of Photonics Technologies: the European Perspective The Leverage Effect

The Leverage Effect of Photonics Technologies: the European Perspective
ture availability of sufficiently qualified human resources is not certain.
Besides the ageing and brain drain discussed in previous sections, also
both the overall availability of highly skilled engineers and the connection
between education and business are suboptimal. The availability of
human resources can fundamentally jeopardize the functioning of companies,
especially for a high tech industry like photonics. As in all other
major high tech industries, a lack of qualified human resources and experts
can also provide problems for the photonics industry throughout
the whole value chain, especially in R&D and product development:
■ The photonics industry might experience an absolute degradation
of their business position, as the lack of skilled personnel will have
an effect on their present production processes.
■ As the photonics industry is still in its early stages, lack of highly
skilled personnel will limit innovation, leading to less competitive
products and limited participation in new markets.
In free market economies there is domestic and global competition.
Within the present economic situation, especially Asian and Latin American
countries are showing economic growth and increasingly competing
with Europe. Besides the major so-called BRIC 13 -countries others are
emerging (e.g. Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia) or already competing like
Singapore. Looking at the photonics industry, the market is highly global
and analysis shows that:
■ The need for distinctive competencies is strong. The globalisation
of the economy is further increasing, leading to a demand for product
diversification, cost reduction and other ways to distinguish the
product portfolio. This is stimulated by the present economic situation,
but the early evolutionary stage of photonic technologies provides
opportunities.
■ The growing competition of Asia and Latin America in regard to
general innovation combined with a demographic structure favourable
for employment (many young people with an increasing ratio
of well educated persons) could lead to challenges for the European
photonics industry in general.
■ The strong investments in innovation by e.g. China can be a major
threat to the competitive edge of the European photonics industry
and investments in innovation are needed to address this.
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Brazil, Russia, India and China
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