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RICE & CHIPS: Technopreneurship and Innovation in Asia

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With the exception of Japan, all now industrialized East Asian countries were poor in the 1960s - well, nearly all poor. In a brief time period to-date, S. Korea has moved from traditional industries to semiconductors; Taiwan graduated from PC accessories to wafer fabrication; and Singapore from electronics to semiconductor manufacturing. Through tenacity, and emphasis on the domestic "invisible market" made up of low-income consumers, these countries have moved from low-tech to high-tech, and transformed poverty into (potential) wealth. How did that happen?

" Rice and Chips" asserts that countries that succeeded first developed their own technological ecosystems based on "Silicon Valley rules of [fostering] innovations." The rules require venture capitalists to finance the incubation of technologies and "technopreneurs" to take those technologies to market. The goal of the book is to explain the rules that successful Asian countries have followed to get where they are today, and which other developing countries aspiring to technological advancement can emulate. The explanation ends up in eight rules of thumb. Without further ado here they are:

Rule 1: Build a powerful team of experts: researchers, scientists, engineers, suppliers, and even hobbyists.

Rule 2: Locate ecosystems near research institutions and universities, just like Silicon Valley is located near Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and similar institutions.

Rule 3: Beep the horn loud for role models by telling the stories of successful entrepreneurs to encourage others.

Rule 4: Develop an innovation culture by inspiring your people to think creatively - provide public lectures, plays, concerts, and the like.

Rule 5: Take advantage of economies of proximity that allow knowledgeable people to interact, exchange ideas, and for the ideas to flourish.

Rule 6: Turn the "brain drain" into the brain shower - tap into the Diaspora.

Rule 7: Develop effective financial and legal systems that would permit venture capital markets to emerge.

Rule 8: Take risk, fail, learn, take risk again, ..., and eventually succeed!

This book is great: well written, economically written, and powerful message!

Amavilah, Author
Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies
ISBN: 1600210465