Taiwan’s 20 Most Innovative Companies

On October 30, 2014, the Industrial Development Bureau of Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) unveiled the survey result of the 20 most innovative companies in Taiwan with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) taking the top spot, followed by Wowprime Corp. in the second place and Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Ltd., (Hon Hai) in the 3rd, up from the 10th in 2013.

According to the Industrial Development Bureau, TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip maker, leads in the innovation list as a result of its efforts to develop the 28-nanometer process, a cutting-edge technology that is regarded as the most energy- and cost-efficient solution among all like technologies.  In a bid to respond to the blooming 4G telecom services and cloud server products, Hon Hai has been sparing no effort to take up cross-sector collaboration by teaming up with US-based Hewlett-Packard Co. to develop the most outstanding server products for cloud service providers and also with Japan’s Softbank Corp. to make humanoid robots therefor, and accordingly secures its top-three ranking this year.  By its cross-sector collaboration measures, Hon Hai has taken its position in the sector of intelligent living services as a technology services provider, a success of business transformation. 

Other companies that round up the top 20 list are Asustek Computer Inc., President Chain store Corp., HTC Corp., MediaTek Inc., Giant Manufacturing Co., Delta Electronics Inc., Largan Precision Co., HIWIN Technologies Corp., PXMart Co., Ltd., ECLAT Textile Corporation Ltd., Advantech Co., Ltd., FamilyMart, Yulon Motors, Lion Travel Service Co., Ltd., Grape King Bio Ltd., Merida, and E. Sun Commercial Bank, Ltd.

The 20 companies have three similar traits:  (1) They operate business across a variety of sectors; (2) over half of them are engaged in interindustry alliances to develop new technologies, products, and services; and (3) many of them have been seeking industrial upgrade and transformation to cope with the trends of cloud computing, Internet of Things, and smart cities. 

This is the fourth survey report completed by the Industrial Development Bureau with support from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) by using the format of BCG for its widely followed “World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies” surveys with the focus on the surveyed companies’ innovative value and industrial foresight.  Ranking of the survey is compiled on the basis of voting by and responses from more than 1,000 corporate executives from Taiwan’s top 5,000 enterprises as well as opinion leaders from various sectors. The survey also considers the financial performance of the surveyed companies.  Part of the survey with respect to innovation status is to find out the current innovation status, strategy, and performance of Taiwanese enterprises.   (October 2014)
/CCS