1. Clustering hot spot: Central Finland in October
2. New blog launched: E4oncompetitiveness
3. Opening blog summaries
4. Cluster training workshopsWelcome!
Greetings
from Ifor (E4) Ffowcs-Williams and Cluster Navigators Ltd. in New
Zealand. This occasional newsletter explores the practicalities of
addressing competitiveness with a cluster focus.
1. Clustering hot spot: Central Finland in October
This
gathering is the annual meeting place for those with a focus on
competitiveness, clusters, and innovation. Representatives from over
40 countries will be there ... practitioners, policy-makers,
researchers and business leaders.
The
conference includes visits to Central Finland’s nano, wellbeing, ICT
and tourism clusters; an academic summit; and a contribution from
Patrick Dixon, one of the world’s most influential business thinkers.
An array of speakers from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Chile, China,
Finland, France, Denmark, Germany, Ghana, India, South Africa, Spain,
Sweden, and other countries will be sharing their experiences.
2. New blog launched: E4oncompetitiveness.com
The
blog will be drawing on my travels that so far this year have already
taken me around Europe, across Africa, and into Canada and India. My
next round-the-world trip includes Singapore, Denmark, Turkey, Sweden
and Finland. I will be sharing my experiences in working with policy
developers; training economic development professionals in the process of cluster development; and supporting them in key cluster workshops.
The blog will also draw on the learning from the growing number of
clustering initiatives underway around the world … by one estimate
currently over 2,500 … a five fold increase in less than five years.
It will draw on the flourishing academic literature and on forums such
as The Competitiveness Institute’s global conferences. I am proud to be a founder of that organisation, a Past President, and currently serve on the Board of Advisors.
I have had the opportunity to learn from many cluster practitioners,
and may well have touched more clustering initiatives than any one
else. I will be sharing my learning.
Your comments will be very welcomed as this blog develops.
3. Opening blog summaries
• Moon Shots for Clusters
The Harvard Business Review
recently featured Gary Hamel and others defining an agenda for
reinventing management. Many of the priorities identified could also be
the moon shots for Cluster Development 2.0. In developing a ten-point summary, E4 has taken generous liberties with the HBR article; five are summarised here:
(1) Reinvent the cluster’s strategy making as an emergent process.
(2) Share the work of setting direction.
(3) Dramatically reduce the pull of the past.
(4) Eliminate the limitations of a formal hierarchy within the cluster.
(5) Expand, applaud, and exploit diversity.
• Rural cluster development
As a warm up for the 3rd Rural Clusters Conference that is coming up in Bornholm, Denmark over 1-2 September, two blogs reflect on the practice of rural cluster development.
Stu Rosenfeld’s comprehensive work includes 50 rural cluster vignettes from around the world. Many of these clusters are surprises.
Michael Porter and his Harvard team
emphasise that mitigating generic deficiencies in a rural region will
not be sufficient; each region needs a distinctive strategy that
reflects its unique strengths and its particular mix of clusters.
Harvard highlight that the institutional framework for US rural policy
is fragmented and uncoordinated … what E4 calls agency clutter … a situation that unfortunately repeats itself around the world in too many countries, including New Zealand.
• Linking Healthy Clusters
We
are going to see much more linking of related clusters internationally,
reflecting in part co-specialisation between clusters. But it will be
the linking of the strong and healthy.
4. Cluster training workshops
E4
has a number of cluster training workshops scheduled. These are
usually three day, very interactive courses with a small group of
participants. They have been attended to-date by over 3,000 people
from 40 countries. Space is still available at workshops coming up in
British Columbia in October, in Denmark in November, possibly in South
Africa in December, and in Norway in early 2010. Contact E4 for
further information.
You are welcome to pass this newsletter on to others. If it has been forwarded to you in error, please accept my apologies.
