Early October, I had the opportunity to attend Philips Innovation Experience 2014 in Eindhoven which is located in the southern part of Netherlands. Netherlands is famous for many things and Amsterdam takes center stage for being the most visited city in the country.
But from this year onwards, I will remember Philips as the company that sprang from this small city in Netherlands to bring its offerings to the whole world. This is a peak into history which I witnessed at Philips Museum during my visit to Eindhoven.
From being a light bulb factory, Philips has expanded into areas like energy, healthcare, technology and continue to bring innovation in the way the world is lit up. Today Philips employs over 115,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries.
I will be writing about the Innovation Experience itself later in another post (stay tuned for that series) but for now I want to share what I learnt about Philips in this three day long Innovation experience.
Close to over 90 global media were invited to the innovation show which showcased the future innovations that are being introduced into the market.
While important announcements were made through the show and we were taken through some amazing displays of technologies, the first part of the experience was learning about the history of the company.
The history tour started with a walk through the Philips museum which is standing on holy ground as the employees like to call the first factory of the company.
Philip’s most important innovation or perhaps more truly the refinement of innovation was the incandescent light bulb which is where their journey began into an ever expanding arena of lighting.
At the time, they would import cotton for the bulb from America and glass from Germany to make their bulbs in this factory. Later, this took many different forms leading to today’s Philips version of LED lighting.
Founded by Gerard Philips in 1891, the lighting company was aggressively marketed by Anton Philips who innovated in the ways of communication over the years.
A room in the museum still reflects this very first innovation where the cotton light bulb was originally made. Later Philips began to manufacture its own glass to become independent. Moving on to radios, x-ray and healthcare over the years, Philips has today become more than just a lighting company.
As we were taken through the museum, we learnt about many innovations through the history of Philips, I have tried to put together a photo tour for you . I hope you will enjoy it. Have a great weekend!
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