1 Look through the whole article to find the name(s) of ... a) avideo-games company b) a town on the south coast of England where this company is based an executive at the Canadian branch of the company d) the Canadian city where the company has an office. e) the province where this city is situated. ) a business school professor. two colleagues of his 2 Find words and expressions in paragraphs 1 and 2 that mean the following. a) translating video games and other software into other languages, adapting it to different markets, etc. b) a few testing products to check that they work correctly d) present in large numbers in a small area e) speaking many languages 1) places where many businesses of the same type are present 2) the way that things are in a particular place h) not breaking down 3 Which of these ideas are not mentioned in paragraphs 3 or 4? Clusters a) have been the subject of work by Michael Portes b) benefit the firms that make them up, thanks to their being near each other. benefit customers. d) reduce costs. e) make it easier to recruit people. allow like-minded people to socialise together 3) increase productivity h) encourage new businesses to form. can provide support to companies in difficulty D make it more likely that new businesses will survive. The added value of a group Paul Tyrrell Babel Media is a company that important part of regional develop "contribute to start-up firm could in theory, be based anywhere. ment and corporate strategies since survival" Icp provides the video games indusay 1990. when Michael Porter of For Babel Media, the benefits of with outsourced services such as Harvard Business School published being part of the Montreal cluster localisation and quality assurance The Competitive Advantage of are numerous, says Steve Kingswell, Most of its 1.000 staff need only Nations. In the book and subsequent the company's Chief Financial computers and reliable Internet research Professor Porter found that Officer. It provides an enhanced connections to do their jobs. Yet they as more companies of the same type Labour pool, so recruiting is easier, are concentrated in just a handful of cluster together in the same place. he says. "The colleges and places worldwide to take advantage so they derive more benefits from universities here are encouraged to of specific local conditions their collocation" offer courses in the creative media The company was founded in + Companies have long recognised and technology, and research in the 1999 in Brighton, on the south coast that siting themselves near to rivals universities gets tailored to our of England, partly because the city could make life easier for customers, industry. Also, the companies in the bas one of the highest concentrations cut supply-chain costs, and most cluster can lobby together for of young foreign workers and important - make it easier to recruit changes in the locality" students in the UK. Its latest specialists. However, Professor The decision to open an office in production office was opened in Porter identified other benefits, Montreal, however, was largely Montreal, Canada - again, a source such as increased productivity. influenced by generous incentives of young, multlingual talent but innovation and start-up activity, from the Quebec government. also, critically, home to one of In his latest paper on the subject, Software producers in Montreal can, the world's fastest growing written with Mercedes Delgado for example, claim tax relief on up to "business clusters" for video games and Scott Stern, he finds that 30 per cent of the salaries of their production strong clusters produce "higher production staff, or up to 375 per The concept of the business growth in new business formadon cent it their work is published in cluster has become an increasingly and start-up employment and French