Interview with Thomas Friedman

There is this very interesting interview with Thomas L Friedman, who's the author of a book called 'The Lexus & the Olive Tree' over at Rediff.

As a background, Friedman went over to India to see what this big hullabaloo on outsourcing was all about. He's now what we call a convert!!

Anyway, of all the nice things he said about India, this is what I liked best -

"I'll tell you what I'm impressed with by India. India has its hardcore olive tree people, hardcore nationalists, some of them are in power now. But here's what I feel: your success in globalization is really a function of your success at glocalization, your ability to take the best from the world's systems, best practices, best ideas, best brands, and meld them with your own culture in a balanced way so that you don't feel overwhelmed by them.

What impresses me about India is its ability, its innate ability, to glocalize. It's not so easy. But to take the very best practices of the world system, absorb them, and yet, you go to India and you feel you are in India! People are eating curry, daughters-in-law are living with their mothers-in-law, marriages are being arranged, and women are wearing saris! You know, you don't go there and feel -- at least I don't -- 'O God, globalization has really wiped out Indian culture!' Not at all. I feel Indian culture is extremely robust, has been able to absorb these things and find a kind of balance."

The complete interview is available here.