Profile on Leadership: Thomas Friedman

Area of Specialization:

Author, Journalist, Investigative Reporter

 Published Works:

Hot, Flat and Crowded, From Beirut to Jerusalem, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring The World After September 11, The World Is Flat

Core Theme of Hot, Flat and Crowded: 

(excerpt from book)

The core argument is very simple: America has a problem and the world has a problem. America’s problem is that it has lost its way in recent years partly because of 9/11 and partly because of the bad habits that we have let build up over the last three decades, bad habits that have weakened our society’s ability and willingness to take on big challenges. The world also has a problem: It is getting hot, flat, and crowded. That is, global warming, the stunning rise of middle classes all over the world, and rapid population growth have converged in a way that could make our planet dangerously unstable. In particular, the convergence of hot, flat, and crowded is tightening energy supplies, intensifying the extinction of plants and animals, deepening energy poverty, strengthening petrodictatorship, and accelerating climate change. How we address these interwoven global trends will determine a lot about the quality of life on earth in the twenty-first century.

I am convinced that the best way for America to solve its big problem the best way for America to get its “groove” back is for us to take the lead in solving the world’s big problem. In a world that is getting hot, flat, and crowded, the task of creating the tools, systems, energy sources, and ethics that will allow the planet to grow in cleaner, more sustainable ways is going to be the biggest challenge of our lifetime. But this challenge is actually an opportunity for America. If we take it on, it will revive America at home, reconnect America abroad, and retool America for tomorrow. America is always at its most powerful and most influential when it is combining innovation and inspiration, wealth-building and dignity-building, the quest for big profits and the tackling of big problems. When we do just one, we are less than the sum of our parts.

Interesting Fact:  Thomas Friedman has been “pied” twice by members of the “Greenwash Guerillas” for allegedly promoting environmental measures that appear transformative and sustainable but are viewed by some as masking real corporate waste issues and promoting ideas that possibly further damage the environment (specifically his views on coal and nuclear energy).  Check out a video of Friedman’s pie experience at Brown University which occurred April of 2008. 

Credentials:

Three time Pulitzer Prize winner, has served as a visiting professor at Harvard University

Links:

Thomas Friedman Website
NY Times Columnist Bio