While broad reviews of economic competitiveness are critical in diagnosing key challenges and the path forward, work involving deep analysis and mobilization of particular clusters within an economy achieves some of the most impactful results.

Monitor’s cluster strategies combine an understanding of both local factor conditions and global market dynamics. Monitor’s teams often begin by evaluating the level of development of a particular cluster, revealing key gaps, opportunities, and white spaces through data-driven evaluation against benchmark economies. Through this analysis, Monitor can help inform the policy and investment decisions of clients, complementing the review of a cluster’s competitiveness with strategies to activate regional or global demand for traded clusters. In particular, Monitor deploys customized marketing technologies to understand which consumer segments of the global market are most valuable and accessible, how consumers in those segments make their decisions, and how they can be activated to choose the goods and services that originate from a particular economy. The combination of supply-side and demand-side activation ensures that the cluster can grow in an economically viable and sustainable fashion.

Much of Monitor’s work is focused on activating or reinvigorating high-potential clusters, those that drive prosperity as well as employment. Monitor’s project experiences and global network of experts range across most geographies and have supported clients in virtually every cluster, including metals and mining, manufacturing industries, tourism, education, financial services, and life sciences. A critical part of Monitor’s work is in helping regions and nations understand how to generate efficiency, innovation, and value in what are traditionally conceived to be “low-productivity” clusters, such as agriculture or forestry. These clusters are often at the core of a region’s economic structure and employment, and thus can be critical vehicles for driving prosperity.

In any cluster, Monitor’s work focuses on increasing productivity, creating opportunities for higher-value employment and generating thriving centers of economic activity across an economy.

With this offering, leaders are able to:

• Understand the current level development level of key clusters, identifying new market opportunities or white spaces in particular clusters
• Shape policies to enable the rapid turnaround or growth of clusters and generate high-value employment opportunities for their populations
• Unlock and activate demand for the region’s goods or services