That’s great. Nice approach. Thank you.
...but "the feeling that I could" is a game-changer.
I don’t want to do it on an everyday basis...
You don’t want to do this all the time, get into the weeds, and really dive deep, and look at something, but you might want to do that once in a while. I would assume, if I take a weekend, and take a deep, deep dive, and really can see ...
More like you can see the living government as if you would show a picture of how all the things are working together. You could zoom in and see this picture of...
Sometimes you don’t feel that.
You could adapt the same principle to the government, right?
That’s great. I was always saying it’s like the purpose of a company is to solve a problem for the customer. If they don’t solve a problem for the customer, why should the company even exist?
I think you can draw the analogy, as well, even if you are a commercial producer of software, and you have customers, you only can produce a great piece of software if you really know your customer. You have to collect data. You have to survey them. You have to ...
That was also one thing I learned through running a company with 200 people. If I do transparency, and I leave around the numbers, and I tell them about the strategy, only then people can follow the way I think and the way I want to solve problems. I see ...
On the other hand, I see the concept of voting for people that are then in charge for me doing stuff. I think the amount of transparency you want to bring into the process, that, in the end, enables trust.
You vote for something you want, and that’s the thing, but I think it’s missing out on the return channel from the government, that you really see you make a difference by your contribution. This is something I don’t feel always recognized for whenever I do vote.
It is. In the end of the day, people want to be seen, want to be heard, want to know they’re recognized. That’s the idea of having a democracy.
That’s pretty much what a politician probably should be about. I think it’s a natural thing to do it that way, but I’d never thought about doing it exactly like you described. It’s impressive.
Accomplishing one task with a lot of people who all have the same mind, and also their own ideas, it is that you need systems where everybody gets recognized for their idea, but still you have to align then in order to work towards one goal.
It’s familiar to me because it’s like you’re using all the software analogies. In software, and it’s happened in this industry, it’s about coordinating a lot of private people to accomplish one task, right?
It’s great. I have to say, I’m really impressed. The approach is great. If I can think about, I would love to see these topics handled in Germany as pretty much like how you described.
I think it’s a great principle.
It does. You make money with this concept for some time, and after a while you’re willing to give back and share that as part of something that happened before, and you’re willing to share.
I see, if it’s in the written foundation, it becomes another thing, because it’s written in there.
I agree. Some startups really start off idealistic and might have these value, but then over time, when the more money gets added, and the more investors focus on return on investment, the more this gets diluted, right?
It’s great to have that in there. It’s possible, also, to do it without, but it requires a workaround to it.
My question is if you’re in for the money or if you are in for passion. It’s great if the purpose of the company is also by law not necessarily that you have to make money. To me, in my founding history, I didn’t care about the money. It was ...
You always wanted to do this, working in politics?
I would say so. It’s a great approach. I agree.
We’ve talked about the future. We think about how this transformation is going in five years’ time. Do you have goals where you can say, "Oh, I want these things to be changed?" How would you imagine Taiwan in five years’ time?
You’re part of the government, but do you think they fully recognize that this is the transformation that has to happen for Taiwan?
This transformation from being just hardware-based industry to being more software-based is probably the big challenge Taiwan is facing, isn’t it?
What do you think is the biggest struggle for Taiwan? My understanding -- this week I’ve been here, and I learned a lot -- all this economic growth is due to the manufacturing of electronic devices. I also learned that all the big manufacturers are also in China right now, ...
It makes so much sense.
When does this role of minister got established in the first place?
Building a CI process, basically. [laughs]
Very good. It’s, time-wise, no problem for you to balance the two things?
It’s the same thing?
How do you balance these two different things?
Nice. That’s great. I heard you’re a software developer, or have been.
To me this sounds fantastic, and like a more agile and straightforward way to deal with these issues. I would imagine that some of people were not used to this method. Do they all agree with the method, or do you have voices of being concerned of dealing with issues ...
It’s really, really interesting.
It’s a more democratic way, a more agile and democratic way of running things...
It’s a double use?
As you said, you’re pretty much dependent on how other people are working together with you. Could you give me an example of something which you have been doing and a lot of other ministries were involved?
Since when are you doing this?
That sounds great, but I could hardly imagine with people that are not used to software development, that kind of working method, isn’t it hard to work with them?
That, to my understanding, pretty much sounds like agile software development, where you do a lot of different things, right?
You pretty much insert yourself wherever you’re needed, then? Is that true?
Audrey, it would be great if you could introduce yourself because I think I am not really sure there is an equivalent of your position in Germany.
You’ll be able to see it here, which is cool. I think I like it for the sake of meeting a lot of pretty interesting persons. It’s not so much about earning money. It’s really about the experience for me, so I’m doing something else.
No, it’s going to be in German, English, and stations are sending abroad to cover the German people living abroad. It’s going to be aired in English, which is cool.
It’s the first one. It’s going to be the pilot, and it’s going to be aired on a weekly basis then. It’s 10 episodes. I elected to do this because it’s something completely different. It’s a challenge, as well, to do.
I can’t really imagine what it’s going to be like. I think it’s going to be exciting to see what the overall message of it is, how the whole form is going to be received, and if people like it or not.
