Presentation: Ten building Blocks to Successful Clustering Initiatives by Ifor Ffowcs-Williams, 10CLAC, Tijuana, Mexico, June 2017.

1. Ten Building Blocks to Successful Clustering Initiatives
TCI Congreso Latinoamericano de Clusters
Tijuana June 2017
© Cluster Navigators Ltd 2017
1
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Ten Building Blocks to
Successful Cluster Initiatives
Ifor Ffowcs-Williams
New Zealand
Twitter: @e4clusterguy
.
Last month in Ottawa …
Launch of $950m fund to support
“superclusters”
.
The clustering process
But what can go wrong?
• Cluster definition
• Removed from private sector culture
• Clustering initiative fails to capture attention
• Capture by narrow interest groups
• Clustering initiative unable to find space
• Clumps of stand-alone, vertically integrated firms
• Clutter of support organisations
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Successful Clustering
Initiatives
Four key principles
1. Business in the lead
2. Public Agencies in support
3. Knowledge underpinning
4. Teamwork, co-opetition
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Building Blocks to
Successful Clusters
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1. Demands long-term
resourcing
• Cluster development …
• Fundamentally about culture changes
• No quick fix
• Long-term public support, 5+ years
• Principals in resourcing a cluster program
1. Selection through competition
2. Leveraging through co-funding

2. Ten Building Blocks to Successful Clustering Initiatives
TCI Congreso Latinoamericano de Clusters
Tijuana June 2017
© Cluster Navigators Ltd 2017
2
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2. Broad development portfolio
Must include:
u Internationalisation
• Cluster branding; Export development; Knowledge links;
• Cluster-to-cluster links; Talent & Investment attraction …
u Skills development
• Technical & Management training; Tertiary course development;
School Partnerships …
• Technology & SME related
• R&D centers; Centers of Excellence; Incubation facility
• Precinct; Technology Park; University links; Technology mapping …
• Finance
• Equity and debt funding, venture capital, angels, seed funding …
• Cost reduction Joint purchasing …
• One-Stop Service Centre
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Cluster strategy development …
open, participative
Strategy workshop, Papua New Guinea, ICT cluster
.
Triple Helix engagement
Example from Sweden
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Co-purchasing
Co-marketing
Co-specialisation
Co-creation of value
3. From clumps of firms
A culture shift, silos to co-opetition
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4. From support agency clutter
A culture shift, to agency alignment
“Public–public coordination …
the most difficult of all
forms of coordination”
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Cluster development…Centre Stage
Not just ‘another project’
Cluster Development
Centre Stage
An integrated framework for:
Investment attraction
R&D, Technology transfer
SME development; Start-ups
Precincts/Incubators/Technology Parks
Skills, training; workforce development
Export development, internationalisation

3. Ten Building Blocks to Successful Clustering Initiatives
TCI Congreso Latinoamericano de Clusters
Tijuana June 2017
© Cluster Navigators Ltd 2017
3
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Response to support agency clutter
A Cluster Ignition Team
1. To integrate support organisations
around the cluster’s agenda
2. To draw on their resources &
knowledge
3. To facilitate their participation in
specific task forces, projects
.
5. Establishing the
cluster’s Strategic Agenda
A strategic plan identifies the priority activities
to be undertaken within the resources that are
available.
A Strategic Agenda is not constrained by
the current availability of resources.
• Highlights the priority activities;
• Identifies partners to resource implementation
• Cluster Ignition Team’s role
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6. Linking clusters
• With specialisation, linking is critical
• Linking
• Within the region
• Within the country
• And increasingly, globally
C2C Cluster to Cluster
B2B Business to Business
A2A Academia to Academia
Drawing in relevant knowledge
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6. Linking clusters …
… to continue at Bogota
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7. Measurement & Evaluation
1. Hard numbers … but growth cannot be
only attributed to the clustering intervention
2. Evidence of behaviour changes
1. From clumps of firms to co-opetition
2. From support agency clutter to alignment
3. Improving the intervention
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Reviewing the hard numbers
The cluster’s dashboard in
measuring progress
Baseline data, e.g.:
• Number of firms? Employees?
• Number of new firms to the cluster?
• Total sales?
• % local, % national, % international?
• Number of students in local training directed at
the cluster’s needs?
• % workforce with higher education?

4. Ten Building Blocks to Successful Clustering Initiatives
TCI Congreso Latinoamericano de Clusters
Tijuana June 2017
© Cluster Navigators Ltd 2017
4
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Reviewing the cluster organisation
Improving the intervention
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8. A Cluster’s Board
• A coalition of preferred leaders who
understand and care about the big picture
• A group with a balance of skills, able to
aggressively work as a team
• Active governance
• The players … not the spectators
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A Board dominated by:
• The cluster’s largest organisations … the
loudest … or an ‘Old Boy’s Club’.
• Second level line managers … not CEOs/
Heads of Departments.
• Public agency representatives and industry
association officials.
• Members with similar backgrounds … same
university, same technical background.
• One gender.
Board danger signs
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9. Cluster organisations … connecting
Institute for Competitiveness, Ontario, Canada
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• Open to all
• Can be large groups
• Flexible structure
• Special Interest
Groups e.g.
• Emerging technology
• Export marketing
• Private
• Small groups
• Formalised, e.g.
• Consortia
• Joint-ventures …
Clustering … Building Bridges
A co-opetition culture
.
“We are not an
association.

5. Ten Building Blocks to Successful Clustering Initiatives
TCI Congreso Latinoamericano de Clusters
Tijuana June 2017
© Cluster Navigators Ltd 2017
5
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10. The Cluster Manager
A cornerstone role
• A change agent, catalyst
• Connector, relationship builder
• From solo players to collaborative action
• Significant 1-on-1 contact…the building block
• A boundary crosser
• Builds a Coalition of the Willing
• Ideally not ‘Project Manager’ for everything
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Acts as a disrupting
Change Agent
• A Cluster Manager is not in place to
maintain the status quo.
• Results come through persuasion, not
coercion … build your soft power
• Be prepared for stakeholders that are
infuriated with your activities.
• Setbacks are integral to working on the
edge … and a source of learning.
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Explores at the
cluster’s periphery
• Generates multiple options at the edges.
• Learning-by-doing, not paralysis-by-
analysis.
• If there are no failures … taking it
too easy!
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Building blocks for
clustering success
Six essentials
u Long term resourcing
• Broad development
portfolio
u From clumps of firms
u From support agency
clutter
• From a strategic plan to
a Strategic Agenda
u Cluster linking
• Measurement &
Evaluation
u Cluster Board, triple
helix
• Cluster organisation
u Cluster Manager…
connector & catalyst
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Cluster development handbook
www.clusternavigators.com
.
Ifor Ffowcs-Williams
CEO, Cluster Navigators Ltd
22 Examiner St, Nelson 7010
New Zealand
E4@clusternavigators.com
+ 64 3 548 0606
www.clusternavigators.com
www.linkedin.com/in/clusterdevelopment
Twitter: @e4clusterguy
Skype: ‘clusterguy’