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Building Innovation Superclusters

Around the world, Innovation Superclusters are on the rise. But what, exactly, are Innovation Superclusters and why do they matter?  

INNOVATION SUPERCLUSTERS IN SIX POINTS

While often misunderstood due to various policies, structures, funding models, strategies and capabilities, we find that Clusters and increasingly Innovation Superclusters can be identified and understood through six key points.  A Cluster initiative on Taiwan, in Korea or the Thai Supercluster program, will be different in context, industry need, and government program, but the six principles are equally valid across geographies and culture.  

1. Engines of Growth

Successful Innovation Supercluster is first and foremost Engines of economic growth, by connecting 100’s of members and partners. From a policy- and GDP-development point of view, Clusters are expected to produce value that far exceeds the national averages across all industries.  

2. Collaboration Networks

Second, Superclusters are immense collaboration networks built around the industries of the future. These clusters exist to build out larger, more connected networks around future key industries. By pulling together industry executives, academics, investors, startups and government leaders, the Superclusters aims to build close and personal ties across domains, roles, hierarchies, and traditional silos.  

3. Private-Public Partnerships

Third, Superclusters ae large-scale private-public partnerships, developed by design. While they do require certain foundational capabilities in terms of local industry, local talent and local investors, it is really the co-development of private and public partners that make the cluster initiative a success.  

4. Trust-based

Forth, Superclusters are trust-based collaboration platforms. While the level of trust and preferred route to develop trust may vary, the essence is that industry leaders, researchers, startups and other members in the cluster should work to create trust across the entire cluster base. This translates into collaborating on projects, sharing research data, pool company data into cluster collaboration projects (Seafood industry sharing fish health data for machine learning development).  

5. Solution Creators

Fifth, great clusters are solving industry-level challenges & opportunities. Think, open innovation across a close community of stakeholders. Using our open innovation software platform, clusters can identify industry-wide challenges, challenges that then can be addressed by the cluster through joint innovation projects or innovation working groups. Over time, Superclusters should be able to take on and solve “challenges that are too big for anyone of us”, in the words of an industry CEO.  

6. Magnets

Finally, strong Superclusters become magnets. Think of magnets that attract talent, capital, researchers, and companies into the region and cluster membership base. In Canada, the Digital Supercluster is already seeing a growing number of corporates and startups relocating into the greater Vancouver region to be a part of the rapidly developing Digital Supercluster. 

PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER

We are seeing a rising interest in and understanding of building a new breed of Innovation Clusters. Governments from Canada to Thailand already have Supercluster programs in place. The EU, the Nordics, South-East Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East are all in various stages of exploring their own Supercluster Initiatives.  

Whatever model and policy they may choose, they will all need to follow the six principles listed here to Build Successful Innovation Superclusters.  

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Building Transformational Capacity Through Experiential Learning

Five years ago we attended our first Drucker Forum, aptly titled The Great Transformation. Little did we know at the time that the experiences from the Forum would result in the creation of Transform! a powerful experiential learning simulation, potentially changing how we teach, train and build deep transformational capacities.  

OSLO, NOVEMBER 13, 2019

“No, that could never happen”, shouted one of the participants.
“Well, actually it could”, sighted her CFO teammate.  

The pair, acting as management of case company Rail1 – a European railway operator, was just getting acquired.  

“We have partnered with Juppz, secured a 500M funding structure, and can now execute a hostile take-over”, said the deal manager, CFO of Flight – the electric scooter company, as he officially announced the deal to the table. Working closely with the ride-sharing company Juppz, Flight was now implementing its innovation strategy; having recently shifted from a collaborative partner-approach to the more aggressively buy-strategy.  

Having previously acquired CarWagon; Rail1 had built a broad business model portfolio beyond its legacy core business of operating trains in Europe, secured financing for new ventures and hit a 23,3BN market cap, all on its way to transform into a mobility winner of the future.  

Collectively, the four companies were battling it out in a highly competitive mobility arena. Their mission: transform a legacy company stuck with two low-margin business models into a thriving company with a healthy mix of business models across the Core-Growth-Explore framework. At the same time, build an innovation strategy, secure financing, lay a transformation roadmap, deal with Booms and Busts, all while making 100’s of micro-decisions effectively replacing any well-planned strategy with split-second decisions. What could possibly go wrong?  

TEACHING SMART PEOPLE HOW TO LEARN

The group, a part of Open Innovation Lab Norway, was running Transform! a highly engaging learning simulation, designed to help people learn how to build transformational companies and execute successful transformation strategies. Transform! is built on the research and development work by Christian Rangen and the team at Engage // Innovate and Strategy Tools.  

Built on top of eight visual strategy tools, Transform! is designed to be a learning and development simulation to teach people and companies how to build transformational capacities. In essence, it aims to solve the problem of teaching smart people how to learn and develop a stronger absorptive capacity in light of ever-faster industry shifts.  

LEARNING THROUGH SIMULATION

Inspired by the work of Swedish Professors Johan Roos (Lego Serious Play) and Karl Erik Sveiby, coupled with the latest thinking in strategy from Rita McGrath, Scott D. Anthony, Roger L. Martin, Henry Chesbrough, Alex Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Gary Hamel and Clay Christensen, the Transform! simulation is designed to be a highly engaging and powerful learning experience.  

By combining new strategy thinking, new visual strategy tools, and a table-based, role-based simulation, the participants combine a number of different learning elements into a single multi-faceted learning experience. 

Having run close to 85 sessions across three different simulators over the past eleven months, it has become clear to us exactly how powerful the power of simulation-based learning can be. From Board members, CEOs, Policymakers, Professors, innovation agencies; every single participant quickly get absorbed into the competitive dynamics of strategy simulation. Designed to transfer new learning, new tools, and a new strategy mindset, the simulation teaches strategy, innovation, transformation, finance, corporate venturing, decision-making and mental models in one single session. “The Transform simulation helped us explore and uncover some big strategic mental models to our company, said one Danish CFO we worked with on a large scale transformation strategy.   

THE TRANSFORMATION GAP

“On average, 2,3, maybe” summarized one of the participants in Oslo. 
The group of eight has just answered the two key questions. 
“Over the next ten years, how significant a transformation will we require?” 
As a group, they averaged 7,9 out of 10, with executives from larger firms tending towards 9 and 10.  

The follow-up question, however, got a different response. 
On “how ready are we for this transformation?” the group barely scored 2,3 out of 10. A number that drew a loud sigh from the participants.  

“What does this mean”, I asked.
“It’s the transformation gap”, came the instant reply from the corporate innovation manager. 
“It is the massive gap between our aspirations, our intellectual need for transformation in light of external industry shifts, and our internal ability, our capability to actually do it”, she continued, to the active nodding of several of her group members, and a not too concealed tone of frustration in her voice.   

The Transformation Gap. The gap between our fully understood need for large-scale transformation vs. our ability, our organizational capacity for transformation. We find the Transformation Gap virtually everywhere we go. In fact, it has been a passion, a driver and a source of deep motivation for us over the past seven years, trying to better understand this gap. Is has fueled questions, conversations, and research across countries, industries and organizational hierarchies.  

Today, with the first year of Transform! experiences behind us, we believe hands-on experiential learning can significantly close this Transformation Gap. The a-ha moments, the deep individual reflections, the new tools, the group-wide insights, and new collective thinking absorbed through the gamification mode and the many new conversations that start during a simulation, only to carry over into real-life company context all combine into building company-wide transformational capacities. 

BACK TO VIENNA

Professor Rita McGrath once said, “We are working with outdated tools & assumptions”. Referring to how most companies work on strategy, McGrath asks if companies are set up to work, successfully on strategy in the light of a new strategy paradigm.  

We share McGrath’s concern. From energy, mobility, technology, finance, healthcare, we see industries shift into arenas and companies facing a brand new strategy landscape. Traditional strategic thinking is no longer sufficient. Competing on transformation will be the new rally cry.  

The conversations that started at the Drucker Forum in 2014 still resonates, perhaps as important and relevant as ever. The insights and inspiration we gained in 2014 have fueled new strategy tools, insights and transformation programs. Now, as we prepare to depart for Vienna yet again, we look forward to a new set of conversations, this time on how companies can master new ecosystems and continue to accelerate their transformation.

Surely, we will need it. 

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Cluster Leadership? Look to China

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Clusters of Change – Europe’s First Cluster Accelerator Program – An Interview with Bianca Dragomir

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Lego Serious Play and Strategy: An Interview with Co-Inventor Johan Roos

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10 Punkter for Kapital i Klynger

Av Christian Rangen
Founder, CEO at Engage // Innovate & Strategy Tools – the Modern Strategist’s Toolkit

Investorkapital, business angels & corporate venture avdelinger; stadig flere klynger begynner arbeidet med kapital. Men hvordan skal egentlig en klynge gå frem for å utvikle sin kapitalstrategi?

De siste fire årene har vi jobbet tett med klynger, klyngeledere og nasjonale klyngeprogram. De fleste av disse er solid forankret i Triple Helix logikken; bedrifter i nettverk må kobles mot forskningsdreven innovasjon, støttet av offentlige myndigheter. Dette var den opprinnelige ideen bak Triple Helix på tidlig 1990-tallet.

Men, verden forandres.

Stadig raskere global innovasjon, flere digitale forretningsmodeller og et stort antall velfinansierte vekstbedrifter gjør nå at både bedrifter og klynger beveger seg bort fra Triple Helix til fem-punkt, eller Pentagon modellen. Plutselig sitter klynger med entreprenørskap, akseleratorer, børs-noteringer og privat kapital på kartet. Hos stadig flere klynger dukker nå spørsmålet opp, hva gjør vi med kapital?

Det siste året har vi jobbet tett med flere klynger for å besvare nettopp dette spørsmålet. Hva bør være klyngens kapitalstrategi?

Fra Solklyngen i øst til havklyngene i vest, fra reiseliv til internasjonale drone, mobilitet og fintech klynger har vi nå gjort erfaringer, observasjoner og sett klyngenes kapitalstrategi utvikle seg i praksis.

Vi har nå samlet disse erfaringene i ti punkter for klyngens kapitalstrategi. Vi tror disse er like anvendbare i Bilbao og Bergen, eller Zagreb og Sandefjord. Hver innovasjonsklynge, stor eller liten, må finne sin kapitalstrategi, men her er våre ti punkter.

1.     Styret

Velg en ansvarlig for kapitalområdet i styret. Dette kan gjerne være en kapitalaktør (investor, fond) som velges inn med det mandatet.

Uten forankring og kompetanse på plass i styret kan man nesten bare la være å starte arbeidet i organisasjonen.

Vår observasjon er veldig få klynger har definert kapital som et eget område for styret og få av styrets medlemmer er kjent med at dette er viktig for klyngens utvikling.

2.   Ledelsen

Daglig Leder har et overordnet ansvar for utvikling og implementeringav kapitalstrategi, men er ikke pålagt å ha inngående teknisk kunnskap.

Daglig leder må derimot ha god kjennskap til medlemmenes behov og ønsker knyttet til kapital.

I flere av klyngene vi har jobbet med, har Daglig leder ikke vært i forklare relevans, behov eller betydning for klyngens medlemmer (Se også punkt 5)

3.    Investor Relations Manager

Utvikle rollen «Investor Relations Manager» (IRM). Dette kan være en deltid (%) eller fulltidsstilling. IRM må ha hands-on erfaring med tidlig-fase investeringer, venture fond og vekstkapital. Dette betyr blant annet at en tradisjonell bankleder neppe er riktig profil.

Ideelt er dette en person med flere års erfaringer med tidlig-fase investeringer, bredt kjennskap til investorlandskapet i sin del av verden (Europa, Sør-Øst Asia, Latin-Amerika) og selv deltatt i etablering og drift av venture fond.

Litt for ofte ser vi rollen som IRM fylles av personer med ingen faglige kvalifikasjoner eller relevant erfaring. Da blir også resultatet deretter.

4.   Innovasjonsgruppe

Utvikle en dedikert Innovasjonsgruppe på kapital-området. Denne ledes av IRM, men består av gründere, investorer, venture fond, business angels og etablerte bedrifter.

Innovasjonsgruppen kan være aktiv i de neste punktene.

5.    Kartlegg

Kartlegg dagens kapitaløkosystem for klyngen, enten det gjelder digital helse, Havbruk eller Fintech. Det vil være ulike investorer som dukker opp med ulike mandat og investeringsområder. Sørg for å forstå ikke bare hvem de er, men også deres investeringsmandat, historiske track record og aktive portefølje.

Start med lokale investorer, men kartlegg ut av egen region og eget land. Det er åpenbare investorer som kan kobles på fra land som Tyskland, Japan og USA.

Kartlegg disse inn i et strukturert format og verktøy. Benytt gjerne Kapitalstrategikartet (finnes også i skybasert digital løsning).

 

6. Kartlegg kapitalbehov i klyngen

Kartlegg medlemmene i klyngen, i forhold til deres modenhet og kapitalbehov.

Kartlegging bør avdekke hvor stort kapitalbehovet hos medlemmene er, samlet sett, over en periode på 18 – 24 måneder.

Bruk gjerne Klyngens Medlemmer til å bistå denne kartleggingen.

Erfaringer fra slike kartlegginger er meget positive.

I de tre siste gjennomføringene vi har deltatt i, har det blitt avdekket et kapitalbehov blant klyngens medlemmer på mange hundre millioner kroner; et behov som var nærmest ukjent for klyngeledelsen.

 

7.   Utvikle en Kapitalstrategi

Når informasjonsgrunnlaget er på plass (punkt 5 og 6), jobb med flere stakeholdere (Styret, Innovasjonsgruppen) for å utvikle en konkret og målbar Kapitalstrategi.

Denne bør inneholde et langsiktig målbilde og konkrete steg på veien med KPI’er på år 1, år 3, år 5 og år 10.

Bruk gjerne Klyngens Kapitalstrategi som et utgangspunkt.

8.   Kompetanseløft (felles)

Lanser kompetanseprogram for alle medlemmene i klyngen, samt viktige samarbeidspartnere.

Et slikt kompetanseprogram kan gjerne strekke seg over ulike nivå og mot ulike målgrupper. Et forslag kan være:

  • Grunnleggende Kompetanse for kapital i klynger (1/2 dag)
  • Investorkapital i klynger (2 dager)
  • Engelinvestor i klyngen (1 + 1 + 1 dager)
  • Startups: Investor Readiness Level? (1+1+1+1 dager)
  • Corporate Venture Capital (2 dager)

Disse kan kjøres lokalt, med få eller mange deltakere.

For «Advanced users», vil vi kanskje anbefale

  • VC unlocked (fem dagers kurs, USA, Asia)
  • Executive Venture Capital (fem dagers kurs, USA)

 

9.   Start med de store bedriftenes behov

Dette er ikke et åpenbart punkt for mange klynger, men vi tror det kan være et helt sentralt suksesskriterie.

Ved å kartlegge de store bedriftene, klyngens medlemmers, behov, kan klyngen identifisere strategiske investeringsområder (investments areas) og deretter utvikle særskilte investeringsprogram rundt disse.

Strategiverktøyet, Klyngens Startup Porteføjle kan være et bra utgangspunkt (finnes også i skybasert digital løsning).

Dette arbeidet, med å utvikle klyngens portefølje av oppstartsbedrifter, er forbeholdt veletablerte klynger, da det krever både innsikt, kompetanse og ressurser. For de klyngene som har kommet skikkelig i gang, ser vi allerede et veldig godt resultat av arbeidet.

10. Aktivitetsplan (felles)

Etabler en 18 måneders handling- og aktivitetsplan.

Velg ut noen få områder. Prioriter bort de andre.

Tenk partnerskap, samarbeid og utvikling sammen med andre.

Inngå partnerskap med internasjonale akseleratorer, utvikle program sammen med andre klynger og ikke minst, lytt til hva investorene i klyngen din ønsker seg.

Evaluer og juster underveis.

Først og fremst; Quick Wins

For klynger og kapital er det mye som skal løftes. For de fleste er dette et helt nytt område. Begynn med små seire. Sikt inn på noen raske suksesshistorier. Det er bedre å bidra til 1 million til ett selskap nå, fremfor 100 million om 15 måneder. Jobb frem et lite antall startups og scale-ups som er investment ready. Hjelp dem bygge investor syndikat (grupper), og dra emisjonen i havn.

For både fremvoksende, vekst- og superklynger vil kapital være en viktig del av strategiarbeidet fremover. Spørsmålet er bare hvor og hvordan man ønsker å starte.

___________________

Strategiverktøyene i denne artikkelen kan lastes ned på norsk – gratis – på www.strategytools.io.

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Leadership in the Age of Innovation Superclusters

Leading up to the 2019 Drucker Forum we will be exploring leadership, strategy and policy in and around Innovation Superclusters. This is the first publication. Next, Building Innovation Superclusters (the report) is out mid-June.

The world is learning to innovate faster. Companies are increasingly looking to collaborate across ecosystems, networks and innovation clusters. Visionary governments are trying to build future growth industries and national innovation superclusters. But what do these shifts mean to leaders in these innovation superclusters? How do cluster leaders lead in the age of Innovation Superclusters?

By: Christian Rangen, Founder, CEO Engage // Innovate, & Strategy Tools, business school faculty @chrisrangen    
Design by: Jolene Foo-Hodne, CMO, Engage // Innovate, VP Design, Co-Founder, Strategy Tools

 

Over the past four years we have had a chance to work closely with policymakers, visionary governments, national transformation leaders and innovation cluster leaders in Asia, Europe and the Nordics. Our work has taken us to Prime Ministers, remote cluster outposts and inside more than 40 innovation clusters, all intent on building new industries for the future. While the underlying principle of an innovation cluster largely remains the same, there is a small, but growing category of larger, stronger, globally-oriented clusters. We call them Innovation Superclusters.

In this article we explore the leadership traits and behaviors we have identified in interviews, observations and in-depth conversations with formal and informal cluster leaders across countries and industries.

This article is taken from the upcoming book, Innovation Superclusters – a New Playbook for Economic Growth – due late 2020.

“The leader is a networker”

Merete Daniel Nielsen was firm in her statement. “the leader is a networker”. We were halfway into our conversation with Merete, as she repeated the statement. Merete, President of the global cluster network, TCI, and co-founder of Danish Cluster Excellence Denmark, has observed cluster leadership for over a decade.  Working across the Danish and global cluster landscape, Merete has had a front row seat to the development over the past decade.

The leader, in any cluster, today, is first and foremost a networker, a facilitator and an influencer. Merete’s statement completely echoes our findings in interviews and observations.

As we shift from a company-based leadership perspective to a cluster-based leadership perspective, a fundamental shift occurs. The leader no longer holds the formal role of leadership, with its traits, perks and formal decision-making authority. Instead, networked, influencing and shaping becomes key traits. These findings also go far beyond the notion of servant leadership and challenge us to rethink how we describe leadership at the ecosystem and cluster level.

 

“Cluster leadership is nothing like ordinary leadership”

Arild sighed, with a big smile. As a long-time IBM sales manager, he had grown his leadership skills within IBM’s Big Data Analytics unit. With a deep passion for the intersection of technology, society and healthcare, Arild had found a unique opportunity to build and lead the emerging cluster, Norwegian Smart Care Cluster. Under Arild’ s leadership, the cluster had grown from a handful of companies and academically minded research projects, to an internationally-oriented growth cluster with over 120 members and active business development projects in Europe and North America.

A thriving startup community, a growing investor network, successful market entry collaborations and the Norwegian Smart Care Lab were some of the early wins for the cluster.

But one thing was clear in observing the rise of the smart care innovation cluster; leading and building an innovation cluster across sectors, domains and stakeholder groups was nothing like traditional leadership in action.

Network, influence and a razor-sharp member-focus were suddenly key drivers and key leadership traits for Arild and his team. (Initially, most members don’t know what an innovation cluster is, or how they can benefit from it, so building a new innovation cluster from the ground up is a little bit like Henry Ford’s statement about customers and horses….)

 

 

From Five to Eight Leadership Levels

Long-time faculty and leadership expert Morten Emil Berg at BI Norwegian Business School is a national brand in the field of leadership. His books, easily accessible and focused on the reader (i.e. the leader), not fellow researchers, have underpinned the leadership development and training of thousands and thousands of Nordic leaders over the past twenty years.

Central in Berg’s writing is the five levels of leadership. Berg defines this as:

Visionary – the leader as shaper of the long-term vision, mission and key cultural pillars of the company and its narrative internally and externally.

Strategic – the leader as a strategist, thinking ahead, seeing strategic moves, disruptive industry changes and building new transformational business models for the future.

Administrative – the leader’s role in building processes, workflows, administrative systems and internal policies.

Operational – the leader as a coach, people developer and manager

Self-Leadership – the leader’s ability to lead herself, manage time, handle pressure, use positive language and deal with self-weaknesses.

Building on Berg’s framework, we find leaders in Innovation Clusters work across not five, but eight levels of leadership.

The Eight Levels of Supercluster Leadership

 

 

VISIONARY

The leader must build a large coalition of industry leaders, government leaders, politicians, ecosystem builders and unite them around a strong vision for the cluster. With the distributed decision making across cluster landscapes, the leader has to build a massively compelling vision to a large number of different stakeholders, all with different needs, wants and agenda.

The visionary cluster leader will be able to unite these behind shared ambitions and shared problems they are trying to solve, problems that can only be solved by working together.

NETWORKED

In our research, we find all successful cluster leaders to emphasize the importance of the network and having access to the right networks. Either directly, or through their key stakeholders (often, the Board of Directors at the cluster level), the leader fully recognized the critical importance of working in and across personal networks to build and scale the cluster.

A great cluster leader will focus on building and expanding her personal network to cover both cluster members, policy makers, international partners, investment community, accelerators, national innovation agencies and a number of organizational entities far outside the bounds of the cluster’s operational membership.

The Chairman of an emerging global energy Supercluster spent the first six months of his role working in and across his personal network, rekindling relationships, connecting with fellow industry chairmen and CEOs to build interest and support for the emerging Innovation Supercluster.

STRATEGIC

“A good cluster leader has to be strategic – always”. The statement came from the CEO of one of Norway’s largest innovation clusters. The cluster had a roadmap to 2050, with a target to 5X the industry’s value impact. To achieve this mission, the CEO knew that strategic thinking, sensing the landscape across the entire industry, from CEOs, policymakers, educators, researchers, startups, investors, corporate innovators and regulators was of the outmost importance.

But with limited organizational resources, staff and funding, a cluster CEO will always struggle with the balance between short-term and long-term focus. In our research, we generally find that most cluster CEOs easily get sucked into a busy, operational role, neglecting or at least struggling with the strategic leadership role. This is a fundamental challenge that must be addressed by boards and national cluster programs.

A great cluster will develop a bottom-up long-term strategy, define strategic areas and targets, future business models (critical), KPIs, roadmaps and a culture of execution at all levels.

 

INFLUENTIAL

How strong influence does the cluster leader have in her network? With hundreds of members, many of them industry CEOs, Professor and policymakers, the leadership role changes fundamentally from “boss” to “influencer”. Soft power, diplomacy, nudging and invisible influence can be far more important than any formal decision making.

In our research, we found that few cluster leaders were fully aware of this area, acting rather like they were operating within formal, hierarchical leadership structures. Our findings are very clear; they don’t.

ADMINISTRATIVE

Fully in line with Berg’s writings, we find that the administrative leadership tasks simply “must get done” within the innovation clusters. Most leaders struggle through this, experiencing an overload of reporting, systems and reviews, often caused by the financing and requirements by the national cluster programs. Surprisingly, a number of cluster leaders do not use the administrative supporting tools and reporting platforms, designed to ease their job.

MEMBER-FOCUSED

“We work to serve our members”, is a common statement found in our interviews. While this is obviously true, it is also a dangerous trap to fall into. If the cluster leader overly spends his time and resources on serving the existing cluster members, he is unlikely to achieve the larger, strategic goals of the cluster.

 

A successful innovation supercluster will have hundreds of members, spread across capital, entrepreneurship, academia, industry and government. Any leader, too member focused, will easily be running himself to the ground trying to please everyone.

 

The right Supercluster leader will focus on the architecture and structure, building an organization that can serve the members, not trying to do everything himself. This proves to be a challenge, as few clusters have a professional organizational model in place and understood across its key stakeholders.

Working closely with the Norwegian Innovation Cluster Program, we have developed Supercluster Structure 2.0, as a visual strategy tool to help innovation clusters design better cluster organizations.

Supercluster Structure 2.0 – get it at www.strategytools.io

 

OPERATIONAL

In traditional companies, business units, departments and teams, people are organized in a hierarchical and largely formal manner. We expect to find mostly full-time employees and clear manager-employee relationships.

This is not the case in most innovation clusters.

On average, an innovation cluster will often have a CEO and 3-4 employees.
In our data set, the range is from 0 FTE to 45, with a single outlier with 85 employees.
With our definition of EC (Emerging Clusters), GC (Growth Clusters) and SC (Superclusters) we generally find 10 – 45 people in the Supercluster segments.

But, we find that most cluster leaders lead, organize and mange a large number of employees, interim staff, interns, part-time project managers, working groups, special projects, research initiatives and business development groups.

While the number of formal employees tend to be small, the number of people and staff that fall under the operational management is large, and in some cases very large. This creates highly complex leadership structures and challenges.

In our interviews, we find a clear and repeatable pattern that management has clearly shifted from hierarchies to managing ecosystems. Our observation is clearly, for clusters, the age of traditional hierarchical leadership is over.

Yet, few cluster leaders have the tools, training or deep understanding of how to navigate and succeed in this new world.

SELF-LEADERSHIP

The importance of self-leadership has been on the rise since the 1980’s. The ability to set goals, focus on personal performance, strengths-based development, self-imposed positive psychology in practice and a positive developmental belief system are all key pillars of self-leadership.

They also echo many of the criteria cluster leaders mention in their own talks about leadership and leadership challenges in clusters.

Many cluster leaders describe a situation where they mostly work alone, have to set their own goals and targets. They describe a situation of both being busy, but at the same time experiencing a sensation of everything taking much longer than expected. Despite having a large number of members, stakeholders and board members, most describe a sensation of “working alone”.

These findings fall in the category of self-leadership, or rather leaders applying self-leadership to navigate their new leadership paradigms.

 

Assessing Your Leadership in Innovation Superclusters

Based on our early findings and the shift from five to eight leadership levels, we have developed the Cluster Leadership Map (1.0). It is now being applied to leadership development, coaching and training of leaders in clusters and ecosystems.

The Cluster Leadership Map – get it at www.strategytools.io

The tool allows cluster leaders, clusters or even national cluster programs to assess, measure and develop stronger cluster leadership.

Recently introduced to a cohort of new cluster managers, the tool is showing strong signs of being both relevant and powerful to help innovation clusters and ecosystems evolving better leaders.

 

Moving Towards an Emerging Understanding of Cluster Leadership

In our work we have been privileged to gain access to board rooms, national transformation leaders, cluster leaders, academics and well-respected industry CEO’s. Through observations, surveys, interviews, conversations and reflections, we continuously attempt to make sense of new social structures. We believe a growing number of countries will move towards building innovation superclusters and national cluster programs. But we are also aware that the overall understanding of key leadership traits in these cluster structures is generally low to non-existing. Rather, a traditional, top-down, hierarchical mindset is applied to what fundamentally requires a new perspective on leadership.

In our work, and in collaboration with leading academics and experts in the field, from California to Copenhagen, from Singapore to Vienna, we hope to contribute to an emerging understanding how we develop a generation of new leaders, leaders that naturally thrive and succeed in the age of ecosystems, networks and Innovation Superclusters.

As we move closer to the 11th Global Peter Drucker Forum we invite you to join the conversation and explore the rapidly evolving leadership challenges across ecosystems, networks and Innovation Superclusters. These topics will be covered in depth at the Forum this coming November.

Building Innovation Superclusters – the report (Mid-June 2019)

This article draws inspiration from the upcoming report, Building Innovation Superclusters.
Sign up at www.engage-innovate.com/reports for special preview to the upcoming report on how to build Innovation Superclusters.

The Book – Innovation Superclusters – a New Playbook for Economic Growth (late 2020)

This article is taken from the upcoming book, Innovation Superclusters – a New Playbook for Economic Growth – due late 2020
Register your interest and sign up for special early access at www.engage-innovate.com/books/innovation-superclusters

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Engage // Innovate Expands to Latin America

Due to a growing interest and need to change how Strategy and Innovation programs are conducted, Engage // Innovate is expanding its global footprint by opening operations in Latin America. Under the leadership of Roberto Chaverri, the global Strategy & Innovation consulting company will serve an increasing number of clients across the region.

“Latin America is a diverse region with fast growing economies, successful local and regional enterprises and a strong emerging innovation ecosystem. Our belief in the region’s potential makes our expansion to Latin America a natural step for us,” says co-founder, Christian Rangen.

According to the The Global Competitiveness Index by the World Economic Forum and The Global Innovation Index by WIPO, there are only two Latin America countries within the top 55 in both Rankings, Chile (33, 47) and Costa Rica (47, 54).

“Latin America remains one of the most promising regions in the world, but at the same time, it continues to lag in terms of competitiveness and innovation,” says Roberto Chaverri.

“What we strive with Engage // Innovate‘s presence in Latin America is to support the entire business ecosystem by engaging with all its members (corporations, entrepreneurs, academia, capital markets and government) and providing them with a new framework and tools that can leverage the existing capabilities while learning from the best practices of regions and countries like the Nordics, Switzerland or Malaysia,” added Chaverri.

“We are very excited to have Roberto joining us and leading the build-up of our client base in this exciting region. His deep knowledge of the challenges and opportunities organizations face in operating in a dynamic but complex region, is quite important for us.” says Rangen.

Roberto Chaverri brings more than 15 years of experience as a Senior Executive in multinational companies such as The Clorox Company, British American Tobacco, The Coca-Cola Company and leading regional ones like Dos Pinos and Ingenio Magdalena. Most recently he has been working as an independent Consultant both in Germany and Costa Rica, where he will be residing after 7 years living abroad.

“In Engage // Innovate we believe that serving our clients requires a local understanding as well as a global perspective. With Roberto on our team, we will be able to serve our clients with such a mindset.” added Rangen.

“Due to its strategic location, we have selected Costa Rica as our Latin America base, out of which we will be coordinating the entire region”, concluded Christian Rangen.

To engage our services or explore a partnership with Engage // Innovate in Latin America, please email Mr. Chaverri at roberto@engage-innovate.com.

ENGAGE // INNOVATE INICIA OPERACIONES EN AMÉRICA LATINA

Debido al creciente interés y la necesidad de cambiar la forma en que se llevan a cabo los programas de estrategia e innovación, Engage // Innovate está expandiendo su presencia global al abrir operaciones en América Latina. Bajo el liderazgo de Roberto Chaverri, la compañía global de consultoría de estrategia e innovación atenderá a un número creciente de clientes en toda la región.

“América Latina es una región diversa con economías de rápido crecimiento, empresas locales y regionales exitosas, y emergentes ecosistemas de innovación. Nuestra convicción del potencial de la región hace que nuestra expansión a América Latina sea un paso muy natural para nosotros “, dice el fundador de la consultora noruega, Christian Rangen.

De acuerdo con el Índice de Competitividad Global del Foro Económico Mundial y el Índice de Innovación Global de la OMPI, de América Latina sólo dos países se ubican en el top 55 de ambos rankings, Chile (33, 47) y Costa Rica (47, 54).

“América Latina sigue siendo una de las regiones más prometedoras del mundo, pero al mismo tiempo, sigue rezagada en términos de competitividad e innovación.”, dice Roberto Chaverri.

“Con la presencia de Engage // Innovate en América Latina buscamos proveer a todos los participantes del ecosistema de negocios (corporaciones, empresarios, instituciones académicas, mercados de capital y gobierno) de un enfoque novedoso en cómo hacer estrategia y desarrollar programas de innovación, así como de herramientas prácticas que permitan aprovechar las capacidades existentes y aprender de las mejores prácticas de regiones y países como Escandinavia, Suiza o Malasia.”, agregó Chaverri.

“Estamos muy contentos de que el Sr. Chaverri se una a nosotros y lidere el desarrollo de nuestras operaciones en esta región emergente. Su profundo conocimiento de los desafíos y oportunidades que enfrentan las organizaciones al operar en una región dinámica pero compleja, es muy importante para nosotros.”, dice el Sr. Rangen.

Roberto Chaverri cuenta con más de 15 años de experiencia como ejecutivo senior en compañías multinacionales como The Clorox Company, British American Tobacco, The Coca-Cola Company y líderes regionales como Dos Pinos e Ingenio Magdalena. Más recientemente, ha estado trabajando como consultor independiente en Alemania y Costa Rica, donde residirá después de 7 años viviendo en el extranjero.

“En Engage // Innovate creemos que servir a nuestros clientes requiere una comprensión local y una perspectiva global. Con Roberto en nuestro equipo, podremos servir a nuestros clientes con esa mentalidad “, agregó Rangen.

“Debido a su ubicación estratégica, hemos seleccionado a Costa Rica como nuestra base en América Latina, desde donde coordinaremos toda la región.”, concluyó Christian Rangen.

Para contratar nuestros servicios o explorar posibles alianzas con Engage // Innovate en América Latina, envíe un correo electrónico al Sr. Chaverri a roberto@engage-innovate.com.

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The Best Insights of 2018

Chief Strategy Officers, The Shifting Energy Arena, Strategy Traps and learning from ex-Cisco Innovation Director. Here are our five most popular insights from 2018:

The Four Roles of the Strategy Officer

It is critical for companies to understand how their specific strategy function works and how they can improve it in the face of rapid change, does yours?

Click here to read article.

 

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The Shifting Energy Arena

The energy industry is changing — and with the right mindset, leadership and capabilities, this change offers incredible opportunities.

Click here to read report.

 

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Five Strategy Traps for 2018

We look at the top five strategy traps CEOs and management teams might stumble into during their upcoming strategy processes. It’s fast becoming one of our most widely read articles ever.

Click here to read article.

 

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Five Mistakes to Avoid When Planning Your Innovation Program: An Interview with Harvey Wade

We talked to long-time innovation leader Harvey Wade, who shares the lessons he’s learned from the numerous innovation and change programs he’s led so you can avoid making the same mistakes in your next innovation program.

Click here to read article.

 

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Why Superclusters are Engines of Future Growth

The world is learning to innovate faster, and Innovation Superclusters are playing an increasingly important part. In this short piece, we look into what Innovation Superclusters are, what’s driving them globally, and how you can get started building them.

Click here to read article.

 

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