical center after her condition got worse, but there just wasn’t time and something had to be done as soon as possible. This is when my amazing neighbor’s team comes into play. Her Intermountain team had installed the Teleservices equipment just days before the baby’s incident. By using the equipment their family doctor was able to communicate by video with an experienced neonatologist. The neonatologist was able to watch and consult in real time during the procedure to ensure success. Soon after the operation, the baby was able to return home healthy. This is truly incredible to me, what her team was able to create is going to be a life changer. In 2014-2015 the Teleservices they created are going to expand enterprise wide.

What I learned from the interview with my neighbor is that a lot of jobs in Information Technology have a real purpose. She was able to save the life of that newborn baby. A career that can be as rewarding as that without the stress of performing the actual surgery seems stunning. After looking at what she accomplished, as well as what she is working to accomplish everyday, has made me seriously consider a job in her field. I would love to be able to save people’s lives, as well as design software for doctors and patients to be able to use to their advantage. My neighbor offered to take me into work with her sometime to really see what she does, which made me even more interested. Besides saving lives she makes a lot of money and loves what she does. She did not have a negative thing to say about her job. She loves that she doesn’t have to travel, has every weekend off as well as holidays. She also mentioned that she has more vacation time then she knows what to do with. I love going on trips so this would be to my advantage. This assignment has really been of great benefit to me, and I believe will help me better decide what I want to get my degree in.

Module 3

Jayden Nyman

IST 1100

Module 3

            Offshoring is moving operations of a company to other countries. There can be many different reasons involved that make offshoring a benefit to companies. Being able to pay their employee’s lower wages, paying lower taxes, subsidized energy, and a lower cost on health care as well as maintain better economic conditions are all benefits of offshoring. To me the major difference between outsourcing and offshoring is that when outsourcing occurs you don’t necessarily move your entire company to another country. With offshoring you do move your company to another country because it is smarter economically. Dealing with outsourcing is different because you can still have other countries doing jobs and functions for you but it doesn’t mean your moving part of your company out of the country. Outsourcing is when you contract a third party to do some of your work on the company’s behalf.

            As Friedman states supply chaining is method of collaborating horizontally among suppliers, retailers, and customers to create value. How supply chains work is say a customer buys a product, the product is now instantly relayed to the producer who knows what product to make and ship to the retailer. Now the retailer will know what store will need the product to be restocked. Supply chaining forces a set of common standards as well as encouraging global collaboration. Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas is the perfect example of a supply chain. In their 1.2 million square foot distribution center, they have thousands of workers 24 hours a day 7 days a week. This is what makes Wal-Mart the biggest retail company in the world. It is crazy because all Wal-Mart makes is a hyper efficient supply chain. A great advantage to Wal-Mart from other retailers is that Wal-Mart does not need to have such a huge inventory because of their supply chain. All that happens is the supply chain is notified when the stock is low, then more product will shortly arrive. Wal-Mart is one of the most efficient supply chains there is today.

            Google has affected businesses in many different ways. First off, Google has made it easier for businesses to get their name out to the world. There are tons people browsing on Google 24 hours a day all over the world. This meaning that if your business is available to be seen on Google, then there is a good chance for your business to boom in a positive direction. Google can take a negative toll on businesses because of all the reviews that are available just by searching a name on Google. But in other words if you have more positive feedback than negative, then people will see the positive remarks and be attracted to your business.

            What I can take out of this reading is that the world around us is being revolutionized. Google is taking over the internet world, and supply chaining has become a way to increase value in company’s around the world that decide to chase down what Wal-Mart has accomplished. This weeks reading from The World is Flat has kept me entertained and interested. I had never looked into Wal-Mart as much as I have reading this section of the book.

Module 2

Jayden Nyman

IST 1100

Module 2

            Workflow software was created in order to allow people and businesses all around the world to collaborate and work on things together using a shared medium. Workflow software is very efficient because it allows things to be done faster and without mistakes because humans do not have to do it like they used too. It is now machines running everything, eliminating mistakes, and being more time efficient. Workflow is great because it allows machines to talk to other machines with absolutely no human interaction. These are the types of things that are changing how we live our lives. There have been many steps leading up to workflow software. For one, HTML allowed people to publish documents that could be read by anyone on any computer no matter where they were located. My example of workflow software is one of the easiest. People used to send letters to each other before we could use email. Now the only time people really use the mail is for the delivery of gifts, where it used to be for simply sending people letters which can now be done in minutes instead of days and sometimes weeks. Another positive thing about sending emails is that people can access your email from anywhere they are. When you send a letter it has one specific destination.

            Open source software is allowing the source code for a software online accessible to people who have something to contribute, or just let a lot of people download it for their own personal use. Groups or individuals can use source codes for the foundation of a commercial product, but they have to acknowledge the original group that produced it. Open source software is designing new software then uploading it for the world to see. Apache is a shareware program for Web server technology, an open source Web serving community. I believe Apache is where open source technology began to grow and develop. Today Apache is one of the most successful open source tools, and it powers about two-thirds of the Web sites in the world. Apache was produced for free by some geeks working online in an open source chat room. Open source software is important because it allows many different people to help with the innovation of software and technology. With more people being able to revise and look at specific software, there is less room for mistakes, and more room for improvement. Many companies are using the open source approach to innovation.

            Outsourcing was a way for our call centers, business support operation, or knowledge work to be sourced globally to the cheapest, smartest, and most efficient provider. Indian techs used fiber-optic-cable-connected workstations to fix companies computers even though they were halfway around the world, as explained in the book. The Y2K computer issues are what got the Indian IT industry’s name across the world. The Y2K crisis soon became known all around the world. Outsourcing is very important because it allowed companies to have software engineers look at their computers from across the world. This really revolutionized the way that we do things.

            In closing, workflow software, open source software, and outsourcing have revolutionized the way companies all around the world operate. We can now do things that we never could before because of a few geeks, such as Apache. Fiber-optic-cable was a major game changer in outsourcing. My opinion on our reading so far is that we have been able to completely alter the way things are completed. We have software for just about anything you can wrap your mind around nowadays. I believe that the amount of time it takes to create technology and software has nearly been cut in half thanks to major corporations and hard working software engineers.