REG X in European benchmarking team

At the beginning of November 2011, project manager Rikke Blæsbjerg Lund from REG X went to Finland, where she, in a small town called Lappeenranta close to Helsinki, guided facilitator Antti Juva from the Finnish cluster Forest Industry Future through a 26 pages long questionnaire. The questions constitute the core of a European benchmarking survey, which European Cluster Excellence Initiative (ECEI) is behind, and the answers, which are based on the assessments of the individual cluster facilitators, are to show how European clusters are managed.

The 25 participating clusters have joined voluntarily the project, which is an offshoot of the successful project NGP Cluster Excellence (Cluster Excellence in the Nordic Countries, Germany and Poland), in which 150 clusters were already compared.

A total of 10 European organisations are helping the ECEI in their benchmarking survey, but REG X is the only Danish participant, says Rikke Blæsbjerg Lund, who got to know the questionnaire inside out on a course in Berlin.

New kind of benchmarking
”The questionnaire is based on 39 indicators, which together are to illustrate how the individual clusters are managed. My role is to guide the facilitators so that there is no doubt how to perceive the questions or which of the categories that matches their cluster”, says Rikke Blæsbjerg Lund and adds that the question period typically amounts to 2-3 hours.

Among other things, the cluster facilitators are asked whether internationalisation is a part of the strategy of the cluster, and how the cluster is funded. Other questions include how many network meetings to which the cluster has invited people and how many newsletters they have sent out.

Other than the Finnish cluster Forest Industry Future, Rikke Blæsbjerg Lund is responsible for the interviews with three Danish clusters: Europas Maritime Udviklingscenter (EMUC) (The European Maritime Development Centre), Danish Advanced Manufacturing and Research Center (DAMRC) and the Insero E-Mobility.

”Benchmarking the cluster organisations and looking at the way in which the facilitators manage the clusters is fairly new. But with the survey the basis is created for an evaluation and improvement of the cluster organisations’ work and effect – a focus area in the EU, says Rikke Blæsbjerg and explains that a part of the questions deal with how the cluster facilitators create value for their members.

One of the major questions on cluster management concerns the way in which a cluster can put together the best possible management team.

”If it’s a wind mill cluster, does it require wind mill experts or network experts in the cluster management?”, Rikke Blæsbjerg asks rhetorically and explains that the survey is to clarify exactly that to the cluster people.

The ranking is only for internal use
In the middle of November, when Rikke Blæsbjerg Lund has finished interviewing the last facilitator this time around, she will be sending the answers from the questionnaires to the German organisation VDI/VDE, who will draw up a report for each of the participating cluster organisations. The report will show how the cluster has made it in the survey compared to the other clusters. But, a total ranking of who did best and worst in the survey will not be published.

”The objective with the benchmarking is to strengthen the entire cluster environment, and ECEI will do that by teaching the individual clusters where to make an effort to improve. Not by ranking the clusters in relation to each other”, Rikke Blæsbjerg Lund explains the philosophy behind the procedure.

But, she believes that there will be a total analysis of the results when the benchmarking is completed in order for everybody that works with clusters to benefit from the new knowledge.

Bronze label is the first step
The clusters that participated in the benchmarking survey will be awarded a bronze label from the ECEI. Next step towards a silver or gold label is a direct evaluation of the clusters, in which the ECEI checks the facts of clusters – e.g. if the cluster has actually sent out the 12 newsletters that they said they did.