Book Club Kicks Off

So we had the first meeting of the Synergy Book Club at lunchtime today. The book up for discussion was Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat" and the general consensus was that it is an eminently worthwhile read (some attendees might actually be reading it post-event!). Discussion focussed on the ups and downs of increasing technology-driven communications such as blogs :-) that facilitate easy information sharing but are open to abuse and can damage a company's reputation if not monitored and managed. Also on the table was the insourcing/outsourcing phenomenon epitomised by Dell and UPS operations. The Synergy group tended to be a bit more cynical about outsourcing elements of a business to the India/China of this world and the lack of control that might entail, but were all agreed that by sheer dint of numbers, these countries are a serious threat to Ireland's goal of becoming a knowledge economy. In fact, the feelign was that if we stumble and fall now due to short-sighted economics and decisions, we may well never pick ourselves up. The next book for review will be "The Four Hour Work Week" by Timothy Ferris. I'll let you know when copies are in.