Taiwan Needs Alumni Networks That Branch Out: From the PayPal Mafia to the Acer Ecosystem

For Taiwan to move forward, I think we need more than talent, capital, technology, management, and entrepreneurial spirit. We also need large alumni networks whose members branch out and help one another along the way. Silicon Valley’s best-known example is the PayPal Mafia, which has grown into a large alumni network and a collection of listed companies, with members supporting and investing in one another. We have not yet seen a similar process in Taiwan’s software industry. But in electronics and technology, Stan Shih founded Acer in 1976, and the subsequent branching process gave rise to the Acer, ASUS, Wistron, Pegatron, Qisda, and AUO groups, among others. Onstage are Shih’s fellow founders and the people he mentored and led, including chairmen Simon Lin, T.H. Tung, Jason Chen, and Peter Chen. It is this process of branching out that has helped make Taiwan’s electronics and technology industry so accomplished today. Taiwan’s software industry still has more work to do. I wonder who might follow Stan Shih’s example: starting with one tree and growing an entire forest. ---- Let me also mention schools and institutions such as Taipei Institute of Technology and the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). They have nurtured many of today’s chairmen and general managers of companies listed on Taiwan’s stock exchange and OTC market. Of course, National Taiwan University, National Tsing Hua University, National Chiao Tung University, and National Cheng Kung University also have many outstanding alumni. Taipei Institute of Technology—now National Taipei University of Technology—and ITRI simply left a deeper impression on me. For Taiwan to move into entrepreneurship in the digital economy, it would be best to have suitable universities—just as Tsing Hua and Chiao Tung have underpinned Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, which is far ahead of the field—and a strong institution like ITRI.