The sources of competitive advantage are often invisible until success makes them obvious.
Today, Taiwan produces the vast majority of the world’s most advanced chips, and TSMC sits at the center of supply chains that power everything from smartphones and cloud computing to artificial intelligence and national security.
When success reaches that scale, it naturally becomes the story. And that’s where I think we may be overlooking something important.
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.
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.
A short note, a definition or a source sits in the outer column, in full sentences rather than labels.
We might better understand where enduring competitive advantage really comes from.