The Power of the Many

Lebanon’s creatives are scaling up together to take on the international market with the newly launched Beirut Creative Cluster.

“We’re pioneering this. And there is absolutely no guarantee of success,” pronounces Salim Tannous. He’s managing director of the newborn Beirut Creative Cluster (BCC), a consortium of 25 design and media agencies working together to advance Lebanese media services within and without Lebanon.

Sitting beside Tannous is Hani Asfour, founder of the design firm Polypod and president of the seven-member board of the BCC, who nervously laughs: “I’ve just dived in to the deep end, and am going to see what happens.” He quickly adds: “and you’re the lifeguard Salim!”

“And I barely know how to swim!” Tannous retorts. The two men together could go back and forth, it seems, for hours: trading anecdotes about museum visits, architectural features or thoughts on the BCC. Both want to heap praise and credit upon the other; neither would accept it in return.

“But I have to say I can’t take any credit for the BCC yet,” Asfour remarks. “It’s all Salim’s legwork, his foresight, his vision. I look to him for guidance.”

“The cluster is not me, it’s them,” Tannous later returns.

Whoever is doing the work, the Beirut Creative Cluster represents a powerful new development in the national economy. For clusters are extraordinary means for a set of businesses to increase productivity and obtain the benefits from a greater economy of scale – without sacrificing competition.

Tannous describes the cluster as a “platform” to “allow collaboration between people in the same industry to drive innovation.” Though “cluster” is an inherently ambiguous term. The details on how a cluster of companies cooperates varies widely from country to country; and they can expand, Tannous notes, to as large as 700 companies. Even clusters of clusters will develop within major national industries. He cites cosmetics as the biggest in France, with such companies as L’Oréal involved.

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