What Thomas Friedman Says

Continuing with the question of specializations and job security, Thomas Friedman says it best in page 238 of his book, "The World is Flat". He defines "Untouchables" as people whose jobs cannot be outsourced. (And any job that can be outsourced basically means you are competing headon with the rest of the world, not that you will lose your job tommorow!!)

So who are the untouchables, and how do you or your kids get to be one? Untouchables come in four broad categories: workers who are "special", workers who are "specialized", workers who are "anchored", and workers who are "really adaptable".

Special workers are people like Mr.Gates and Michael Jordon. They work in global scale and are top of the pyramid. They need no fear job security because they create their own jobs. Specialized workers are phd or equalivant candidates who will always have demand for their niche skills. Workers who are "anchored" are usually people serving a community and need to be "one-site" year round. These are nurses, doctors, gardeners, firemen, security personnel..you get the idea. Last but not least, Comes the "Adaptable". These are the multi-taskers, the ones who can adapt to any situation and quickly learn to specialize it in. They need to be good in learning and changing their tool sets every so often. Entrepreneurs comes across as likely candidates for this sector. Known to take risks and adapt to circumstances, they will be able to survive in any society.

Thomas Fiedman might be writing the book about outsourcing,, but it is more fundamentally about globalization of human resources. Not natural resources, that is already over. Human resources are the "body shops" of the day. Indian sucess depends on human resources needed to be good IT personnel. American success depends on a large part on the human resouces of innovation and resource planning. You could guess what the chinese and the south east asians depend on. Now what Europe and Africa needs to decide is where does their human potential lie??