By Christine Doel, presented at the 19th TCI Global Conference, Eindhoven, 2016.

1. Titel presentatie
[Naam, organisatienaam]
Working Day - Track: Managing learning networks
Cluster development success factors
Christine Doel
Insights from the UK’s Golden
Triangle

2. Cluster Development Success Factors: Insights
from the UK’s Golden Triangle
Christine Doel

3. Situating the clusters: UK Golden Triangle
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4. Cambridge, Oxford and London…
 World class universities – University of Cambridge,
University of Oxford, UCL, Imperial College, etc.
 London World City
 Significant clusters in key knowledge-based sectors:
 Bioscience
 IT and digital
 Space
 But can policy shape clusters across the geography?
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5. Budget 2016 – and George Osborne’s letter to
Lord Adonis, March 2016
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6. Environmental and planning constraints…
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Cambridge
Oxford
Milton Keynes
Northampton
LONDON

7. …and the major road/rail routes
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8. A different cluster from the Golden Triangle
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9. 8
Back to the start....
 Porter’s definition of clusters – from the late 1990s –
remains the one that is most frequently used:
“geographical concentrations of interconnected
companies and institutions in a particular field”
 Within this context:
 individual businesses and institutions collaborate and compete…
 …with shared rules and conventions… leading to trust… and
creating knowledge “in the air”
 …and some level of spatial proximity
 So clusters are both a form of industrial organisation and
a statement about a local economy…
 …they are not a necessary assertion about “scale” or
future growth potential

10. In a distinct spatial context (i)
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11. In a distinct spatial context (ii)
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12. In a distinct spatial context (iii)
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13. 1: Building knowledge “in the air”
 This is the process through which HPTM people and
HPTM businesses have been created
 “Turbulent” but “conservative” – and the role of Cosworth
perhaps stands out…
 …but the cluster as a whole has trained people and
institutional responses have emerged (e.g. NCM)
 Development of shared rules and conventions – and “an
obsessive madness about making things better in zero
time”
 We observed that:
 This process is as active today as it has been historically
 It is defining both larger and well-known companies and much
smaller and newer ones
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14. 2: Innovation and adaptation
 HPTM cluster is intrinsically innovative – both
organisationally and technologically
 “When technology is uncertain and changing quickly,
trust is really important”
 Institutional responses include testing facilities and,
latterly, the Transport Systems Catapult in MK
 Motorsport is a “valley of death asset” – always at the
prototype stage with applications always elsewhere...
 The range of applications is substantial, e.g.:
 additive manufacturing → aerospace, architecture
 computational fluid dynamics → competitive cycling,
pharmaceuticals, energy
 kinetic energy recovery systems → automotive
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15. 3: Financing, networks and growth
 Major paradoxes:
 sponsorship linked to Formula One – but Formula One teams
can be “terrible customers” – and part of the reason for
diversification is to smooth business cycles
 outside of Formula One, the “hand to mouth” existence of
smaller companies is notable – entrepreneurs starting
businesses from savings/redundancy payments and then trying
to grow them through cashflow
 apparently few/no serial investors – despite the strength of the
cluster
 Businesses that are succeeding in growing appear to be
adopting very different financing models
 Does this suggest a market failure – or a market signal?
 Institutional responses have been limited to date…
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16. 4: Local and global
 Some of the HPTM businesses are both firmly part of the
cluster whilst also strongly outward facing
 Several examples of firms which rely on exports for
>80% of their business… crucial in terms of wealth
creation for UK plc
 The labour market also has strong international
dimensions – the HPTM cluster is a magnet for those
with an interest internationally
 Institutional responses are in place – particularly through
the role of Cranfield University
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17. Conclusions – looking inside the cluster
 The HPTM cluster is a key asset… businesses within
the cluster must grow:
 Global imperative: technology and know-how with huge potential
application – particularly with emerging paradigms driven by low
carbon imperatives and big data possibilities
 Local imperative: for the area “within about 30 minutes of
Silverstone”, high value economic growth must accompany
substantial housing growth
 The HPTM cluster is “mature” in relation to M and “under
development” in relation to HPT applications
 In relation to HPT, there is a need to evolve:
 businesses – the nature of their growth ambitions and the shared
rules and conventions
 institutional responses – being careful not to conflate HPT and M
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18. Conclusions – looking more broadly
 We found – actually without looking – examples of knowledge-rich
collaborations between firms/institutions in the centre and one of the
“ends” (e.g. Cosworth, Delta/YASA, KWSP/Cambridge inkjet printing)
 What more might be possible if the transport infrastructure made this
easy rather than difficult……………
 Cranfield University has substantial expertise that should complement
the science-based spin-outs/businesses in Oxford and Cambridge
 Oxford and (to a lesser extent) Cambridge are both stretched and
struggling in terms of governance and both are surrounded by green
belt; conversely, Milton Keynes is really “up for it”
 But can a “single knowledge intensive cluster that competes on a
global stage” function without world class connectivity?
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19. 18
Contact
Christine Doel
Director
SQW
t. +44 1223 209400
e. cmdoel@sqw.co.uk
w. www.sqw.co.uk