Flip Read Free Page B

relative to the time it takes to travel them. In our grandparents' youth, the other side of the world was weeks away.Now it is one day away by plane, or one second away given communications technology that makes it less and less likely that we actually need our flesh and bones to be on the other side of the globe.
    My own business is an example of this. Daily, thousands of people from all over the planet log onto my website, www.petersheahan.com , and some buy products – some of which are digital and can be downloaded instantly – or subscribe to a free RSS feed that will help keep them on the cutting edge of new markets and trends. The point here is not to plug the 'Peter Sheahan Live' section on my site (although I am glad to do so), but to point out that neither time nor geography poses any barrier to these transactions of value. I get visitors from countries I have never been to and sales from people I have never met. I am able to conduct transactions including delivery, even though neither I nor any other human is there to service the customer. My market is the world, and I consider myself a citizen of the globe.
    Compression of distance means there are new markets to be serviced and new ways to service existing markets. It also means that there is more competition – the most dangerous of which may be some twenty-year-old at her computer in Sydney, San Jose, Seville or Seoul, who in less than a decade could dominate your market.
    Now, it is important to put the current status of this change in the proper context. Pankaj Ghemawat, in the Australian Financial Review, argues that in many ways globalisation is overstated. Consider that, for instance, of all the phone calls made in the world only 10 per cent are international calls. And of all the investment in the world today again only 10 per cent is foreign (international) investment. In fact, in surveyed categories, 10 per cent was found to be the level of 'internationalisation' for just about everything. 1
    The argument that most economic activity is domestic production for domestic consumption has a lot of validity. But even if the direct international component of business holds steady at around 10 per cent, rather than rising significantly,we are all now competing against international benchmarks. In an increasingly connected world, customers are increasingly exposed to global trends and fashions. The customer's sense of what the neighbourhood business can do has irrevocably changed. Although people will always prefer to do business with people they know, like and trust (see chapter 4, 'Business is Personal'), they expect those people to deliver at a global standard of excellence, not a local one. There is no escaping the need to position your business today to compete – in real time and on demand – in the increasingly globalised world of tomorrow. Flips are a future-focused way of doing that.
    2. INCREASING COMPLEXITY
    Increasing compression of time and space fuels increasing complexity. Businesses are being hit from all directions – from above as they are saddled with dense and complex regulatory regimes; from inside with the challenges posed by the adoption of sophisticated new technologies and the explosion of information networks; and from below with the diversifying and intangible new demands of consumers. The uncertainty and ambiguity this complexity brings can induce paralysis that prevents innovation and positive action, and may in turn force the downfall of once great companies and careers.
    Increasing complexity is being driven by, among others, the following six things:
rapidly growing and increasingly connected networks of ideas and people
disruptive technology
explosion of choice
increasingly intangible desires of the market
increased sophistication of technology, systems and processes
legislation.
    RAPIDLY GROWING AND INCREASINGLY CONNECTED NETWORKS OF IDEAS AND PEOPLE
    I've already mentioned increasing flows of people, things and data, but