Amidst the budding and booming of the optoelectronics industries in Taiwan, HC Photonics Co., Ltd. was founded in 2000. It is an enterprise that performs integration, conducts researches on relevant technologies, and develops new laser and optoelectronics products. It differs from other Taiwanese optoelectronics companies, which have a business model based on contract-manufacturing and mass production, in that it pursues the optoelectronics R&D niche market, and boasts a client base covering Japan, Europe, and US. The management team that founded HC Photonics consists of a group of young Stanford PhDs originally from Taiwan. There were 3 essential personnel at the time the company was founded; Dr. M. H. Chou, whom we interviewed, was one of them. The company was initially located in Tsing-Hua University's Business Incubation Center, and was successfully “hatched” in 2001. It relocated to the Hsin-chu Science Park, and in 2002 received funding from the famous Japanese venture capital firm JAFCO, followed by the Enterprise Innovation Award from Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs in 2003. In 2005, it was recognized by receiving top ranking as one of Asia's most forward-looking hi-tech companies from the Red Herring, the most circulated venture capital magazine in the US.

　　Dr. Chou originally had no plan to return to Taiwan, but decided to do so when participated in the founding of HC Photonics. The salary level (even for a university professor) in Taiwan is far below that in the US, so the force behind Dr. Chou's coming back to Taiwan was a desire to create an all-new industry. From his own experiences studying abroad, he sensed an important advantage that Taiwan enjoys has been the quality of its human talents. But in contrast to Europe and US, Dr. Chou believes that Taiwan's educational system and work environment need to endeavor further toward putting greater emphasis on people's potential, and encouraging superior innovation. In this way, Taiwan may shake loose from its contract manufacturer stereotype, and begin to pursue a more innovative, and higher value-add industrial profit base. HC Photonics has recently increased its employee numbers to 50, which included some qualified military draftees on exemption status. Within the company's research ranks, 10 people are from other countries including New Zealand, Australia, US, and Canada. Dr. Chou makes no distinction about the nationalities of those he hires. As HC Photonics is still in need of exceptional R&D talents, it solicits job applicants from overseas as well as domestically. But as Taiwan's salary level tends to be lower, the company generally appeals to the recruits' emotions by directing their attention to the company's vision and future. It has also uses its stock allocation program to make some successful recruitments.

　　Dr. Chou is very positive about the Taiwanese government's measures to boost the income level of overseas recruits in the hi-tech industry. This is because small and medium-sized businesses have already spent a fortune in their recruitment efforts targeting those overseas talents. The government's measures are not only helpful to these businesses, but contributing favorably to Taiwan's overall business environment as well by successfully attracting overseas talents to return to Taiwan.