Perch i Marchi Volontari Collettivi

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Clusters in Lombardy and support to their
internationalization
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What are our origins?
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Chambers role is...

• to support the functions of general interest
  for the system of business and the care of
  entrepreneurial activities that Italian law
  entrusts the Chambers of Commerce with can be
  grouped in five broad categories
• Support and general promotion
• Administrative economic functions related to
  business
• Market regulation (e.g. arbitration)
• Consulting role to State, Regions, on issues of
  interest for business
• Other functions delegated by the State, the
  Regions or arising from international agreements.
• To keep the National Register of Companies

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• 31.120
• NO PROFIT
• ORGANIZATIONS

5.654 Banking agencies
39.536 companies Internationally active
785,771 ACTIVE BUSINESSES
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GDP Lombardy/EU members
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Lombardy Region key figures

• of the 20 Italian Regions, Lombardy is the most
  important
• with its
• 9 million inhabitants
• 785,771 registered businesses (2004)
• corresponding to
• 20 of Italys GDP
• 3 of the GDP of the European Union
• 28,3 of the total value of Italian exports
• 37,6 of Italys imports

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Lombardy key figures

• Active registered businesses 785,771
• 33.7 Artisans
• 7.5 Agriculture
• 16.1 Manufacturing
• 15.8 Construction
• 30.1 Commercial, shops, etc
• Businesses/SqKm 32.9
• Natality rate () 7.3
• Mortality rate () 5.5

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Lombardys economic importance

• Represents 33 of Italys long-term
  exporters(over 24,000 companies)
• 25 of Lombardys companies own or are owned by
  foreign companies
• 8 of Lombardys companies have de-localized part
  of their production
• Hosts 800 non-Italian multinationals
• (500 in Milan)
• 103 Diplomatic representations in Milan

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Key competitive assets

• High density of companies institutions
• Wide industrial diversification
• Various forms company cohesion integration
  cooperation among SMEs
• Flows Milan area/Region Lombardy
• 26.5 of all Italian capital companies

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SMEs in Italy (1)

• 99,8 of Italian companies has less than 250
  employees
• These companies account for 77 of total
  employment
• 73 of the approx. 178,000 Italian exporting
  businesses are small
• Rapporto 2003 sulle PMI Unioncamere/Istituto
  Tagliacarne

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SMEs in Italy (2)

• 92,5 of Italian industrial companies has less
  than 10 employees
• They generate 30,1 of total turnover and 33 of
  added value
• These companies created 90 of new jobs in the
  last decade
• Rapporto 2003 sulle PMI Unioncamere/Istituto
  Tagliacarne

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Evolution

• Even big businesses are (painfully) learning to
  evolve in Italy
• OLIVETTI ? INFOSTRADA
• PIRELLI ? TELECOM/RE
• BENETTON ? AUTOGRILL

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Lombardys small and medium enterprises

• Participate in formal and informal group of
  companies
• Network among themselves (especially for
  subcontracting activities)
• Are often part of specialized clusters
• local production areas with homogeneous
  characteristics, high concentration of SMEs, with
  high specialization in a specific production
  and/or business sector

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5 Meta - clusters

• Food biotech
• Non-food biotech
• Design
• Innovative materials
• Fashion

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The High Tech Sector

• 260,000 people employed
• 175,000 producing technologies
• 85,000 content production
• 75 schools connected
• 44.8 students have a PC at home

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Relationships

• Interaction of supply chain keep most work within
  the area (compensating with agreed prices less
  competitive chain links to avoid collective loss
  of local sourcing)
• Technical upgrading topped-up by individual
  development of proprietary know-how to maintain
  competitive advantage (trial error ingenuity)
• Shared values (family, politics, religion,
  school, community, institutions)
• Team spirit (front line sells, suppliers add
  value)

• Becattini - 2002

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International Threats

• Loss of competitiveness (NICs costs)
• Foreseeing new growth paths (how?)
• Support services (where from?)
• Net economy opens worldwide co-opetition (IT and
  digital divide)

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Who are we?

• Chambers of Commerce (CCIAA) are representative
  of industries and business
• Lombardy Foreign Trade Center is the center of
  competency for the internazionalization of
  Lombardys SMEs

EUROPE
Lombardy
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How to help SMEs?

• Ask companies what support they want
• ,
• Ask associations what support they want
• ,

Is it really so simple?
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Lombardy Foreign Trade Center Internazionalizatio
n Services

• Information Training
• on-line Assistance
• FDI in/out
• Fairs and Exhibitions
• Trade Missions
• What can be done more?

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Information

• Markets are conquered with information
• -on clients on competitors
• -on prospects dangers
• SMEs expect us to find
• difficult information,
• quickly, and reliably

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Expertise

• Building up experience takes time, and many
  mistakes to learn from
• We must be capable of learning from individual
  mistakes to prevent them from happening to others

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Vision

• Events, fairs trade missions are all needed to
  build up a companys vision
• We must be able to look even farther in the
  distance, preparing for things to come

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Co-operation

• SMEs are very egotistic, yet they should learn to
  co-operate and see common things in reciprocal
  activities
• We should help them to see potential partners
  instead of competitors, helping them bridging
  problems instead of deepening the differences

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Targeting

• There are too many things to do setting up the
  correct priorities has become a requisite for
  survival
• Can we help them target the right objectives
  first?

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Balancing it all

• On top of all this, how can a SME balance all
  those things, to find equilibrium while in
  motion??

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Where do we fit in?

• SMEs have immediate survival needs. They are
  short-sighted, production based, innovative,
  opposed to marketing, bold courageous
• We should not expect thanks
• (they dont have time !)
• We can only
• Lead by example
• See rewards in their results...
• ...and in doing our job well!

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Clusters in Lombardy and internationalization
Lombardy Foreign Trade Center the Association
for Internationalization of the 11 Chambers of
Commerce, Industry, Agriculture and Handicraft of
Lombardy Colombaro di Cortefranca 10 March 2006
Sergio Valentini valentini_at_centroesterolomb.com