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Koninklijke Philips N.V. or Royal Philips or Philips or PHILIPS is a multinational conglomerate corporation of Dutch origin that was founded in Eindhoven. Ever since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is still in Eindhoven. Earlier Philips was one of the largest electronics companies in the world, but at present time it is focused in the area of health technology, with other divisions being divested.
Philips foundation was laid in 1891 by Gerard Philips and his father Frederik, with their first products being the humble light bulbs. At present it employs around 80,000 people across 100 countries. The company made some notable gain when it was given its royal honorary title in 1998 and also it dropped the "Electronics" in its name in 2013 as it was refocusing from consumer electronics to healthcare technology.
Philips is basically organized into three major divisions:
·Personal Health (which was formerly known as Philips Consumer Electronics and Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care), Connected Care, and Diagnosis & Treatment (which was formerly known as Philips Medical Systems). The lighting division was branched off as a separate company, which came to be known as Signify N.V. The company started making electric shavers under the Philishave brand in the year 1939, and post-war they developed the Compact Cassette and also co-developed the Compact Disc format with Sony, as well as numerous miscellaneous technologies. As per the data of the year 2012, Philips was the largest manufacturer of lighting in the world as measured by respective revenues.
Philips is primarily listed on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange and is also a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index. It also made in a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Among the acquisitions include likes of Signetics and Magnavox. They also had a sports club called PSV Eindhoven since 1913.
Philips and its CEO, Frans van Houten, hold several global leadership positions in advancing the circular economy, which include being a founding member and co-chairing of the board of directors for the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE), applying circular approaches in its capital equipment business, and as a global partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Philips' core products are consumer electronics and electrical products (which include but not limited to small domestic appliances, shavers, beauty appliances, mother and childcare appliances, electric toothbrushes and coffee makers). With products like Smart Phones, audio equipment, Blu-ray players, computer accessories and televisions which are sold under license; and healthcare products (which include CT scanners, ECG equipment, mammography equipment, monitoring equipment, MRI scanners, radiography equipment, resuscitation equipment, ultrasound equipment and X-ray equipment)
In January 2020 Phillips made an announcement that it is looking to sell its domestic appliances division, which include range of products like coffee machines, air purifiers and airfryers.
Philips is also committed to the environment by running the EcoVision initiative, which commits to a number of environmentally positive improvements, focusing on energy efficiency.
Also, Philips distinctly marks its "green" products with the Philips Green Logo, which identify them as products that have a significantly better environmental performance than their competitors or predecessors.
In 2011, Philips won a $10 million cash prize from the US Department of Energy for winning its L-Prize competition, to produce a high-efficiency, long operating life replacement for a standard 60-W incandescent lightbulb, in the year 2011. The winning LED lightbulb, which was made available to consumers in April 2012, which has the distinction of producing slightly more than 900 lumens at an input power of only 10 W.
In Greenpeace's 2012 Guide to Greener Electronics which ranks electronics manufacturers on sustainability, climate and energy and how green their products are, Philips was ranked 10th place with a score of 3.8/10. The company was the highest scorer in the Energy section due to its energy advocacy work calling upon the EU to adopt a 30% reduction for greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. It is also appreciated for its new products which are free from PVC plastic and BFRs. However, the guide also chided Phillips' sourcing of fibres for paper, arguing it must develop a paper procurement policy which excludes suppliers involved in deforestation and/or illegal logging.
Philips ever since made some considerable progress since 2007 (when it was first ranked in this guide), in particular by supporting the Individual Producer Responsibility principle, which means that the company is accepting the responsibility for the toxic impacts of its products on e-waste dumps around the world.
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