Jena, Germany: Discovering the Seeds of a New Cluster
Challenge
Immediately after East and West Germany announced their unification,
the Treuhandanstalt began privatizing former state-owned businesses
in the East. Carl Zeiss in Jena, Germany, had been the Soviet
bloc's largest center of optoelectronics, employing almost
100,000 workers and producing hundreds of precision optical
systems and components. At the same time 40 percent of the
workforce was being laid off.
Solution
An analysis was commissioned to identify how the core competencies
of this enormous "combinate" could be harnessed
to replace some part of the economic presence that once had
dominated this region. While a considerable part of the Jena
technologies was concentrated at Carl Zeiss, there was a balance
of capabilities that had market potential. An analysis of
market trends and set of workshops on global optics markets
was held for a large working group of engineers and managers.
Working groups were formed around business themes that corresponded
to markets where Jena possessed know-how, such as medical
instruments, sensors, lasers, optical components, and lithography.
From these working groups, business development teams were
formed for which market analyses were completed at a very
specific level. Consultants and team members first conducted
regional briefings with high-technology companies in Europe,
the United States, and Asia to introduce the capabilities
of the Jena region to prospective investors or partners. Then
the team identified major companies in these target markets
and began to seek specific partners for acquisition or collaboration.
Difficult though this was, the cluster development logic was
pursued by the management of the new Zeiss Jena organization
and the state of Thuringia.
Benefit
Efforts paid off over time, as Sony located an R&D operation
in Jena, focusing on compact disk optics. Partnerships with
American optical instruments and new enterprises were created.
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