March's cluster manager portrait, Søren Madsen, a clusterpreneur in Skejby, Denmark

Søren Madsen’s job title is something else. But the explanation as to why he calls himself a clusterpreneur and not cluster facilitator or project manager is – like himself – anything but pretentious.

”It was Emiliano Duch, the manager of the Spanish department “Competitiveness” and one of the pioneers within cluster development, who told me that if I at some point in my life got the chance of calling myself a clusterpreneur, I should do it. A clusterpreneur is someone who starts up clusters, and he knows that that is what I do”, Søren Madsen says modestly while eating a late lunch at the office in the company park Agro Food Park in Skejby, north of Aarhus, Denmark.

The house was inaugurated in January 2012, and guests take in the new glass sections and the grass-green sofas with open arms. There is a view of the fields and the motorway – and there are many visions as to how the agricultural and food companies can share their knowledge and increase their innovation ability and competitiveness.

Søren Madsen arrives at the interview directly from the first meeting on a new Food Observatory – a cafeteria, in which the food companies will be able to test new products before they are marketed.

And this is just part of the continuous development of the company park, which currently holds 800 employees in 20 companies. At the municipality of Aarhus, the master plan for expansions up until 2020 is waiting for district plan approval. The objective is that, by 2020, 3000 knowledge employees will be able to put Agro Food Park on their business card, and Søren Madsen hopes that the plans will be approved, as they are beneficial not just to Eastern Jutland, but to the entire country.

Knowledge the world needs

”For many years, Eastern Jutland was the natural centre of agricultural and food companies. For example, the head offices of Arla Foods, Tulip Food Company, Danish Crown and Danisco Ingredients are located here, and the area holds a vast amount of knowledge that the world needs. The problem is that the world doesn’t know this yet, which is why we need to make it visible”, says Søren Madsen and explains that the role model for Agro Food Park and the rest of Eastern Jutland should be the Dutch Food Valley, which is known by the entire world as the leading European food cluster.

”I recently met the R & D manager of Arla Foods, Paul Cornillion, who told me that, when he first came here from France, he had no idea that the head office of Arla Foods was located in Aarhus, and that it was a special area for agricultural and food companies”, says Søren Madsen and adds:

”If we are to attract more people like Paul Cornillion, the world must know that there is a job market here. Qualified people from other places are not just moving for one job; they are moving for a job market, in which it is possible to move between several companies.”

Exquisite buildings are not enough

Agro Food Park is a company park – not a traditional cluster organisation. But it’s an alternative company park, because exquisite buildings alone are not enough, Søren Madsen believes. And thus, he basically works as a cluster facilitator.

”There has to be something out of the ordinary, a value offer for the companies. This is also the reason why there has to be someone to facilitate e.g. knowledge sharing and innovation energy development across the companies. All the companies here are knowledge companies within agriculture and the food industry. There is no production, and for example we have joint events, in which the companies share their knowledge, or to which an external company brings input. We also have post-workday meetings and speed networking”, says Søren Madsen.

The residents of Agro Food Park also call on him when they are searching for collaboration partners.

”Søren, don’t you know somebody ....”, they ask.

And mostly he does, as his network is very wide. On the other hand, the recipe of his way of working seems very simple:

”I follow my intuition and I use a lot of time talking to the residents here and visiting the major food companies in the area. And I know a lot of people, because, the older you get, the more contacts you have – and I have a fine memory”, the 46-year-old clusterpreneur states with a smile.

Furthermore, the value for the residents is in the external relations of Agro Food Park, he explains and mentions the new Food Observatory as an example of the fact that Agro Food Park goes an extra mile for its own residents but is also trying to create added value for Eastern Jutland in general.

”Food Observatory is an idea of which many food companies approve, but there has to be someone to take the initiative, and that is what we would like to do in Agro Food Park”, says Søren Madsen.

He is anything but “me first”. On the contrary, one of the things that is important to him in the role as a facilitator is to let others take the lead, which is why it is rarely he who does the welcome speech at the Agro Food Park events.

”The effort will be repaid with interest, as it gives people pride in residing there, and along the way I’ll get the credit I earned”, he believes.

A dream appears to become reality

It was the manager of The Knowledge Centre for Agriculture, who headhunted Søren Madsen for Agro Food Park.

”He dreamed of opening the doors and inviting other companies in, and he hired me to establish if the dream was realisable. This was on the 1st of January 2009, and the conclusion was that the dream could become reality, because during 6 months I found 8 companies that wanted to join in”, Søren Madsen says.

And the results have already started ticking in.

”One of our companies that produces large facilities for the production of starch, had noise problems in their new plant. During one of our first breakfast meetings they met a company with a solution to the problem”, says Søren Madsen and adds that this is just an example of the fact that merely putting people together can create results.

Pattern recognition is worth its weight in gold

But Søren Madsen has another ability. He has a flair for spotting patterns, and that is really something when you are to match potential collaborators and create new project opportunities.

”When I was working for the Innovation Forum of the Triangle Area and was talking to the companies in the area, I noticed that several of them mentioned that they had problems with maintaining their international employees. There was a pattern here, and that gave me the idea for project Home Town, which was to integrate the international employees outside office hours. It’s my best unrealised project”, says Søren Madsen and explains, still frustrated, that the financial crisis got in the way.

On the other hand, now he is pleased that he managed to realise the dream of Agro Food Park and that the first stage appears to be a success.

Since 2009, Søren Madsen has been employed at Agro Food Park – a company park within agriculture and the food industry.

The park was inaugurated in 2009 with The Knowledge Centre for Agriculture as the mother company.

Currently, there are approximately 800 employees in 20 companies and 30,000 square metres.

Søren Madsen headed the establishment stage from 2009 to 2011 and had a budget of DKK 6.5 million.

Agro Food Park is 100 % privately financed.

The objective is that, by 2020, 3,000 knowledge employees will be residing at Agro Food Park, and that the park will be the pioneer in marketing Eastern Jutland as a European centre of excellence within agricultural and food innovation. www.agrofoodpark.dk

Søren Madsen grew up in Roskilde on Zealand and moved to Aarhus in 1988, where he lives today with his wife and two half-grown children. He is a chemical engineer and has an MBA in technology and innovation management. Before he came to Agro Food Park, he was working as an Application Manager at Danisco, a development manager at MD Foods/ Arla Foods, a project manager at the Innovation Forum of the Triangle Area and a partner and business consultant in the Plusen consultancy.

In his spare time he is a semi-professional handball coach.