Leather Cluster Barcelona as a benchmark at Cluster Day

A delegation from the cluster took part on 16 December in Cluster Day, an event to commemorate thirty years of cluster policy in Catalonia, organised by ACCIÓ -the Agency for Business Competitiveness of the Ministry of Business and Labour-.

Catalonia has been one of the pioneering countries in the world in promoting clusters as a tool for improving the competitiveness of companies. Since 1992, the Generalitat de Catalunya, through ACCIÓ, has worked without interruption to strengthen clusters along two basic lines: public-private collaboration and a focus on strategic change as the main vector of competitive improvement.

The Catalunya Clústers programme currently comprises 26 Catalan clusters that bring together more than 2,600 member companies and stakeholders, with a turnover of more than 70,000 million euros.

The event, attended by more than 400 people, featured the participation of two global benchmarks in the field of clusters: Emilià Duch, of the World Bank, and Christian Ketels, of Harvard Business School.

Emilià Duch was one of the driving forces behind the beginning of Catalonia’s cluster policy from the 1990s onwards. He is currently Lead Private Sector Specialist of the Global Markets and Technology Unit of the World Bank, but his career also includes his time at IESE Business School, the coordination of the European Union’s Cluster Excellence Initiative and the role of chief executive of The Cluster Competitiveness Group.

Christian Ketels is one of the leading world authorities on business competitiveness, strategy and economic policy. A doctor in economics from the London School of Economics, he has led cluster and competitiveness projects all over the world and chairs the advisory board of TCI, the global network of professionals in the field of clusters.

In the talks by Duch and Ketels, Leather Cluster Barcelona featured prominently, both for its historical track record as one of the pioneering clusters in Catalonia and for its strategic vision placing sustainability at the centre as a vector for continuous improvement.

Emilià Duch recalled with enthusiasm his work thirty years ago with the leather cluster, when, together with minister Antoni Subirà, considered the intellectual father of cluster policy in Catalonia, they implemented a transformative project to address the challenges facing the leather sector in the early 1990s. The public-private collaboration begun at that time, based on a new strategic approach to remaining competitive, led to the construction and commissioning of the Igualadina de Depuració i Recuperació (IDR) treatment plant, one of the most illustrative examples of the advantage of belonging to a cluster.

The work of Duch and Subirà with the leather cluster was recognised worldwide, as it was the first case of a Catalan cluster to be studied at the prestigious American university of Harvard.

In this respect, it was announced at Cluster Day that Harvard Business School will study Catalan cluster policy as a case of global success in promoting business collaboration and fostering shared value.

The event had a very moving moment for the Leather Cluster Barcelona delegation, in the reunion of Emilià Duch and Miquel Vila, who, together with Francesc Fontanellas, led the application and implementation of cluster-based economic development policies in the leather sector from Igualada.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting and transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving forward the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector. The cluster is an accredited body within the programme and has the support of Acció.