1. Shaping the year ahead
2. Cluster development…seeds first, fertiliser second
3. Cluster facilitators: Chumps, Chomps, Chimps or Champs?
4. Red Book and Clusters Alive!
5. Cluster training workshops
This occasional newsletter focuses on the practical issues of economic development with a cluster focus.
1. Shaping the year ahead
It's
going to be a tough year for all…but changing circumstances offer the
scope to re-visit some fundamentals and to shape the future. This
five-point New Year's checklist is addressed at cluster facilitators /
cluster managers:
With a possible tightening of the resources at your disposal, are you fully leveraging your own time?
Are you the Project Manager for each of your cluster's development
agendas, or are you truly acting as the facilitator, encouraging and
empowering others to lead with specific projects…and leveraging their
resources?
Cluster development is long
term; it's not a quick fix approach. Yet in these difficult times the
political funders of many clustering initiatives are likely to have
even shorter-term time horizons. Can you revisit your core strategies,
especially those focused on new technologies and skills development,
and identify within them 'low hanging fruit' projects that can produce some quicker results? (projects that are hopefully driven by a project leader that is not you!)
Through capturing more fully
the wisdom of the crowd of stakeholders within your cluster…through
opening the conversations and dialogue…can more targeted applications of public funds be developed? It is quality of funding, not the quantity, that is the key to developing the cluster.
Clusters are becoming less
self-contained with aspects of their value chains re-locating. This
increasing specialization should be viewed as an opportunity for your
cluster; it also opens the cluster more easily to collaboration with other clusters.
Have you clarified which clusters…within your country, and across the
world…are your priorities for collaboration and learning? Or are you
simply reacting to those clusters that come knocking on your door?
Many clustering initiatives are
centered on established industry associations, but can be confined
within this structure. Is now the time to revisit your structure, with a view to creating a more independent, yet complementary, organisation?
2. Cluster development…seeds first; fertiliser second
In Europe alone there are over
1,000 clustering initiatives underway. Most of these initiatives are
well grounded in the reality of their local communities with the
fundamentals solidly in place. Some seeds of excellence will have
developed through natural market forces, presenting a ready environment
for a clustering initiative stimulation.
But some of these initiatives are vulnerable 'want-to-be' clusters.
Politicians are especially fond of seeking to create 'high tech'
clusters. A number of the "Silicon Somewhere's" that are identified
here may well fall into this category:
Silicon Alley, Manhattan, New York; Silicon Beach, Santa Cruz; Silicon Bog, Limerick, Ireland; Silicon Coast, Auckland, New Zealand; Silicon Corridor, England; Silicon Desert, Phoenix, Arizona; Silicon Dominion, Virginia; Silicon Fen, Cambridge, UK; Silicon Forest, Portland, Oregon; Silicon Gorge, Bristol, England; Silicon Glen, Scotland; Silicon Gulf, Davao, Philippines; Silicon Hills, Austin, Texas; Silicon Kashba, Istanbul; Silicon Mountain, Colorado Springs; Silicon Oasis, Dubai; Silicon Plateau, Bangalore, India; Silicon Polder, Netherlands; Silicon Prairie, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois; Silicon Valley North (Ottawa); Silicon Valley of China (Zhongguancun); Silicon Valley of Europe (Dublin); Silicon Valley of Russia (Moscow); Silicon Valley of South Korea (Incheon); Silicon Valley of Sweden (Kista); Silicon Valley of Taiwan (Hsinchu); Silicon Seaside, South Norway; Silicon Saxony, Dresden, Germany; Silicon Slopes, Utah; Silicon Snowbank, Minneapolis-St.Paul, Minnesota; Silicon Wadi, Israel; Silicon Welly, Wellington, New Zealand; Cwm Silicon, Wales.
Caution!
A sustainable cluster development initiative can only be built on
healthy seeds, and the growth of those seeds then facilitated by the
careful application of fertilisers.
3. Cluster facilitators: Chumps, Chomps, Chimps or Champs?
A tourism clustering initiative is
being developed in South Africa's magnificent Karoo region by a
colleague, Peter Myles. Picking up on my frequent use of the terms clumps (local agglomerations of isolated firms) and clutter (unaligned support from public agencies), Peter goes further and with humour identifes four types of cluster faciltators:
A Chump…an aspiring facilitator who messes up badly; A Chomp…bites off more than s/he can chew; A Chimp…chatters away incessantly, swings from one project to another, achieving nothing; and finally A Champ…a cluster facilitator with passion and commitment who succeeds in inspiring others to follow.
4. Red Book and Clusters Alive!
The
Red Book 'Clusters: Balancing Evolutionary and Constructive Forces' was
launched at The Competitiveness Institutes' global conference in Cape
Town in November. The Red Book shows how clusters can be used as a
practical tool for those working in regional development and
innovation. It is a follow on from The Cluster Initiative Green Book.
Both are downloadable…at no charge…from http://www.cluster-research.org/
The Red Book's author, Professor
Örjan Sölvell, and Ifor Ffowcs-Williams are now collaborating on
developing a practical 'How To' resource on cluster development that
will include a wide range of mini case studies and examples from around
the world. The working title for the book is 'Clusters Alive!'
Do you have an example, a case study that might be included? Perhaps on
how your clustering initiative started, on how early challenges were
overcome, on how you are measuring performance over time?
Contributions will be welcomed by Ifor:
5. Cluster training workshops
Cluster Navigators are holding a number of cluster training workshops over the coming months:
Sydney & Kampala in February;
Hamburg & Copenhagen in March;
Oslo & Vilnius in April;
British Columbia in June.
These 2-3 day interactive courses
cover the practicalities of cluster development, and have been attended
to-date by over 3,000 people from around the world. They are often
organised by economic development or aid agencies. The Hamburg,
Copenhagen and Oslo courses are being organised by Oxford Research, and
space is still available for Copenhagen; contact: Harald Furre
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