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TCI Newsletter April 2010
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Message of the President
Dear TCI friends,
These words begin this time with an unconventional topic not directly related to clusters, but somewhat to competitiveness and chance.
Like millions of other people last weekend I suffered the consequences of what the Lebanese writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls "a black swan" - in this case a volcano eruption in Iceland and its extraordinary consequences for air traffic in Europe and worldwide. In the end, this major new episode in the history of air travel did not result from a terrorist attack, nor from an industry-wide strike, but from a natural phenomenon that occurred in a remote place with an unpronounceable name. Nobody could have foreseen these events.
Nevertheless, this event has changed, even if temporarily, the lives and the ways of doing business for many people, who used to consider almost every destination in Europe handily available, taking advantage of the positive effects of globalization. Having experienced the flight chaos personally, I believe that it was a fantastic occasion to reflect uncertainty and chance, an often forgotten element present in the full version of Porter's diamond. Despite this obliviousness to the power of contingency, coincidence can sometimes play a fundamental role in business and consequently in cluster development to some measure.
Trapped in my parents' home in a small town of Northern Italy, I spent the weekend in the Internet trying to find an imaginative solution on how to get to home in Barcelona. During a brief pause from this exhausting task, at a certain point I came to an old book containing a collection of works of an Italian poet, Giacomo Leopardi. Among them I found a brief tale with a very appropriate title for the circumstances Dialogo della Natura e di un Islandese (Dialogue between nature and an Icelander). The brief story, written in peculiar 19th century Italian, tells about a man who emigrated from his native island in order to run away from its harsh environment. At the end of the day, the man suffered faraway from his native island the wrath of the very same nature that he was trying to escape.
I believe that globalization brings a lot of good things and, in general, I am in favour of it. However, the episode which occurred last weekend should make us think over the fragility and the weaknesses of some of the business models built on the factors we normally advice for improving competitiveness, such as more extensive use of technology and internationalization. Of course I do not advocate protectionism, but I would like to reflect the importance of another element often forgotten in business - flexibility. Imagine how much better the transportation situation would have been if somebody had been able to set up the most common system of road transportation we normally find in most African cities: shared taxi organized a la carte (or, just in time, but in this case I prefer this French expression), to solve, at least partially, the problem.
By contrast, as far as I know, no airline offered alternative ground connections to unfortunate passengers even when the distance was relatively short. The reasons are no doubt logical and important, but the industry shows lack of flexibility and, sometimes, imagination in the modern way of doing business. I leave further reflection on the issue for TCI members and our readers.
Alberto Pezzi
TCI President
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Asia Competitiveness Forum, to be held on 28-29 April 2010 at New Delhi, has been postponed as a consequence of the global airtravel disruption by forces of nature. The forum is merged with the 13th TCI Annual Global Conference which will be be held at New Delhi over 29th Nov to 3rd Dec, 2010.
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"Clusters: Business and regional development opportunities for Latin America". This business-oriented conference will include different activities with the aim of enabling peer-to-peer interaction and pre-scheduled networking meetings, open discussions and exchange of experiences and methodologies. Register now at www.clusterlatinoamerica2010.com and benefit from the special discount for TCI members 2010.
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5CLAC conference is characterized by its business-orientation. It gives you the opportunity to interact with your colleagues to identify potential business partners, create networks, share knowledge and make valuable synergies for interesting cluster projects in Latin America.
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We present some of the insights from the conference held in Dominican Republic. Delegates and speakers were convinced that tourism is a most valuable source of wealth and prosperity; the challenge is to make it more competitive while keeping it environmentally and socially sustainable.
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Dr. Alexander Bode of Hessenmentall Cluster-Initiative has written a summary of the conference held last weekend in Darmstadt, Germany under the patronage of the TCI German Contact Point. Delegates delved into issues such as how to create benefits in clusters and what challenges making a successful cluster entails.
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JanErik Odhe from Steel & Engineering cluster in Värmland, Sweden has contributed this best practice case on how to create concrete benefits for companies through cooperation at a business fair. Through this initiative cluster companies have steadily built up relationships with each other, which has led to better business between themselves as well as with new customers.
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In this best practice case from Harinder Jeet Singh of CII-LM Thapar Centre for Competitiveness for SMEs, he introduces how his organization helps Indian SMEs to develop. The key is to benchmark various metrics along the way, and introduce a culture of improvement through peer learning. With their help, CII and its cluster members can follow how development is taking place and bring value for money.
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Dr. Stephanie Konle from BioRN Cluster Management GmbH presents their cluster management tool, a web-based and scalable solution to provide clusters or single companies an easy-to-use application for the management of complex research projects. The suite focuses on the core needs of the different project partners: scientists, project managers, finance controllers and cluster managers.
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Dr. Gerd Meier zu Köcker has contributed a recent report from a seminar held in Berlin on 14-15 December 2009. It looks at topics such as cluster benchmarking, assessment and good cluster management.
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The Center for Strategy and Competitiveness has launched a new video series "ON CLUSTERS" in cooperation with the European Cluster Observatory. Hosted by Professor Örjan Sölvell, the series features several TCI members.
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Professionals working with management of cluster-based programmes are offered two cluster schools this summer; one in Spain and another in India.
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Every active TCI member is encouraged to join, get in touch with each other and expand their contact base. The purpose of the group is to offer a supplementary forum for open discussions, questions and information sharing.
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We welcome the new TCI organizational member Clusterland Upper Austria. Thank you for your support to TCI Network!
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Renew your commitment to TCI and keep in touch with the leading competitiveness, clusters and innovation practitioners around the world. Take advantage of your benefits as TCI member.
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