That sent me back to the 1970s.

Taiwan at the time was a very different place. It had lost its seat at the United Nations. The oil crisis had exposed the vulnerability of its economy, and the labour-intensive industries that had fuelled its early growth were becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. Taiwan wasn’t yet an economic success story. If anything, it was searching for its next chapter.

Looking back, it’s tempting to see the decisions that followed as visionary because we know how the story ends.

I’m not sure that’s the most useful way to think about them.

What strikes me is not that Taiwan correctly predicted the future. It’s that Taiwan recognised it couldn’t rely on the past.

Rather than asking which industry would define the next generation of economic growth, Taiwan began investing in the conditions that would allow it to adapt, whatever the future might bring.

That shift in thinking changed everything.

The establishment of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in 1973 was one example. Its role wasn’t simply to conduct research. It became a bridge between government, universities and industry, helping ideas move beyond the laboratory and into the marketplace while developing the engineering talent that Taiwan would need in the decades ahead.

A few years later came another decision that, at the time, probably seemed far less significant than it does today: the transfer of semiconductor manufacturing technology from RCA in the United States. Looking back, it’s easy to see this as the beginning of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry. But I think that’s only part of the story.

What Taiwan acquired wasn’t just technology.

It acquired the ability to learn.

To adapt.

To build on what others had already discovered and make it its own.

The same could be said of Morris Chang’s decision to return to Taiwan and establish TSMC. His leadership transformed the semiconductor industry, but it was possible because the foundations had already been laid. The institutions existed. The talent pipeline was growing. The engineering culture was taking shape. The ecosystem was beginning to form.

The more I looked at these decisions together, the less they felt like isolated milestones.

They looked like something else.

They were all investments in capabilities whose value would only become obvious many years later.