My Final Thoughts

Upon entering this class, I was really skeptical as to how important this class would be to my future as I enter the job market upon graduation. The one thing I learned from this class is truly how important the concept of management information systems are to the success of a company. While many managers and businesses may overlook the true need for them, the one thing that I learned is that in order to be successful and ahead of the competition, the need for MIS is a must.

Throughout the semester there were a couple of topics that truly opened up my eyes when it comes to the sense of realization. These topics were the idea of the Ten Flatteners, as well as the entire idea of Globalization 1, 2, & 3. While the Ten Flatteners covers a wide range of concepts, the two most important flatteners that hit me were the idea of offshoring and "steroids". When it comes to the idea of offshoring, I believe that this has the greatest effect on me, as well as all the other students who are going to be seeking a job following graduation. While Friedman argues that the internal relocation of a company's manufacturing or other processes to a foreign land allows those companies to to be able to take advantage of less costly operations, and begins to even the playing field when everyone else begins to do it. The idea of outsourcing I believe is an idea that is good for business, but bad for a person who is seeking a job. This flattener is able to level the playing field for all companies, but I believe that it in the end ruins the job market in America, due to the depletion of jobs that were here at one point prior to the outsourcing. The following is a video of Dr. Patrick Dixon, a famous author who specializes in the idea of futuristic economies.

The second flattener that really struck me was the idea of "steroids" and how we are relied on them to live our lives. Friedman's idea of "steroids" consists of the technologies such as wireless, file sharing, personal digital devices, ipods, phones, and instant messaging. Friedman believes that with all of these advances in these technologies, it has sort of created an even playing field amongst all competitors, due to the fact that everyone is able to access high powered and fast services to complete many, everyday tasks. The other issue with "steroids" is that it has come to the point were people are beginning to become so dependent on the use of these types of technologies, that when they are not accessible, the people have a sense of feeling useless and nonproductive. This is very true in the sense on a personal level, I would be truly lost without the use of technology at my finger tips to complete my simple every day tasks that I am use to completing.

I believe that with the knowledge of the Ten Flatteners that are current in the world today, this will allow me to try and stay ahead of the path of falling into one of these traps. I one day hope to own and operate my own business, and while doing this I hope to be able to run it successfully, while keeping in mind the concept of staying away from Friedman's Ten Flatteners to allow it to operate at its fullest level possible.