It plans to sponsor apprentices and links between firms and universities, and to encourage business clusters with global, not just national, suppliers.

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Entrepreneurs across Europe have realised that they need to embrace the networking skills that typify America's successes in Silicon Valley and other high-tech business clusters.

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But many of the things that work well in Germany its corporatism, its business clusters, its manufacturing prowess are part of a traditional culture that would be hard, if not impossible, to transplant from one country to another.

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Howard Stevenson, a professor at Harvard Business School, says that many clusters die because their founders, or their founders' children, reinvest their fortunes elsewhere.

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As a result, the industry growth clusters (aviation, specialized business services, life sciences, innovative manufacturing, and supply chain and logistics) have been gaining traction in our metro area.

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By depending on a single industry, clusters have also left regions vulnerable to shifts in business power.

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Michael Porter (see article), a professor at Harvard Business School, has looked recently at this seemingly paradoxical revival of industrial clusters.

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There is limited experience in policy toward clusters, which sit in between policies aimed at the general business environment and policies targeted at creating incentives for individual firms.

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Indeed, Emma Marcegaglia, president of Confindustria, Italy's main business lobby, says that more than 90 of Italy's 104 officially recognised clusters, the bedrock of the country's industry, are in difficulty.

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But if you do your research, carefully analyze the results, find strengths, identify hurdles and seize upon opportunities, building clusters will aid job creation, re-purpose idle assets, and spark business opportunities that are less susceptible to off-shoring.

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At the same time, the strongest growth clusters in those regions that stick to the basics: relatively low taxes, pro-business regulations and continued infrastructure investment.

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