Taiwan’s Cher Wang: A Different Set of Challenges

Cher Wang is chairman and co-founder of Taiwan’s tech giant HTC and VIA Technologies. Wang has encountered a rather different set of challenges to most entrepreneurs as the daughter of the late Wang Yung-Ching who was one of Taiwan’s most successful and wealthy industrialists. In certain respects it is harder to become a successful entrepreneur emerging from the shadow of wealth and reputation. For an entrepreneur this can be a real burden which many fail to overcome. By any measure Wang has succeeded in proving her own capabilities. Upon graduating in economics from Berkeley, she started her first job at a US computer company. It was there that she formulated her ideas for a new company developing and producing smaller lighter devices. HTC was born in 1997 and has gone on to become one of the world’s largest smartphone developers. One of Wang’s key strengths has been her ability to identify and fill the needs of key strategic partners. This has enabled HTC to secure partnerships with major mobile and software providers alike. But probably her greatest achievement to date has been in turning HTC into an ally of both Microsoft and Google.

Wang certainly seems to have inherited much of her late father’s business acumen but maybe most important she has learned from the example of her parent’s high personal values set. This has made her the trustworthy partner that could bring to HTC the support of two rival giants.