HOW A FLAT WORLD AFFECTS MANUFACTURING

If you haven't read Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, you should. It's an excellent book explaining globalization and its impact. It made me think about how different things are for my kids compared to when I was young.

Today, both kids and adults have electronic gadgets galore. When you want to buy something new, there are incredible resources at your disposal for research and price shopping. You can go to amazon.com and find a vast array of products with consumer ratings, or you can shop around and get broad consumer input from epinions.com.

Having endless options in price, choice, availability, and so on puts the consumer clearly in charge. People expect what they buy to arrive when, where, and how they want it-no excuses. And the shrinking adoption rate for new innovations means new products are hitting the market and being snapped up by consumers faster than at any rate in history-fueled by global pricing and a previously unheard of ability to learn about, compare, and discuss each product.