Design Thinking and Innovation

"People-oriented" is a core business philosophy of ASUS. ASUS design thinking looks at customer pain points to make breakthroughs in product innovations. To innovate, we make structural changes along with the changing times and industry and strive to ensure “the DNA of innovation” continue to evolve.internally. We realize explorative innovation and application innovation by using open-minded innovation and dual organization. By investing external innovative technologies, ASUS has created shared value with its business partners. ASUS considers innovation as the core tenet of its foundation for evolution, sustainable development and enhancing its competitiveness.

ASUS design thinking is the driving force behind innovation. ASUS has leveraged investments, M&A, intensive industrial-academic cooperations, and strategic alliances on the foundations of its core businesses to actively expand into new businesses and create competitive advantages for the sustainability of the Company. To support the ASUS Sustainability Strategy, we use the core competitiveness to promote sustainable digital transformation, open innovation and process innovation, and adopt a comprehensive impact assessment framework to disclose corporate value creation which is shared and built with our stakeholders.

Actions in 2021

  • Establishment of the "ASUS-NTU Joint Research Center" with the College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, National Taiwan University
  • Launched the ASAP innovation platform to encourage innovative proposals from employees for commercialization
  • Established the "ASUS - AI and Cloud campus" and invested in "Taiwan Web Service Corporation" for development in AI applications

Performances in 2021

  • Received recognition for the indicators "Influence" and "Globalization" in the Top 100 Global Innovators 2021 announced by Clarivate
  • Included among the Top 100 companies in patents in 2021
  • Received the Corporate Innovation Award at the 18th National Innovation Awards
  • Received the "2021 Taiwan SNQ National Quality Award" for smart medical solutions

Impacts

ASUS has long advocated the human-oriented design concept to address consumer needs and pain points. We use core competencies to continue to work with external partners on manufacturing, medical services, finance, smart city, and other AI applications to help support the digital transformation of the industry. We seek to create a convenient, safe, and effective life and business environment for the society.

 

Design Thinking

The important basis for ASUS to carry out any innovative products and services is the concept of Design Thinking. Design Thinking includes three aspects: desirability, feasibility, and viability.

Traditionally, design thinking comes from the need to solve problems. The ASUS Design Thinking Strategy is anchored on human-oriented and consumer experience as the starting point. The sequence of design thinking starts with desirability. However, projects may become too unrealistic if we only consider desirability and commercial viability but lack technical feasibility. If we only consider desirability and technological feasibility, it may be a hit, but we would fail to create a business model. If we only consider commercial viability and technological feasibility, we cannot truly solve users' problems. ASUS design thinking seeks to find the intersection of all three elements and to provide meaningful and feasible user happiness experience by understanding their needs.

Innovation Management Framework

ASUS Design Thinking is a driving force behind innovation. We encourage a spirit of innovation and collaboration with cross-industrial partners and start-up companies. In response to rapid changes in industries around the world, ASUS has promoted bottom-up industrial collaboration and strategic investments to stimulate evolutionary innovation for the growth in our core business. We are actively expanding and creating new business through investments and mergers, in-depth industry-academia collaborations, and strategic alliances, while we continue to promote growth across the original core business.

Innovation Development Office

In 2020, ASUS established the Innovation Development Office, which is subordinate to the Chief Executive Office and mainly focuses on driving industrial-academic cooperations, strategic innovation initiatives, and strategic investments. It strives to bring ideas together and stimulate innovative thinking within the company and uses a variety of innovative activities and processes to facilitate lateral communication between departments and actively address strategic growth issues of concern to ASUS. It introduces advanced technologies, products, and business ideas, and helps to accelerate or support each program and project by bringing in external resources from the industry and academia.

The Office establishes a systematic innovation management system to support organization innovation and development. It also uses intensive collaborations between the industry, government, and academia to expand R&D capacity. The Office also actively promotes innovation activities, innovation strategic cooperation, and talent cultivation plans to encourage all ASUS employees to make the most of collective resources, dare to put oneself up to challenge of breakthrough or even disruptive innovations, and create shared value for sustainability.

The Trilogy of Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Innovation Actions

IDO! Innovation Forum

ASUS and Amazon Web Services (AWS) Joint Innovation Center hosted the "AWS x ASUS Advanced Manufacturing Forum" and worked with several outstanding innovation teams for demonstration and knowledge sharing to jointly promote development in the overall industry.

ASUS also worked with Microsoft Startup Accelerator and the IoT Center of Excellence to organize the "Microsoft x ASUS Advanced Manufacturing Forum" to explore innovative solutions and business models in smart manufacturing and invite multiple startup teams to share their achievements at the event. In the second phase "Microsoft Metaverse Technology & Experience Tour" event, we led a team to Microsoft Head Office to experience services with metaverse technology. We communicated with external teams in the forum and subsequently explored and discussed more technical cooperation projects. We have built the capacity for cooperation in smart manufacturing and we will continue to use the innovation forums to address strategic growth issues of concern to the Company and bring in the latest technologies, products, and business ideas.

Industrial-Academic Cooperation

ASUS and the College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, National Taiwan University jointly established the "ASUS-NTU Joint Research Center" in 2021 with the aim of leveraging industry-academia cooperation to jointly research and develop nextgeneration computer, communication, display, IoT, AI, advanced electromagnetics, and other advanced technologies, and nurture high-level R&D talents based on industry trends. We plan to launch the phase 2 non-AIR research idea proposal event in 2022 to extend core technologies and new innovative functions of products and services, strengthen the company's capacity for independent R&D, and continue to support industry-academic cooperation and overall resources.

Future Fest Innovative Culture

ASUS created the "Future Fest" event brand to cultivate innovative culture and encourage employees to leverage collective wisdom and pursue excellence in innovation. The slogan "Together We Innovate" outlines the core values of the brand and upholds the One ASUS spirit. We used the exchange of ideas to jointly create a grand new future for ASUS together.

The two major shows in the annual Future Fest in 2021 were Tech Talks and BU/FU Roadshow. The topics of the Tech Talk spanned "intelligence and services", "efficient systems and wireless communications", and "experience and innovation". We invited 11 business groups and hosted 14 sessions for sharing the results and experience in R&D. The BU/FU Roadshow included four major themes, namely AI/AIOT and software services, design processes and trends, innovative products and technologies, and efficient systems and wireless communications.In total, 13 business groups participated and provided a total of 37 presentations and explanations and showcased the BU/FU's latest innovative products and technologies. They created a usercentered design mindset and a platform for technology exchange between different units. More than 900 employees attended the event in a single day.

 

ASUS Innovation Competition

The ASUS Innovation Competition (IC) has been held since 2019 as a platform for expanding creative ideas and making them come true. IC received a total of 101 internal and external creative proposals in 2021. Under the guidance of the IC Technology Committee, the teams polished their solutions over a period of 8 months before the unveiling of results and the award ceremony of the third IC was held in January 2022. The four teams in the final presented their exciting results and engaged 13 professional judges and more than 400 employees in attendance online in real-time Q&A. They demonstrated the great use of creative ideas and continued to explore the infinite possibilities of innovation.

ASUS Star Acceleration Program (ASAP) Innovation Platform

ASUS adheres to its motto of “Re-evolution, Truthfulness, Transparency, Mindfulness, and Creative Excellence” and assigned the Innovation Development Office to launch the ASUS Star Acceleration Program (ASAP) Innovation Platform. It encourages employees to come up with proposals beyond ASUS's current product line and work to promote commercialization.

The overall process of the ASAP includes the proposal, selection in three separate stages, and project incubation. We also offer research grants to encourage employees whose proposals were selected to continue improvements and start business projects. The ASAP Platform was launched in 2021. Despite the impact of the pandemic and the challenges of working from home for several months, employees enthusiastically submitted proposals and we convened three official review meetings. The official results were reported to the Chairman, Vice Chairman, President, and other senior executives of the Group in January 2022. The topics covered include smart medical care, AI technology applications, and integration of technology with life and culture. A total of 7 innovative proposals passed the preliminary review, 4 passed the second review, and 1 passed the commercial review. We will continue to encourage employees to file proposals and actively screen the best proposals and provide support. It increases the value and success rate of proposals and we seek to expand new business opportunities for the Group.

Innovative Products and Services

In addition to continuous innovation and growth in existing personal computers (PC) and gaming businesses, the active transformation targets of ASUS also include the accelerated development of the AIoT and 5G ecosystems and the development of the third engine of growth in smart healthcare and smart manufacturing industries. In 2022, ASUS established the "ASUS - AI and Cloud campus" to use cloud services to develop the AIHPC high-performance computing and big data platform necessary for the development of artificial intelligence. We continue to work with external partners in AI applications in manufacturing, medical services, finance, and smart city.

Smart Manufacturing

ASUS AI solutions for the manufacturing industry take the form of IoT solutions for Industry 4.0. They help optimize the process and yield and enable develop a wide range of AI environments that can be adapted for different edge computing requirements. They allow users to choose a new version of the framework when building models so that the high flexibility of AI applications to be embedded in the manufacturing industry.

Smart Healthcare

ASUS actively develops smart healthcare applications and strengthens the innovation in the services in healthcare and cloud. We seek to create the next-generation medical information platform to support the digital transformation of healthcare and meet international standards. ASUS signed a letter of intent for collaboration in smart healthcare with Taipei Veterans General Hospital in 2021 to leverage the advantages of both parties and develop cutting-edge AI healthcare information services. We aim to build a smart hospital centered on the needs of patients and attain a new milestone in smart healthcare applications.

Smart Healthcare Outcome Presentation

ASUS published the outcome of five major healthcare projects along with leaders of the medical world. ASUS Intelligent Cloud Services (AICS) published the outcome of five major applications along with Cheng Hsin General Hospital, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Changhua Christian Hospital, and Chung Shan Medical University Hospital. They included the "Smart Medical Information System Platform", "Medical Big Data Platform", "Smart Medication Safety System", "Smart Coding and Medical Decision Management", and "Personalized Smart Health Management Platform, which help lead digital transformation in healthcare.

 

Management of Intellectual Property Rights

The Company is committed to innovation and R&D. Intellectual property rights is one of the key results for R&D and we have steadily increased the number of patent applications filed worldwide every year. As of the end of 2021, we have obtained 5,255 worldwide. In 2021, ASUS obtained 609 patents worldwide, which was a 10% increase from 2020. They included 161 patents in Taiwan, 164 patents in other regions in Asia, and 284 patents in Europe and The United States.

ASUS also made substantial investments in the development of high-end communications market, and has filed 555 patents in the communications field as of the end of 2021. ASUS regularly announces standard essential patents (SEPs) in line with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). From 2018 to the end of 2021, we have accumulated the announcement of 218 patent families (excluding extensions). The number of patents for overall communication standards is steadily increasing.

ASUS continues to produce patents to maintain core competitiveness. We also seek active utilization and asset accumulation of patents. The Company therefore created the first patent maintenance model with third-party collaboration in 2021. We work with experienced attorneys so that we do not need to discard important standard essential patents (SEPs). It protects the Company's intangible assets and significantly reduces the resources that the Company invest with the aim of maximizing benefits from patents.