Thomas L. Friedman’s book, The World Is Flat, demonstrates how barriers of competition are impacted through globalization in today’s business world. As companies and economies of all sizes are finding, the modernization and globalization of supply chains, production operations through multinational networks and availability of streamlined IT resources have transformed the competitive landscape into a level playing field.

Additionally, firms are now presented with a menu of investment opportunities that span the globe. These investments, which include the purchasing of materials from overseas vendors or stocks from foreign corporations to outsourcing labor, demonstrate the positive and negative effects involved in an increased globalized market place.

The practice of outsourcing on the part of firms is a “text-book” example of how the limitations of access to resources and labor are not as relevant as they once were, seeing as how today’s firms can sustain or increase their competitiveness simply by implementing cost-effective measures such as purchasing cheaper goods or hiring a cheaper labor force in foreign markets.

One of the most notable statements made by Friedman is that any work that can be digitized will flow to those who are best able to do it. This couldn’t be closer to the truth considering the occurrences during the recession of the past two years. As the economic downturn continued, the profitability of many companies decreased, therefore prompting the managers of these companies to seek out cost-reducing measures that would allow them to survive. For companies with components that are intangible in nature, such as customer service, but included a costly operational process, such as call centers, many of these measures led companies to downsize their existing labor force and outsource operations to foreign markets that could provide the same