The Philips Story

The foundations of the world’s biggest electronics company were laid in 1891 when Gerard Philips established a company in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, to manufacture light bulbs and other electrical products. In the beginning, it concentrated on making carbon- filament lamps and by the turn of the century was one of the largest producers in Europe. Developments in new lighting technologies fuelled a steady programme of expansion and, in 1914, it established a research laboratory to stimulate product innovation.

In the 1920s, Philips decided to protect its innovations in X-ray radiation and radio reception with patents. This marked the beginning of the diversification of its product range. Since then, Philips has continued to develop new and existing product ideas like the compact disc, which it launched in 1983. Other interesting landmarks include the production of Philips’ 100-millionth TV-set in 1984 and 250-millionth electric shaver in 1989.

The Philips Company

Philips’ headquarters are still in Eindhoven. It employs 256 500 people all over the world, and has sales and service outlets in 150 countries. Research laboratories are located in six countries, staffed by some 3,000 scientists. It also has an impressive global network of some 400 designers spread over twenty-five locations. Its shares are listed on sixteen stock exchanges in nine countries and it is active in about 100 businesses, including lighting, monitors, shavers and TV-sets; each day its factories turn out a total of 50 million integrated circuits.

The Philips People

Royal Philips Electronics is managed by the Board of Management, which looks after the general direction and long-term strategy of the Philips group as a whole. The Supervisory Board monitors the general course of businesses of the Philips group as well as advising the Board of Management and supervising its

policies. These policies are implemented by the Group Management Committee, which consists of the members of the Board of Management, chairmen of most of the product divisions and some other key offices. The Group Management Committee also serves to ensure that business issues and practices are shared across the various activities in the group.