Creativity Lab (
The two new companies are Chunghwa Telecom Co (
The Next Consortium was launched in December 2004, to encourage Taiwanese companies to make the shift from a contract-manufacturing mindset to embrace innovation.
It serves as a platform for collaboration across disciplines and industries, aiming to develop methodologies for team creativity and create an environment for innovative thinking and the realization of new ideas.
"Chunghwa Telecom has been bringing in stable revenues over the years, but we haven't seen any huge jumps in the figures. In the competitive telecom industry, we need unconventional ideas to introduce more innovative services, which will help us create higher sales growth," Hsieh Chun-ming (謝俊明), president of Chunghwa Telecom's central Taiwan business group, told reporters.
The participation of Chunghwa Telecom and Productivity Architect brings the total number of consortium members to eight.
Other members include automaker Sanyang Industry Co (三陽工業), chipset designer VIA Technologies Inc (威盛電子), glass artwork company Liuligongfang (琉璃工房), precision transmission component maker Hiwin Technologies Corp (上銀科技), projector and rear-projection TV producer Chi Lin Optronics Inc (奇菱光電) and sanitary-ware manufacturer Hocheng Corp (和成欣業).
"The diverse disciplines of member companies will allow us to exchange ideas to pave the way for innovation," Hsieh said.
According to Chang Chung-hung (
To join the consortium, members need to pay an annual fee ranging from NT$1 million (US$30,390) to NT$6.8 million.
The department of industrial technology under the Ministry of Economic Affairs will subsidize 20 percent to 30 percent of the cost.
"This year, we hope to create more examples of success from cooperation among members. This will help us expand membership in the future, as innovation is still an abstract concept and involves a lot of uncertainties," the lab's general director Hsueh Wen-jean (
Creativity Lab was formed in March 2004 with the aim of emulating the success of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, established in 1985 and known worldwide for facilitating creativity, which pioneered collaboration between academia and industry.
With a partnership with Media Lab, Creativity Lab aims to promote innovation among Taiwanese enterprises and encourage cross-sector cooperation.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS