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C. Clusters: a strategic tool Antoni Subirà, Institut d’Estudis Superiors de l’Empresa (IESE Business School) 1. A little history One of the areas in the European Union where cluster methodology has been systematically used for longest is Catalonia. In fact, the Catalan government’s Department of Industry and Energy of the time started to think of applying this methodology to its territory in the early 1990s, a few months before the publication of The Competitive Advantage of Nations by Professor M. Porter. The fact that this department was aware of and interested in this methodology was down to the academic relationship and friendship between two colleagues of mine at IESE, namely Professor Josep Faus and (the recently deceased) Professor Eduard Ballarín. Both of them, with doctorates from the HBS and lecturers at IESE, had known Porter for some time and were up-to-date on the work that had been the focus of his academic interest for several years, namely the reasons behind the different competitive efficiencies between some localities and others. The ideas that Porter had been developing had their origin in Alfred Marshall. Other academics, such as Professor Becattini, had also been working on this area for some time but, at that moment, it seemed clear that Porter’s focus was the most modern, most promising and least interventionist. At heart, at least at the outset, cluster theory as a whole was more aimed towards understanding the causes or sources of competitiveness than towards public intervention in industrial systems; we will return to this point later. Ballarín and Faus were the ones who gave me a draft of the bookThe Competitive Advantage of Nations, which Ballarín had received from his friend, M. Porter, asking him to comment on it. On reading it, I found it to be so interesting, so pertinent to our situation and so full of potential practical applications that I passed the draft around the top people at the department and also CIDEM, with the instruction that they should start to think about the practical applications of his methodology for Catalonia. It soon became clear that the issue of clusters needed to be promoted among those government departments concerned with economic issues: Trade and Tourism, Agriculture and, most particularly, Economy and Finance. Once again the professionalism and high academic level of Faus and Ballarín played an essential part in convincing Macià Alavedra, who commissioned them to carry out a general analysis of clusters in the Catalan economy. That initial study had two positive consequences: firstly the concept, method and name of “clusters” started to become well-known in the Catalan government as a useful, modern tool; and secondly, it helped to create a group of experts in applying cluster methodology in Catalonia. We should note here that, although the team’s core was made up of Faus and Ballarín, a brilliant young HBS graduate also joined them, called Emilià Duch, who 150 CLUSTERS AND COMPETITIVENESS: THE CASE OF CATALONIA (1993-2010)
in the coming years would set up a cluster consultancy firm that worked extensively with the department and its internal teams. E.Duch is currently one of the most prestigious international consultants in the field of clusters. 2. The concept matures But that initial study was too general and we can illustrate this with just one example. We should remember that one of the clusters identified was Tourism. An analysis more oriented towards governmental action would have indicated that at least four tourist clusters could be identified, with quite distinct characteristics, needs, interactions, clients and strategies: urban tourism (essentially for the city of Barcelona), coastal tourism (the Costa Brava and the north of Maresme), sun and sand tourism (the Costa Daurada) and mountain tourism with its winter and summer variants. The large industrial clusters identified were also too general for the Department of Industry’s needs. In spite of this, the government had already realised that clusters were useful and, at the Department of Industry, we started to create an incipient internal team under the direction of Jordi Conejos, and we hired external services to start working in more detail, especially aimed at facilitating the Department’s actions. As from this point, I will abandon my chronological account and go on to a more conceptual description. 3. Understanding the industrial system: clusters as an analytical tool Catalonia is small enough for its industry to be known in detail by everyone who holds a public post (as in the case of the senior figures, starting with myself, at the Department of Industry and Energy) or anyone who, due to academic interest, is working on this industry. Catalonia therefore resembles other countries in Europe such as Finland, Denmark, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, etc., where the ministers, heads of government and academics have an extremely detailed knowledge of their production systems. When I say “extremely detailed”, I don’t mean only, or principally, in sector statistics terms. I mean a direct knowledge of companies and their strategies, as well as their relations and the people in charge, down to truly small dimensions. This does not happen (it’s impossible) in large countries such as France, Germany, the United Kingdom or Italy, where the governments only know the large firms or company groups in such detail. We should point out that this detailed knowledge can be found at the level of “Land” in Germany, with the consequence that some Länder’s promotion policies have been as effective as those of small countries. This was what we were trying to achieve in Catalonia, which is small enough to allow for detailed knowledge. ANNEX: CLUSTERS AND COMPETITIVENESS: FLORENCE, BOSTON, BARCELONA 151
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Clusters and competitiveness: the c
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Hernández Gascón, Joan Miquel Clu
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Acknowledgements Verymanypeople,com
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Index of tables Table 1. The local
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Figure 31. Textile distribution tre
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The term “cluster” is used to r
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The last effect of the new focus, a
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Figure 11. Map of the local industr
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Figure 14. Joint work scheme of the
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Figure 16. Main competitiveness rei
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Figure 33. The change in project de
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Catalonia was a pioneer in the use
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Cluster policy, understood as a ser
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A little theory: Marshall, Becattin
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However, the proliferation of regio
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the diversity of clusters themselve
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The first step: the competitive adv
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political environment which conditi
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Figure 2. The clusters of the futur
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1. To invest in lasting long-term c
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4.1 Introduction Following the impa
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4.2 First stage: 1993-2004 4.2.1 Me
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This working method led the members
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4.2.2 A case study: the leather tan
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added to this industry’s strong d
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Figure 9. Comparison between the pr
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Within this framework, Igualada’s
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4.2.3 Some lessons More than twenty
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Finally, and with the aim of transm
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the initial stage was selected, eli
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Table 1. The local production syste
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Table 3. Relative importance of ind
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2. Analysis of the business and str
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It should be noted that, during the
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Table 4. Types of competitiveness r
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Figure 18. Basic data for the kitch
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2. Specialised firms: normally fore
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Figure 22. Main strategic challenge
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Main actions carried out in the kit
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On the one hand, this change in men
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In 2009 the Catalan government’s
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As in most regions or countries tha
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countries in the 1990s. However, th
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For this reason, one of the most re
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total in 2005 was 66.7%; in the Bas
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Table 6.Trends in value added by la
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There was a considerable amount of
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With regard to strategies, the anal
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Page 104 and 105: In terms of the positive results ac
Page 106 and 107: In 2009, after over fifteen years
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Page 110 and 111: implementing the subsequent actions
Page 112 and 113: At the same time, the Directorate G
Page 114 and 115: Cluster policy, understood as a ser
Page 116 and 117: entirely to this topic. This centre
Page 118 and 119: It hasalreadybeenmentionedthatclust
Page 120 and 121: 2. Some rationale for territorial s
Page 122 and 123: Twomainreasonsjustifythispeculiarro
Page 124 and 125: of the specific interventions to re
Page 126 and 127: Sincethesenewpoliciesarestillinthei
Page 128 and 129: 7. References Altobelli, C.andCarna
Page 130 and 131: Schmitz, H. (1999): “Collective e
Page 132 and 133: 2. Clusters as building blocks of a
Page 134 and 135: Anumberofempiricalstudieslookatallt
Page 136 and 137: and othercompaniesthatturnintoaclus
Page 138 and 139: Thelackofagenerallyaccepteddefiniti
Page 140 and 141: aswellassupportersofclusterpolicy(a
Page 142 and 143: 3.3 Implementing cluster policy to
Page 144 and 145: as a way to leverage existing agglo
Page 146 and 147: Boekholt, Patrice and Shonie McKibb
Page 148 and 149: Fritsch, Michael and Viktor Slavtch
Page 150 and 151: Porter, Michael E.: Clusters and Co
Page 154 and 155: The other characteristic of our pro
Page 156 and 157: they arenotrepresentedbyotherassoci
Page 158 and 159: • Gaining insight into a country
Page 160 and 161: Diez, M. A. (2001): “The Evaluati
Page 164: Joan Miquel Hernández Gascón (Val
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