This seminar is part of SPRIE's Fall 2003 series on "High-Tech Regions and the Globalization of Value Chains."

Over the past two decades, the physical products that we consume have increasingly been manufactured offshore. More recently, some business and consumer services have started moving overseas. India is an important destination for such work, as it has low labor costs, good remote process management skills, and adequate infrastructure. The talk will report on a recent visit to India in which about fifty business process outsourcing firms were interviewed. The work is part of a research project funded by the Sloan Foundation on understanding the impact of the globalization of business processes on the U.S. economy.

Martin Kenney is a professor in the Department of Human and Community Development at the University of California, Davis and a senior project director at the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy at the University of California, Berkeley. His research includes the role and history of the venture capital industry and the development of Silicon Valley. Kenney's recent books include Understanding Silicon Valley: Anatomy of an Entrepreneurial Region (2000) and Locating Global Advantage (forthcoming). He has consulted for various governments, companies, the United Nations, and the World Bank. He has been a visiting professor at Cambridge University, Copenhagen Business School, Hitotsubashi University, Kobe University, Osaka City University, and the University of Tokyo. He holds a B.A. and M.A. from San Diego State University and a Ph.D. from Cornell University.

11:30 a.m.: "Digital Content Industry in the Information Technology Era" Eiji Tsujimoto, Impress Corporation (Advisor: Harry Rowen) 11:50 a.m. : "Internet Business Strategy for Newspaper Companies" Hiroshi Nozawa, Asahi Shimbun Company (Advisor: Russ Hancock) 12:10 p.m.: "Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship in the Silicon Valley and the Greater China Region" Joseph Huang, AllCan Investment Company (Advisor: Marguerite Hancock) 12:30 p.m. : "How Can Japan Make Effective Industrial Policies For Promoting New Technologies and Industrial Revitalization?" Kosuke Takahashi, Development Bank of Japan (Advisor: Mike Armacost) 12:50 p.m. : "The Difference of Information Strategy Between the USA and Japan" Tatsushi Tatsumi, Sumitomo Corporation (Advisor: Marguerite Hancock) 1:10 p.m. : "Comparative Study of Technology Policy for Small Business Between the USA and Japan" Hidetaka Nishimura, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Advisor: Mike Armacost) 1:30 p.m. : "How Can China Learn from U.S. Small Business Policies?" Tingru Liu, Infotech Ventures Comapany (Advisor: Harry Rowen) Lunch served to those who respond to Yumi Onoyama by 12:00 noon Tuesday, May 20, 2003. Please contact Yumi via email at yumio@stanford.edu.

The trend for globalization of high-tech industries has gained momentum during the last few years. In particular, the Asia Pacific region has become an increasingly important market for U.S. high tech companies. What investors, both the public market and VCs, look for now are companies with revenue growth and a clear path to profit. The challenge for technology companies and investors is to define the roadmap to weather through the current downturn and build strength to grow when the market returns. The companies that will succeed are the ones that are close to the market, with the ability to produce their products at a reduced cost.

China, with its mass population, is undeniably an enormous market. It not only presents a broad customer base for the high-tech industry, but also an attractive low-cost manufacturing center. There is no doubt that Greater China is a lucrative region to ride the next wave of high-tech industry growth. We all want to capture this golden opportunity. How do we address this huge consumer market? How do we fully utilize the emerging labor support to lower production costs? For venture capitalists, how do we find legitimate ways to get return on our investments?

Taiwan is now China's leading trade partner and investor. Over 25 percent of Taiwan's exports are headed to China, according to the latest official statistics. With its geographic proximity, a well-established technology and business support infrastructure, as well as a common language and similar culture background, Taiwan is well positioned as a gateway to the China. In addition, Taiwan has built a well-recognized capital market in the past three decades. This highly liquid capital market is the best support for the high-tech industry as well as VC players.

In this session, Katherine Jen, a veteran venture capitalist, will lead the audience through her strategy in the quest for the next wave of high-tech industry growth and identify the key success factors.

About the Speaker

Katherine Jen is the managing partner of AsiaTech Management, LLC, a venture capital firm investing in the Silicon Valley and Asia. Katherine's successful venture capital career began in the early eighties. During her two decades in the Ministry of Finance in Taiwan, Katherine ran a $3 billion government investment fund, instrumental in the founding of successful high-tech companies such as TSMC and Moses-Vitelic. She also served on the TSMC board of directors from 1989-1993.

Katherine was one of the pioneers in Taiwan's VC industry. She led many key initiatives in venture capital legislations, including the adoption of the first Venture Capital Act in Taiwan. She helped establish the first group of venture capital funds in Taiwan, including Hotung Ventures, H&Q Asia and Walden International Taiwan (IVCIC). In addition, she founded the venture capital firm Genesis Venture in Taiwan and successfully raised its first fund. As a leader in the Taiwan financial industry, she served on the board of International Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the largest commercial bank in Taiwan.

Based on the belief that Silicon Valley technologies can find much broader markets if they are combined with the efficient manufacturing industry in Asia, she founded AsiaTech and raised its first fund in 1997. Today, with operations in the Silicon Valley and Taiwan, AsiaTech manages three funds with strong backing from Asian-based manufacturing companies, commercial and investment banks, and government.

C. Richard D'Amato is the vice chairman of the U.S.-China Security Review Commission, a commission established by Congress to review the national security implications of U.S. trade relations with China. Formerly a delegate to the General Assembly of the State of Maryland, he is the president of a consulting firm that represents American corporations on strategic planning and international trade matters. He is also a retired captain in the United States Navy Reserve, a position that brought him a variety of assignments, including attache duty at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, China, on proliferation issues and military-to-military initiatives in March 1997; service in the Battle Group Command Staff of the USS Eisenhower in the Red Sea during Operation Desert Shield; serving as an operations officer directing air drops into Bosnia and Sarajevo; and service on the planning staff of the newly created Asia-Pacific Center, which is a conference and study center under the commander of U.S. Forces for the Pacific, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Recently, Mr. D'Amato served as a member of the U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission, a congressionally created commission charged with studying the nature, causes and consequences of the United States merchandise trade and current account deficits.

For ten years, beginning in 1988, Mr. D'Amato was the Democratic counsel for the Committee on Appropriations of the United States Senate. He was responsible for coordinating and managing the annual appropriations bills and other legislation on policy and funding of U.S. international operations and programs, including trade and defense and the full range of foreign activities of the U.S. government.

Mr. D'Amato has also served as senior foreign policy counsel for Senator Robert C. Byrd. In this capacity, Mr. D'Amato drafted the resolution that set Senate standards for international global climate change treaty negotiations. He also worked on a wide array of issues affecting U.S. international economic and political interests, including U.S.-Japan auto trade talks; World Trade Organization review legislation; U.S. involvement and funding of operations in Bosnia, Somalia, and Rwanda; and burden-sharing agreements during the Gulf War. Between 1980 and 1987, Mr. D'Amato served as the policy director for the Majority Leader, Senator Robert C. Byrd, for political, economic, and security policies. In this position, Mr. D'Amato supervised all work on a number of important legislative initiatives, including the 1988 Omnibus Trade Bill and the "Super 301" provision. Mr. D'Amato also wrote key legislation dealing with U.S.-Japan economic relations. During his career on Capitol Hill, Mr. D'Amato also served as the co-director of the Senate Arms Control Observer Group.

Mr. D'Amato began his career first as the legislative director for Congressman James Jeffords (R-VT) between 1975 and 1978, and beginning in 1978, as the legislative assistant and then chief of staff for Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-CT) until 1980.

Mr. D'Amato has been very active in other aspects of public service, including an appointment as an assistant professor of government for the United States Naval Academy between 1968 and 1971, during which he was assistant varsity basketball coach and the sailing coach. He was responsible for the creation of an annual scholarship with the YWCA for college bound African American women and was the chairman of a local charitable hunger relief action organization in 1996, 1997, and 1998, which was a part of the nationwide "Share Our Strength" organization, the most successful hunger relief effort in the United States. In addition, he is active in the boating community in Annapolis, where he and his wife, Dorothy, have lived for thirty years.

Mr. D'Amato received his B.A. from Cornell University in 1964, graduating cum laude in government. He serves now on the Board of Trustees' Council for Cornell University. Mr. D'Amato received his M.A. and M.A.L.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston in 1967, and received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1980.