An imagination: Not just for kids anymore.

According to a Wikipedia article, "Imagination" is described as the following:
"The ability of forming mental images, sensations and concepts, in a moment when they are not perceived through sight, hearing or other senses. Imagination helps provide meaning to experience and understanding to knowledge; it is a fundamental facility through which people make sense of the world, and it also plays a key role in the learning process."

Miriam-Webster's Dictionary defines "Imagination" as:
"The thinking or active mind" or "A creation of the mind; especially an idealized or poetic creation" or "Creative ability; or the ability to confront and deal with a problem."
Reading Friedman's book, I have become so much more aware of the flattening of the world and how much more important it is going to be in the coming years for everyone to become more knowledgeable about their world and their own business, in order to allow the world to become more interconnected and advanced. Thinking about this, it is obvious that people will need to be more informed about the world and more educated. However, an education will only take you so far.
I truly believe that imagination is what will be useful in the future generations, perhaps more so than education itself. As I spoke of before, the ability to learn will become more important than the actual information that you learn. Likewise, having an imagination will become more important than having and acquiring knowledge.
In chapter 11, titled "How Companies Cope," of his book, Friedman explains that "companies that have managed to survive and grow today are those that are most prepared to change" (442). These people and companies that are and will be able to adapt to the expanding and flattening world now and in the future are going to be the ones that are able to adapt to the ever changing world around them. These will be the people that recognize that the world is changing and exactly how this is happening, and realizes exactly what they need to do to be able to change along with it. However, changing in the same way as in the past will get you nowhere. This is where imagination comes in to play.
In an article titled "The Marketing Imagination," Theodore Levitt describes the imagination the marketing world alone will need to have, in order to be able to relate to their customers and understand what they want. He asserts that this marketing imagination has made a leap from being obvious to being meaningful, meaning that you can figure out what to do, what problems people are having, and how to solve them and give them exactly what they want. This in turn inspires and provokes the customer to want to do business with the company. This is what any company strives for, and it can only be accomplished with an imagination. Imaginative people and companies are the ones that will ultimately succeed.
Friedman highlights four rules that these successful companies will live by in the flattening world:
Rule 1: "When the world is flat, whatever can be done will be done. The only question is whether it will be done by you or to you."
This rule, as well as a lot of the rest of Friedman's book, reminds me of the Olympic games in a way. As I am a die-hard fan of the Olympics, this quote reminds me of a quote I once heard by an athlete that said "If you do what you always done, you'll get what you've always gotten." The Olympics are obviously very competitive, I believe in a lot of the same ways as any kind of work in the flat world. I think the advice of this athlete rings true in all aspects of life, especially in the flat world. The same way that athletes must always strive to make themselves better than the competition in new ways, a company must always be innovative and imaginative. If a company continues to practice its business the same way it always has, no extraordinary change can possibly be expected, and there is no way that this company can succeed in competition with other companies who are constantly coming up with new and better innovations for how to compete in the world. You have to be something new if you expect to be the one doing things in the world.
Rule 2: "Because we are in a world where whatever can be done will be done, the most important competition today is between you and your own imagination."
In the flat world, your imagination is the only thing that is going to allow you to be able to improve and expand your yourself, your business, company, job, and ultimately the world. There is no way that a person can possibly out-do his competition if he is not imaginative in coming up with new ideas that have never been thought of before.
Rule 3: "And the small shall act big...One way small companies flourish in the flat world is by learning to act really big. Imagination is necessary, but not sufficient. You have to be able to implement what you imagine. And 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."
Imagination will be what helps us succeed in the future. But just as education with no imagination gets you nowhere, imagination without being able to implement and apply it to your world will get you the same place - nowhere. It's as simple as that. Your imagination does you no good if it stays in your mind.
Friedman goes on to explain other rules for successful businesses, but to me these are the three most important ones. An imagination seems like a childish thing at first, that allows you to be able to create stories in your mind and entertain yourself when needed during childhood. Because of this, we tend to not think of the importance of an imagination in the adult, working world. But it may be the one thing that is the most important in the ever increasing flat, competitive world that we are moving toward.
An imagination: Such a simple thing, that could end up making all the difference in the world. Literally.