By Ifor Ffowcs-Williams, Cluster Navigators Ltd, New Zealand, presented at the 16th TCI Global Conference, Kolding 2013.

1. Ten steps to cluster heaven
Ifor Ffowcs-Williams
Cluster Lab: Cluster facilitator’s toolbox
4 September 2013

2. Ten Steps to
Cluster Heaven
Ifor Ffowcs-Williams
New Zealand

4. Ten Steps to
Cluster Heaven

5. OR
1. Narrowly define the cluster
Identify the cluster’s hot spots

6. Cluster development…Centre Stage
Not just ‘another project’
2. Position Cluster Development
Centre Stage
A comprehensive framework for:
R&D, Technology transfer
SME development; Start-ups
Investment & talent attraction
Skills, training; workforce development
Incubators & Industry/Technology Parks
Export development, internationalisation

7. 3. Transparency in Strategy
Workshops open to all
1. Capture ‘the wisdom of crowds’
2. Broad agreement on
issues, priorities
3. Neutral meeting place
• Opportunities for side
conversations

8. 3. Transparency in Strategy
Drawing on both sides of the brain
Logic
Details
Safe
Feelings
Big picture
Risk taking

9. 4. The Right Team for Leadership
The Cluster’s Governance
• Business led; Business Chaired
• The players, not the spectators
• An aggressive self-help team
• Initially select; later elect

10. Cluster Leadership
Three key principles
1. Business in the Lead
2. Public Agencies in Support
3. Academic Underpinning

11. 5. Establish the Baseline Data
Measure change over time
What’s on your cluster’s dashboard?
• Growth in turnover, exports?
• Growth in employment? Number of Ph.D.?
• Number of firms in the cluster? Start-ups?
• Increased competitiveness?
• Measured by market share? Productivity?
• …. ?

12. 6. Listen!
• Listen carefully to the needs of your
cluster’s stakeholders.
• Understand their situation, their
opportunities, their constraints.
• Converse, don’t interrogate.
• Identify the cross-cutting themes, the
common agendas
• Respond with demand orientated services,
collaborative projects.

13. 7. Find the cluster champions
that others trust Energise others
• Find and empower your cluster’s talent.
• Ensure you are not the ‘Project Manager’
for everything.
• Avoid capture by an elite few; open the
dialogue; welcome a diversity of views.
• Keep attracting new people into the
process; deepen the pool from which
new leaders can emerge.

14. 8. The connections
It’s the links that are
important
A2A
B2B
C2C

15. 8. Building the social links
Making the connections
• Cluster development centers on active
relationships.
• Start with what requires low trust.
• Build your softpower … results come
through persuasion, not coercion.
• Build wide external networks to (1) scan
the cluster’s horizon and (2) support new
connections.

16. 8. Facilitate B2B collaboration
Cluster facilitator’s dating service
Removing the isolation of firms
Green Light
Red Light
Orange Light
A strong possibility…a
non-critical area
Not feasible…a core
competency
A later option…as trust
develops

17. 8. Build the local links
C2C: Gävle, Sweden’s cluster suitcase
The Regional
Innovation System

18. 9. Act as a disrupting
Change Agent
• Be prepared for stakeholders that are
infuriated with your activities. Keep
your flak jacket handy!
• Ride with the highs. Celebrate the
successes, the good times.
• Prepare for the lows. Setbacks are
integral to working on the edge … and a
source of learning.

19. 9. As a Change Agent,
there is no time when
you can take a rest.

20. 10. Act as a venture capitalist
Build a portfolio of activities
• Generate multiple options at the edges.
• Test new agendas that have passion;
• Don’t kill them through debate.
• Address opportunities, not problems.
• Be comfortable with knowing without
reasoning, your intuitive understanding.
• If there are no failures you are taking
it too easy. Learn by doing.

21. Cluster Managers
The gender issue
‘Boys compete;
Girls cooperate’
‘Boys like things;
Girls like people’
‘Women multi-track’

23. Ten Steps to
Cluster Heaven