Christopher Columbus is [mostly] credited in grade school history class for showing Europeans that the world is round.  By way of his recently published book The World is Flat:  A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, author Thomas L. Friedman may someday be credited by business historians for showing American companies and workers that the world of commerce is now flat. 

Friedman, the New York Times Foreign Affairs columnist, wrote an article [adapted from the book] for the April 3 issue of New York Times Magazine.  In the article, he suggests that technology has effectively leveled the playing field for knowledge workers worldwide, and the United States runs the risk of losing its place as an economic world leader.  His explanation:  globalization has recently taken on a new dimension.   Some major events and technology developments have come together over the past twenty years to drive globalization to a new level, including (but not limited to):
Fall of the Berlin Wall on 11/9/89 (the event Friedman calls “11/9”) – allowed people to think of the world as one space;
Dot-com boom & bubble – drove investment in connectivity-enabling technologies (think Netscape & fiber-optic telecom cables);
Y2K computer problem – encouraged companies to hire Indian engineers to fix the programming bugs.

In school, we learned that globalization from Columbus’ voyage through 1800 meant countries in pursuit of resources and global empires.  During the industrialization era and through modern times, we’ve lived in a world where globalization has been driven by companies in pursuit of larger markets and cheaper labor.  Today, according to Friedman, globalization means collaboration among individuals & small groups spread across companies and throughout the world.  As a result, there is more competition, coming from more places (many unexpected).  Worse yet, these new competitors are better than you think.

In response, companies cannot afford to stand still.  According to Indian-American hedge-fund manager Dinakar Singh,

Friedman’s final message:  “This is not a test.”  All of us need to consider what this new form of globalization means to our companies…and our careers.