Midwest firms working together to improve their competitiveness are to be used as inspiration for would-be ‘clusterers’ from across the world at an international audience in South Africa later this month.Supply Network Shannon (SNS) will join global business leaders at The Competitiveness Institute (TCI) conference in Cape Town from October 25 to November 2, where it will recount how the Midwest Region’s businesses have saved money, improved their products, generated new business and enhanced staff skills through clustering. Entitled “Clusters 2008: Meeting the Challenge of Globalisation”, the conference is intended to provide examples of successful clusters from the most advanced clustering economies in the world. The all-island Cluster Facilitators Forum – including SNS, Border Vision and the Centre for Competitiveness Clusters – will be presenting at the event.
“Clustering involves a number of companies in one sector working together on issues of mutual interest and benefit. It can add significant value in just about any business sector”, explained SNS Chairman Maurice McLernon. Mr McLernon continued, “One of the best known examples of clustering is in Silicon Valley where high technology companies came together in one area of California to create a world-leading hub of technological innovation. Another example is Hollywood, where film-makers came together and the companies themselves and the sector as a whole benefited enormously.”
“The Cluster Facilitators Forum has experience working with dozens of clusters and will draw on this experience at the conference to demonstrate how clustering is adding significant value to businesses on the island”, he added.
The TCI conference is held annually and attracts hundreds of delegates from across Africa, Europe, India and the USA. According to SNS member Dick Whelan of Midwest-based firm Almir Business Ltd, “The Cluster Facilitators Forum consists of cluster practitioners with significant experience in the key areas of collaborative networking and clustering. The partners have collective practical expertise in supporting and developing business networks and have demonstrated a sustained commitment over time to building the case for networks as a valuable means of fostering business development. In particular, the partners have a deep commitment to, and are well placed to influence the recognition, development and deployment of collaborative networking nationally and internationally.”
“This commitment has prompted the CFF to develop the innovative 3-D ClusteringTM as a facilitation model. This system includes a navigation and methodology toolkit, the Cluster Positioning SystemTM and CLAIMTM which provides the cluster facilitator with a mechanism that allows the measurement of collaborative effort and a route map for progression towards cluster sustainability”, concluded Mr. Whelan.
