Bug-eyed with excitement, I watched Fareed Zakaria, Time Magazine Editor-At-Large and CNN Host (also, one of my all-time favorite columnists), address the crowd at Transformation 2011 on Events Transforming the World. He didn’t disappoint, either.

Fareed grew up in Mumbai, India during a time when everyone he knew was fascinated by the United Sates, including himself. The U.S. was perceived as being glamorous, often tied to expensive cars, rich business men, beautiful large building, and major celebrities. But now, India is viewing the U.S. in a different way. Gone are the days of dreaming of a life like the Dallas television show. Now they are seeing those same pictures in their countries. Millionaires are in India, living and doing business there. These countries can now look for glamour in their own cities within their own culture.

Fareed mentioned there has been a transformation in energy. The energy around the globe is growing, but in the United States we are seeing less excitement. Fareed attributes this change in energy to three big trends.

  1. Political Stability – Power clashes largely ended after the Cold War when the Soviet Union dissolved. Political violence is drastically down and we now live among one of the most peaceful times ever.
  2. Extraordinary Level of Economic Convergence – By converging the economic model, you have access to 600 million more customers. Fareed said, that this access is one of the reasons why we are doing so well during a financial crisis. The number of countries participating in the global economy has quadrupled since 1979 to 124 countries in 2007.
  3. Technological Connectivity – You can’t imagine your life without your tablet, cell phone, laptop, let alone the internet and these only go back to 1990. Connectivity is bringing the world together.

Fareed believes Western states led the first wave of globalization, asking countries to open their markets, their trade, and open up to technology. Now that the rest of the world has said OK, we don’t know how to deal with it. These three trends allow the rest of the world to lead the second wave of globalization.

 

Fareed said, the reality is that we in the United States, haven’t figured out the scope and the complexity of this second wave of globalization. We are still in the early stages and far from being fully globalized but right now there are only three countries who haven’t adopted the metric system and the U.S. is one of them. We struggle to change with international standards. We globalized the world, and now we have to figure out how to globalize ourself.

We’ve got 24 more hours here in Austin. For more coverage from Transformatio 2011 follow @MSAdvertising and keep an eye on the Advertising Blog.

Best,

Kaila Lightner, Web Marketing Manager

Follow us on Twitter @MSAdvertising & @adCenter | Find us on Facebook | Share your thoughts in the Forums | Subscribe