Case Studies   The Danish Neighbourhood Regeneration Programme. Kvarterløft in Copenhagen

The process

The regeneration project of Femkanten was established in 1997. By 1998 it was decided to focus on business development and employment. It was important to find out what sort of companies were located in the neighbourhood and how they regarded the process of regeneration – and employment. We wanted to get in touch with the companies, get to know them and their need for staff.

We handpicked 31 companies. The criteria for choosing them were size: They had to be big enough to have the resources to co-operate with us, and they also had to represent various lines of business.

In the process of picking the companies we discovered that there was a significant majority of modern companies. Today the companies work with IT, graphic industry, advertising and movies – and not with traditional industry.

Already at this point we could see that there was an imbalance between supply and demand of staff. This is well known from other neighbourhoods in the municipality of Copenhagen. The available work force is often unskilled, while the companies demand a skilled staff.

Our plan was to interview the companies 30 to 60 minutes on how they saw themselves in the neighbourhood. We would tape the interview and produce a report. Much to our surprise everyone agreed to participate. The results were just as surprising. There was a myth that the companies of the neighbourhood were on their way down or stagnated.

Nothing could be more wrong. Among the companies we met the biggest sound-studio in Denmark, the biggest media company, the biggest service organisation (250,000 employees worldwide) and the winner of the Companies in Growth Award 2002. Most of the companies had deliberately picked the neighbourhood and liked the environment. The rents were fair and there were shops and a good infra-structure. One statement said “once we have had customers from abroad, they will never forget being here.”

When the report was finished we presented it to the companies. At the same meeting we suggested forming a business network as a separate organisation. The regeneration project would pay for the running costs the first year and they would also supply the necessary staff – that is the business consultant. The companies backed this suggestion and this was the start of the network

4.1. Business network Copenhagen Nordvest. 4.1.1 Background    4.1.3 Purpose