Rethinking industrial policy in the ecosystem economy: Orgalim at MPD 2019

12 June 2019

Manufacturing Performance Days 2019 (...

Manufacturing Performance Days 2019 (MPD 2019) is an international top-level B2B summit, bringing together around 900 senior decision makers from across the manufacturing industries, researchers and technology and service providers. This year’s edition was held from 4 to 6 June in Tampere, Finland, where the focus was on ‘Harnessing the Ecosystem Economy’ – looking at the business, technology and political drivers transforming Europe’s industrial ecosystem. The event was chaired by Tomas Hedenborg, Senior Adviser to the Board at FASTEMS and President of Orgalim.

Orgalim Director General Malte Lohan addressed delegates during the ‘Work Revolution’ plenary session with a keynote entitled ‘Rethinking industrial policy: the cornerstone of societal transformation’. Drawing on Orgalim’s long-term vision for the future of industry in Europe, his contribution took a fresh look at the role of EU-level industrial policy in helping Europe’s technology industries keep their leading edge in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. His conclusion? The right policy framework will be vital to keep pace with the US and China; yet companies themselves also have an important role to play, particularly by clearly communicating to policymakers and the public their role in shaping a future that’s good for all Europeans. The panel discussion that followed touched on concrete policy implications in a world of work characterised by increasing automation and technological innovation – from the need for smarter, more agile regulation to calls for a sharper focus on skills development.

Orgalim was a supporting partner to the three-day summit, which featured a rich variety of plenary debates, parallel sessions and roundtables examining the ecosystem economy from a number of angles: how collaboration is fostering innovation, how transformation can trigger growth, and how digitalisation is facilitating new ways of working together and creating value.

“For me, there were three clear takeaways from the summit,” concluded Malte Lohan. “One: on ecosystems, we are clearly seeing a shift towards new types of collaboration, new ways to share value and a willingness to embrace uncertainty when seeking future innovation. Two: the strength of Europe’s ‘hidden champions’, those often small and extremely specialised businesses that operate outside of the public eye but are global leaders in their fields. We need to celebrate them and ensure they have what they need to succeed. And three: innovation – Europe needs a shift in mindset in our innovation culture. If we can move from asking ‘what if things go wrong?’ to ‘what if things go right?’, we will be doing a huge service towards driving future innovation.”

“For me, there were three clear takea...

You can find more information on the full MPD 2019 programme here and read more on Malte Lohan’s keynote in this article from STT Info here.