In virtually all of these regions, small firms gain significant degrees of flexibility and are able to respond to high-value niche markets through their ability to quickly form networks, alliances or partnerships. In addition, other community groups and the government are also drawn into the network. For example, in northern Italy trade associations and regional governments have worked together to create and administer a number of specialized service centers that support particular sectors or meet FMN needs. North Jutland Amt, the county on the northern tip of Denmark, implemented a broad spectrum of initiatives in order to see what would be most effective. This program was jointly designed by the county industrial council, municipal and other development officers, technology information centers, trade unions and associations, vocational schools and the local university.
Some government programs make collaboration a condition for eligibility.
Less than eighteen months later, more than 3,000 of Denmark s 7,300 industrial firms were participating in manufacturing networks. . Unfortunately, the blossoming of highly productive forms of networking among small manufacturing firms in Europe and Japan is not occurring with equal intensity in the United States. Ironically, while many in the United States have been celebrating small business, other countries in particular, Japan and West Germany have been using public policy to make small manufacturing a powerful asset of international competition. Robert Reich lists inadequate communications infrastructure and technological transfer as two of four barriers impeding the transformation of U.S. industry to a more flexible, market-responsive system based on small batch production for market niches. The use of telecommunications and supportive telecommunications policy development can play a key leveraging role in transforming small manufacturers.