The long tail business model

The long tail is a common retailing concept which describes a specific commercial strategy. This niche strategy will focus on selling a large number of products but in relatively small quantities. The opposed strategy is focused on selling fewer products but in larger quantities. People have developed the "long tail theory" which claims that our culture and economy is progressively shifting from a focus on a relatively small number of products toward a huge number of niches in the tail.

The term “long tail” refers to the orange part of the chart above, which shows a standard demand curve that could apply to any industry. The vertical axis represents sales while the horizontal shows the variety of products. The red part of the curve is the “hits”, which have dominated our markets and culture for most of the last century. The orange part is the “non-hits”, or niches, which is where the new growth is coming from now and in the future.

The World is flat : Analysis of Thomas Friedman's book

Thomas Friedman has written a book named The World Is Flat which is a good basis for analyzing globalization in the 21st century. It views the world as a place where all competitors have an equal opportunity. Because of this, countries and companies have to change in order to remain competitive in a global market where historical and geographical divisions become more and more irrelevant. In his book, Friedman describes a journeyto Bangalore in India, when he understood globalization has affected the core economic concepts. He named this period “Globalization 3.0”, distinguishing this period from the previous Globalization 1.0 in which countries were the main protagonists, and the Globalization 2.0 in which multinational companies began driving global integration. In his book, Friedman reports many instances of companies based in India and China that, by offering labor from typists and call center operators to accountants and computer programmers, have become integral parts of complex global supply chains for companies such as Dell or even Microsoft. Friedman always uses lists, usually numbered, as an organizational device to communicate key concepts. Thomas Friedman believes that to fight this crisis of a flattening world, the U.S. work simply force should keep updating its work skills. Friedman argues that making the work force more adaptable will keep it more employable. He also recommends that the government make it easier to change jobs by making retirement benefits and health insurance less dependent on one's employer, and by offering insurance that would partly cover an eventual drop in income when changing jobs. Finally, Friedman also believes there should be more inspiration for youth to be scientists, engineers, and mathematicians due to a decrease in the percentage of these professionals being American.