McKinsey embarks on expansion drive in Taiwan with industrial IoT hub

Global management king McKinsey has continued a significant expansion in Taiwan with the launch of a regional industrial IoT hub in Taipei.

Stated by the firm as its biggest and boldest move in the country to date, global strategy and management leader McKinsey & Company has launched its North Asia Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) Hub in Taiwan – as the next step in a sustained local expansion drive which according to the firm has already experienced tremendous recent growth, marked by a doubling in size over the past 18 months.

To support the launch of the new regional IIoT hub, and as part of a major ongoing local investment in talent and technology, McKinsey has already enhanced its senior expertise in Taiwan with the transfer and recruitment of a number of IoT-proficient advisors and long-term leaders of major multinational manufacturers from across Asia – with the firm’s expert recruitment endeavors still underway.

All in all, McKinsey’s Tapei branch is set to triple in size by the end of the year, with Taiwan selected as a base for the North Asian IIoT hub due in part to the local depth of qualified high-end talent experienced in technology enterprise transformations. Its IIoT experts, says McKinsey, will work together with local and regional companies to support end-to-end digital evolutions across the entire operations value-chain. “We believe that companies can attain a 30 percent cost productivity advantage by undertaking an end-to-end Industrial IoT transformation,” said McKinsey Taiwan Managing Partner Albert Chang, adding that the aim was to develop greater global competitiveness. “But this really is a race – those who aren’t first will not be able to compete. So in our view, we are truly in a ‘Digitise or Die’ moment for high tech companies in Asia.”

Further supporting the establishment of the North Asia IIot hub in Taiwan, McKinsey says it has conducted tens of thousands of hours of in-depth research into the key success factors for integrated IoT transformations and the development of its approach, along with instituting a partnership ecosystem of 120 companies and establishing a McKinsey IIoT University designed to help companies with digital workforce re-skilling.

As part of the launch, McKinsey brought together more than 40 of its senior experts from across Asia to provide a hands-on, interactive demonstration of its advanced digital capacities for a gathering of 80-plus upper-level executives from Taiwan’s largest and most influential high-tech companies – with eight simulation stations covering areas such as digitally-enabled growth, procurement, product development, and process automation.

A recent McKinsey report contended that Taiwan – which derives 18 percent of its GDP from the high tech sector – was progressively lagging behind. “To regain its competitiveness, Taiwan needs to undertake a digital transformation,” said Chang. “This will require industry and government to take the lead in developing a robust digital strategy, foster wider adoption of new technologies, and encourage changes in mindset and culture.”