Essentials Magazine Essentials Fall 2017 | Page 10

Global
The Need for
Citizens
BY JAIME CASAP
Y
ou often hear people say, “It’s a small world,” when they tell
a story of running into someone they know in some distant
land. We like to believe it doesn’t matter where we live, work,
and play, somehow, we are all connected, and the challenges we
face are the same, regardless of where we are. While it may be
true that the common denominator we all have is being human, we
must acknowledge it isn’t a small world. It is a complex, multifacet-
ed, diverse, and complicated world. Most of us hardly understand
it or know what is happening in it, yet the growing availability of
the Internet and low-cost devices to connect to all the world’s in-
formation brings the complexity of this world to your fingertips. We
need to think like global citizens.
10 essentials | fall 2017
In 1995, just 1% of the world was
online. Today, it is half the world’s popula-
tion. In a little more than 20 years, we have
connected more than 3.5 billion people to
information, to products, and to each other!
This monumental achievement calls for a
realignment of what it means to be a global
citizen. If you are a business, understanding
the complexities of a global marketplace is
even more important.
Local Companies, Global Competition
One of the common mottos we have
heard in the business world since the