The World is Flat: How Companies Cope summary

Companies that have managed to grow today are those that are most prepared to change. They are the ones who recognize everything that can done thanks to the triple convergence, and have developed their own strategies to exploit it, instead of trying to resist it. Friedman highlights some of their rules and strategies:
-rule #1: when the world goes flat, and you are feeling flattened, reach for a shovel and dig inside yourself. Don't try to build walls.
-rule #2: the small shall act big. One way small companies flourish in the flat world is by learning to act really big. The key to being small and acting big is being quick to take advantage of all the new tools for collaboration to reach farther, faster, wider, and deeper.
-rule #3: the big shall act small. One way big companies learn to flourish in the flat world is by learning how to act really small by enabling their customers to act really big.
-rule #4: the best companies are the best collaborators. In the flat world, more and more businesses will be done through collaboration within and between companies because the next layers of value creation (such as technology, marketing, biomedicine, manufacturing) are becoming so complex that no single firm or department is going to be able to master them alone.
-rule #5: in a flat world, the best companies stay healthy by getting regular chest X-rays, and then selling the results to their clients.
-rule #6: the best companies outsource to win, not to shrink. They outsource to innovate faster and more cheaply in order to grow larger, gain market share, and hire more and different specialists, not to save money by firing more people.
-rule #7: outsourcing is also for idealists.