Lexus Olive Tree

The Lexus and the Olive Tree written by Thomas Friedman is not important because it simply refutes the long held belief that globalization is a temporary side affect to the machinations of American foreign policy interests, but because Friedman takes it one step further by claiming it is a totally new world system which has completely replaced the old Cold War system. Even the title of his book is representative of this idea. The Lexus and the Olive tree represent "symbols of the post-Cold War era: half the world seemed to be emerging from the Cold War intent on building a better Lexus, dedicated to modernizing, streamlining and privatizing their economies in order to thrive in the system of globalization. And half of the world-sometimes …show more content…
When you stitch all of these pieces together, you have the golden …show more content…
According to Friedman "It is a technology driven phenomenon not a trade driven one." He further describes one of the downfalls of globalization as Microchip Immune Deficiency. Friedman states that it is this 'disease' which caused the downfall of many a cold war era firm. Because executives were not able to "keep-up" with the changes, which evolved at the end of the Cold War, in technology, they were left behind and replaced by firms on the cutting edge. It was not so much that they didn't know about the technology, but they were simply too slow in implementing it into their firm. Adaptability and speed, new concepts relating to business in the post-Cold War era, now dictate who will survive in the new global