Part II

Looking at the peak

Success has a way of drawing our attention to what is visible. We admire the factory, the company, the product or the technology because those are the things we can see.

We celebrate breakthrough moments while paying far less attention to the years of investment, institution-building and capability development that made those breakthroughs possible.

The sources of competitive advantage are often invisible until success makes them obvious.

Perhaps that’s why so many conversations about Taiwan begin with TSMC. It’s the most visible chapter of the story. But it isn’t the first.

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A modern semiconductor plant seen from a nearby road at dusk, long glass buildings lit from inside, scooters passing.
Researchers in 1970s clothes bent over a cluttered workbench of early electronics, sketches pinned to the wall.
Students in a bright university lecture hall taking notes while a teacher draws a circuit on a blackboard.
Cargo containers being loaded onto a ship at a busy harbour on a clear morning, cranes and trucks moving.
A young engineer sitting at a small bench, holding a silicon wafer up to the light with a pleased, curious look, test equipment on the bench
A large modern semiconductor plant at dusk seen from a nearby hillside, its long glass buildings lit from inside, scooters and a few people
Researchers in 1970s clothes bent over a cluttered workbench of early electronics, sketches pinned to the wall behind them.
Students in a bright university lecture hall taking notes while a teacher draws a circuit diagram on a blackboard.
A science park and the people around it
Researchers working at an electronics bench
Engineering students learning together
A busy harbour
An engineer holding a silicon wafer
A science park and the people around it
Hands working on a circuit board
Colleagues working at a whiteboard

Give each piece of evidence a
place.

Let the proof assemble before the final claim lands.