Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Background:
At Philips, we strive to make the world healthier and more sustainable through
innovation. Their goal is to improve the lives of 3 billion people a year by 2025. We
will be the best place to work for people who share their passion. Together we will
deliver superior value for their customers and shareholders.
Royal Philips Electronics is eighth on Fortunes list of global top 30 electronics
corporations. The company is active in about 100 businesses, varying from consumer
electronics to domestic appliances, and from security systems to semiconductors.
Philips is among the worlds top three producers in many of its businesses, including
lighting, monitors, shavers, and color picture tubes for TVs and monitors. Translated
into figures, the company produces over 1.5 billion incandescent lamps every year,
and some 30 million picture tubes; and each day, the factories turn out a total of 50
million integrated circuits. PolyGram, a 75 percent subsidiary, is the worlds largest
music corporation.
Worldwide, Philips:
_ employs about 265 000 people;
_ has some 240 production sites in over 40 countries and sales and service outlets in
150
countries;
_ has research laboratories, located in six countries and staffed by some 3000
scientists, and
is responsible for some 10 000 inventions;
_ has a global network of some 400 designers spread over 25 locations;
_ has shares listed on 16 stock exchanges in nine countries.
In X-ray radiation and radio reception. This marked the beginning of the
diversification of its product range. Having introduced a medical X-ray tube in 1918,
Philips then became involved in the first experiments in television in 1925. It began
producing radios in 1927 and had sold one million by 1932. One year later, it
produced its 100 millionth radio valve, and also started production of medical X-ray
equipment in the United States. Philips first electric shaver was launched in 1939, at
which time the company employed 45 000 people worldwide and had sales of 152
million guilders. Science and technology underwent tremendous development in the
1940s and 1950s, with Philips Research inventing the rotary heads which led to the
development of the Philishave electric shaver, and laying down the basis for later
ground-breaking work on transistors and integrated circuits. In the 1960s, this resulted
in important discoveries such as CCDs (chargecoupled devices) and LOCOS (local
oxidation of silicon).
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Their strategy
In 2011 we embarked upon Their multi-year Accelerate! jTheirney of change and
performance improvement. Designed to transform Philips into a truly agile and
entrepreneurial company, Accelerate! is all about delivering meaningful innovation to
Their customers in local markets and doing so in a fast and efficient way.
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As customers needs do not stop evolving over time, massive investment in R&D
must be made by a firm like Philips. In highly internationalized organizations,
geographic expansion is often accompanied by a qualitative dimension. In fact,
Philips considers that manufacturing abroad must be supported by technological
development early on. By Philips, this qualitative dimension is materialized by its
research centres. In the early ages, these centres were working quite autonomously
without discovery of sufficient innovations in line with the corporate strategy. This
lack of innovative effectiveness was due to the following issues:
Inadequate transfer in research results,
Duplication of activities,
Fragmentation of dispersed research laboratories,
Excessive orientation towards technology for technologys sake,
Insufficient guidance.
In the nineties, Philips understood that one of the most important factors in innovation
success was to coordinate learning and other change-related activities across
international boundaries within the whole firm. In order to structure and rationalize
the production of knowledge, the company decided to distribute research activities to
specific centres, according to its competencies. For instance, the research centres of
Aachen and Hamburg have been merged and the resulting centre is responsible for
investigating in light generation and man-machine interface. Another example is the
Chinese labs which are dedicated to research in the wireless communication
technologies.
Based on this, the nine research centres of Philips spread over the globe have turned
over time into Centres of Excellence, which are in possession of strong (technical,
market and managerial) competencies and which are able to link research among each
other and to coordinate it with Business Units strategic targets. Even though it seems
to cut a little bit in the exploratory potential of the research centres (only 30% are
dedicated to basic market research), this change seems particularly convenient
because it concentrates skills and competencies in one location, which is a sound asset
to really move forward in R&D.
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Problem Identification:
1) Improvement programs can be clear, correct and focused but, just like
business processes, if they are too slow, they dont deliver results ahead of the
competition.
2) Knowledge can be made accessible through information systems with
directories of experts (Philips Yellow Pages) and databases of best practices.
But information technology, although vital, is merely amenable.
3) The Philips Quality Network creates the conditions under which the Philips
Quality Teams can flourish.
4) The PBE model is the reference for the audit. As a one-day audit does not
allow a Comprehensive audit result on all PBE criteria, the audit focuses on
the enabling factors of PBE (about two-thirds of the audit time is spent on the
enabling factors).
5) PQA or PBE model, balanced scorecards that explore cause-and-effect
relationships, survey tools that facilitate benchmarking, leadership
competencies which include coaching.
6) It is recognized that this is not enough and that world class performance
requires breakthroughs in cross-functional business processes such as product
creation, demand generation and order fulfillment.
8) The network consists of the Corporate Quality Council, the Quality Councils
of the division and business units and the Quality Steering Groups of plants.
They are responsible for driving the change process and monitoring progress.
9) The balanced scorecards specify the business priorities based on a cause and
effect analysis.
10) In Philips is the completion of the PDCA cycle and knowledge management
means to expand applying the lessons learned to sharing the lessons learned
and learning from the lessons others learned.
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has spent 100 years in the business but still thrives for innovation and act according to
the consumer demand.
They have also had a growing market share for over 4 years mentioned in the charts
from 1999 to 2003. The rate has continuously grown up.
It is strength for the company because it has a continuously growing market share and
even in the markets where they have strong competitors, they have excelled in those
businesses as well. It also a sign that they are constantly innovating their products
according to consumer choices and has greater acceptance and reliability.
It is also an opportunity because the companys share growth says that as it is still an
increasing rate, the market share has not still matured for the company. Rather, they
still have consumer demand and if they utilize it correctly, they can have more
growths in future.
Social analysis
Philips employs about 265 000 people.
It is strength for the company because this indicates that the company has a very
skilled and big human capital for their production and sales activities. It is also
contributing to a countrys social setting because they are affecting the employment
rate positively of that particular country.
It is also opportunity for the company as there are still rooms for utilizing more
human capital because they have operations in a lot of countries and the trained
workforce in those countries may be a good resource for Philips.
the company has invested in a worldwide brand management program in order to
better understand consumers needs, desires and dreams and incorporates these into
the product creation process; to communicate with consumers in a consistent way; and
to progressively develop a common brand language and culture throughout the
company.
This is a strong point for the company because they have a very positive interaction
with the consumers. They value the people who buy from them and this is why even
after having a big market, the company still invests in brand management to create
more awareness and value. They value the consumers desires and incorporate them
with the production process in order to give the consumers a feeling of belongingness
to the company.
Lets make things better.
It is not just a theme for Philips, it is what they believe in and want to give the
consumers a better lifestyle with their products. All of Philips products are consumer
oriented because they value what the people want and they thrive to give the people a
better and easy of life instead of just focusing on the technology.
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The Philips intranet site is available to guide people in finding the training, tools,
publications, best practices, links to other sites and information to support them in
implementing BEST.
BEST is the framework for excellence in Philips. Philips not only takes care of the
opinions of the consumers, they also interact and motivate the employees to interact
among themselves. The company has a intranet called The Yellow Pages for the
employees to share ideas, information, training tools etc. It is certainly a good way to
increase communication among the employees and a strong sign for the inner
network. The maximum time to closure days of consumer complaints was 10 days in
2003.
It is a strength for the company because the number of days have significantly
decreased in recent years. It means that they take care of the consumer dissatisfactions
and act as soon s possible through interaction and service towards the consumers.
Technological Analysis
Philips is among the worlds top three producers in many of its businesses, including
lighting, monitors, shavers, and color picture tubes for TVs and monitors. Translated
into figures, the company produces over 1.5 billion incandescent lamps every year,
and some 30 million picture tubes; and each day, the factories turn out a total of 50
million integrated circuits. PolyGram, a 75 percent subsidiary, is the worlds largest
music corporation.
The data above clearly states how technologically rich and advanced Philips is.
Obviously, it is a strength for the company that they have such wide range of products
and the company is still one of the leaders in these businesses.
It can also be seen as an opportunity for Philips because with this huge product line,
they have successfully retained the number one spot in the industries for such a long
time. Some of the technologies were invented by them. Now, in the age of innovation,
if they can shade their concerns on innovation, it will surely earn greater returns for
them.
Philips has research laboratories, located in six countries and staffed by some 3000
scientists, and is responsible for some 10 000 inventions.
The statement above clearly shows how concerned Philips is about research and
development. It is a strength for them because they have a huge skilled research team
and in the time of innovation, research and development of the products are more
necessary than invention to have sustainability in the market.
Another strong point of Philips is that they been the starter company or benchmark
company in many industries and products. Some of them are- they made carbonfilament lamps initially and within 100 years was one of the largest producers in
Europe.
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Another strength is the diversification of the products and using patents, especially in
the areas of X-ray and radio reception. They have introduced medical X-ray Tube and
started producing television in 1925. It was so successful in radio technology that they
produced 100 million radio valves within one year. They also had important
discoveries like CCDs and LOCOS.
They also have shown their strength in music industry by owning Polygram,
laservision disc, compact discs etc. These clearly show that Philips has a strong and
diversified product line and has been successful in selling them. It is also an
opportunity for the company because in the new millennium, there are more emphasis
on innovation. With the strong R&D facilities they have and the reliability of the
consumers, the company can be successful in the new era of technology as well.
The strength of Philips global operations is reflected in its (value-base) leadership
position in many of the markets in which it is active.
The list above clearly shows how strong the business and technological position of
Philips is. This is a strength for the business of Philips because they have the highest
rank in most of the industries though there are many competitors. But still, it shows
that Philips has the most sales and reliability all around the world.
It can also be seen as an opportunity for Philips because it also shows the industries
that they are closely lagging behind. If they concentrate on those sectors and with the
resources and researches they have, they can expectedly succeed and lead those
industries too.
Philips has a global network of some 400 designers spread over 25 locations. It is
strength for Philips because it shows how sophisticated Philips is about their product
designs and how they have such wide range of product models and unique
specifications. The global network of designers is certainly an asset for the company.
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It can also be seen as an opportunity because consumers always look for unique and
new products. With the designers they have or by including some more designers
Philips can certainly provide that satisfaction of the consumer base.
Legal Analysis
Nearly all Philips organizations are ISO 9000 certified, which lays the foundation for
continuous improvement or Lets make things better, all the time.
Since ISO is a worldwide legal benchmark for quality control and quality control is a
legal issue all over the world, Philips has certainly acquired the excellence in quality
and it is a strength for them because they work as they say by Lets make things
better.
In the changing political situation in Europe and recently the turmoil that United
Kingdom faced with the European Union, Philips may have to face some barriers and
new regulations for doing business in Europe.
It can be a threat for the global business of Philips because Europe is one of the
largest business hub for Philips and if it faces some unrest in doing business there, it
may certainly have an effect on the profit and sales.
Since company auditing is also a legal issue, Philips has a very compact and effective
way of auditing. It is a strength for them because it opens up scopes for
accountability, responsibility and implementation of plans.
Environmental Analysis
Some countries in the middle-east and other global leaders have taken effective and
comprehensive measures for pollution control and carbon emission.
It can be a threat for Philips because Philips has operations in a lot of industries that
uses chemicals and raw material usage is excessive which may harm the environment.
Philips production and business may shrink in those countries if they do not find an
alternative like recycling.
Philips has some eco friendly products recently as a CSR activity. Philips greenpower light by Philips lighting is one of them.
It can be strength for Philips because in a world of concerns about global warming
and pollution, such initiative may boost the brand value of Philips.
It can also be seen as an opportunity for Philips because a greenpower light is the first
step to eco-friendly production of Philips. With the research team they have, they can
certainly innovate more eco-friendly and recycled products in the future.
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StarsPolygram is the first star product for Philips is Polygram. Polygram has 75% of the
total subsidiary of Philips and worlds largest music company. So, it earns high
market share for Philips and also has market growth as the music industry is growing.
Incandescent lamp is another star product for the company as more than a billion
lamps are sold each year.
With diversification and patents that they have, medical products can certainly be star
products for Philips. For example, Philips has patent for X-ray tubes which is still
used in medical science.
Cash cowsLighting is a potential source for Philips now. The technology of lights is changing
rapidly and everyone now wants energy efficient lights as the price of energy usage is
increasing. Philips has green power lights which can be an answer to that demand.
Electric shaver is another cash cow for Philips. Being one of the premier producers of
shavers, Philips still has a remarkable position in the industry. But there are more
competitors now and the growth rate is not as it used to be.
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Question MarksCorded/ cordless phones in this generation are less demandable now a days. With
most of the consumers switching to smartphones, corded and cordless phones do not
have the growth or share in the market anymore. Big corporations and offices use
them on desks mostly nowadays.
Picture tubes are also question marked products. The world is switching to led TVs
and Smart TVs. Televisions with picture tubes are bought mostly by lower middle
class or middle class people. So the market share and growth is decreasing. Philips
needs to make sure what to do with this product.
DogsSemiconductors can be dog products for Philips. Because, It is the 9th largest producer
of it where it holds the top positions in most of the industries it operates in.
Semiconductor has some tough and leading competitors and Philips should give up on
this business.
Home appliances are also not doing good for Philips. With competition from
Samsung or LG, Philips is not that much popular for home appliances in the western
world. They are mostly bought in the asian region. With declining popularity, Philips
should quit this business.
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Demand conditions
The demand condition of Philips Electronics is at a good enough position as can be
seen from their value based leadership position chart, in which they are ruling over
the top position in most of the markets they have businesses in.
They produce over 1.5 billion incandescent lamps every year, and around 30 million
picture tubes and their factories turn out a total of 50 million integrated circuits per
day. Also, PolyGram, their 75 percent subsidiary, is the worlds largest music
corporation. These figures show just how vast their demand conditions are since
otherwise such high end productions will not have been possible.
Factor conditions
Philips Electronics have 240 production sites in over 40 countries and sales and
service outlets in 150 countries, research laboratories, located in six countries and
staffed by around 3000 scientists. They also have a global network of around 400
designers spread over 25 locations. This shows that, even if they fall short of
resources in one place, they can immediately have it supplied from another. In worst
case scenarios they can even shift their worse off production sites to the better off
ones if needed. They also employ over 265000 people which shows they have a
massive human resource support throughout the world.
Also, Philips uses the EFQM model for business excellence as the most
comprehensive and suitable one for the entire Philips organization.
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Alternatives:
Human Resources departments are transforming as the modern business faces
numerous and complex challenges, and exploit opportunities. The transformation of
human resources today is a direct call of the rapid changes within businesses due to
factors such as globalization. In the global competition within the flat and connected
new world, decision making in organizations has become increasingly intricate and
convoluted. The new global world has widened the talent pool for excellent and
marginal workers, and for permanent and fluid workers. An organizations talent can
be a source for a sustained competitive advantage and can affect important
organizational outcomes such as survival, profitability, customer satisfaction level,
and employee performance (Pfeffer, 1994; Prahalad, 1983).
Human resources need to take advantage of technology and data analytics to build a
global human resource information system that collects and stores data from various
sources. The system will help to analyze the data to provide business insights, predict
future needs and develop strategies to fill those needs. Companies with the ability to
foresee and sustainably manage their workforce needs especially for high skills
will gain the decisive competitive advantage (World Economic Forum, 2010a). The
global supply of talent is short of its long-term demand, and the gap is a challenge for
employers everywhere. The shortage between the demand and supply of talent is
likely to continue to increase, notably for highly-skilled workers and for the next
generation of middle and senior leaders. Most emerging nations with large
populations, including Brazil, Russia, India, and China, may not be able to sustain a
net surplus workforce with the right skills for much longer.
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Now, more than ever, organizations need to place greater emphasis on attracting
human capital rather than financial capital. Because capital is broadly available from
investors and lenders, and innovations can be duplicated relatively easily and quickly,
effective human resource management is the best way to differentiate one company
from another. Global staffing and global leadership development are the two
components of global human resources with the greatest potential for powerful
leverage for global firms (Pucik, 1996). Only the multinationals that will be willing to
adapt their human resource practices to the changing global labor market conditions
will be able to attract, develop and retain the right talent, and will likely succeed in the
global competition.
The increasing prevalence of globalization is driven by a number of factors, including
shortage of talent in developed countries, availability of low cost labor and growing
consumers in developing countries, and technological progress. Shortage of Talent in
Developed Countries Despite the current economic downturn and unemployment,
most developed countries, including the United States, Germany and Japan will face
long term talent shortages mainly due to ageing and the retirement of baby boomers.
There are more workers retiring than entering the labor force in these countries. By
2020, for every five retiring workers, only four new workers will join the labor force
in most developed countries. According to one estimate the United States will need to
add 26 million workers to its talent pool by 2030 to sustain the average economic
growth of the two past decades (1988-2008) unless a technological breakthrough
replaces manpower, while Western Europe will need to add 46 million employees
(World Economic Forum, 2010).
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university-educated workers in low-wage countries far exceeds the number for higher
wage countries.
Currently, India produces as many young engineers as the United States, and China
produces more than twice as many. Russia produces 10 times as many finance and
accounting professionals as Germany. According to the International Organization for
Migration, there were an estimated 214 million international migrants in the world in
2010, and fifty-seven per cent of all migrants live in high-income countries (World
Migration Report, 2010). The number of migrants is likely to grow exponentially in
the coming years. Furthermore, the migration of workers and outsourcing of work
would not be limited to unidirectional flow from emerging countries to developed
countries. Technological Progress Globalization is made possible by the development
of cost effective, yet very powerful technologies, including the Intra- and Internet,
enterprise resource planning system, data warehouse, data mart, and data analytics.
Friedman (2005) defined globalization a whole set of technologies and political
events convergingincluding the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of the Internet, the
diffusion of the
Windows operating system, the creation of a global fiber-optic network, and the
creation of interoperable software applications, which made it very easy for people all
over the world to work togetherthat leveled the playing field. It created a global
platform that allowed more people to plug and play, collaborate and compete, share
knowledge and share work, on a scale never seen before. Cloud computing and new
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advances in remote access and support technologies also seem to fuel globalization.
Many service jobs, such as call centers, animation, transcription, and software
development can be carried out remotely. It is estimated that 160 million jobs, or
about 11 per cent of the projected 1.46 billion service jobs worldwide in 2008, could
be carried out remotely, barring any constraints on supply (McKinley Global Institute,
2005 - I). Section 5 discusses a global human resource information system that
collects and stores large volumes of data from various sources, including external and
remote sources. The system is designed so human resource personnel are able to
analyze the data to get business insights, predict future needs and develop strategies to
fill those needs.
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1. Currently Philips should have their primary focus on upgrading its human
resources through having a sound HR policy for itself. Managers and
employees need to share a clear understanding of what is and what is not
acceptable behavior within the company. The key to success is to devote the
time and resources it takes to develop such HR policies and practices strategy
for the business before the situation of extreme need arises. It's an investment
that can pay large dividends in increased productivity and minimized
litigation. And it's an essential component of comprehensive people strategy
for Philips.
2. Philips should offer more customized products. In this age of customization,
the consumers demand customized products for themselves hence many
companies are actually been benefited from this phenomenon. Philips can
make their goods more customized so that they achieve the increase customer
satisfaction through this effort.
3. Philips is still far away from the full potential in term of maintaining its
quality control. Which is harming their way to success. For instance, since
current state of PQA-90 program has not bought enough success as reflected
in the data, the program itself should be monitored more systematically. Along
with utilizing the BEST to its full potential to ensure companys capability
thus securing the brand index.
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Still, The Philips name and shield logo are among the worlds most recognized
trademarks. The quality journey is regarded by Philips as a race without a finish line.
As businesses grow and mature new benchmarks appear and new targets are set. For
such versatile organization, positive as well as productive changes can be done well if
the HR can successfully integrate all the elements of the company as an integral part
of the change.
The HR must take the leading charge in this overall process of change because of
having the greatest potential. Since they have greater capabilities of integrating all the
components, HR should act as a spearhead. To lead the charge in these kind of
change operations, HR should first earn the respect of others by demonstrating
superior quality leadership and other skills as well.
The overall implementation process will take significant amount of time and
resources involved. Therefore, success lies in effective co-ordination of them. The
implementation process along with their various consequences are described as
below.
1.
Human resource policies are the formal rules and guidelines that businesses put in
place to hire, train, assess, and reward the members of their workforce. These policies,
when organized and disseminated in an easily used form, can serve to preempt many
misunderstandings between employees and employers about their rights and
obligations in the business place
Currently Philips has no significant policy regarding their HR function. The existing
HR policy is too weak to strengthen the companys human resources. Policies serve
several important functions:
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Communicate values and expectations for how things are done at your
organization
Philips workplace is unique and therefore they may need to develop policies very
specific to the organization and type of work, for which there are no templates or
benchmarks. Typically, Steps in Policy Development for Philips can be like such:
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Employees should be provided with proper handbooks to have a sound idea for the
companys current changes. These employee handbook describe the organization's
policies and procedures. The handbook may also contain general information about
Philips such as its priorities, the organization chart, the job classifications, whether
positions are covered by a collective agreement and bargaining status for all groups of
employees.
They may have separate handbooks for managers and staff or may have one handbook
that applies to both groups. For the employer, the handbook can form part of the
documentation that your staff were made aware of the organizations rules and
standards and understand the consequences of not complying with the policies. Of
course, this is dependent on your employees having received and understood the
policies contained within the handbook so it is often a good idea to ask employees to
sign a statement confirming this.
For the handbook to serve as valid documentation, it must be updated as policies are
updated and changed. For this reason it is often a good idea to designate someone
with this responsibility.
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Often a handbook will be written in a less formal style and include only summaries of
each policy. In order to be able to rely on the handbook for documentation that your
employees were made aware of the organizations policies, it needs to include all the
key points of the policy and reference where staff can access the full versions of the
policies.
Since the policies and procedures and content of the handbook may change from time
to time, include a statement that the employer has the right, in its sole discretion, to
add, amend, or delete any policy or procedure it its handbook.
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An HR department that efficiently serves the needs of employees has positive, yet
intangible effects. Employees who understand HR is an employee advocate as much
as it is an employer advocate might be inclined to trust HR's presence. HR staff
credibility and top-notch employee services often result in greater job satisfaction and
higher levels of employee engagement. Employee engagement affects performance,
which creates a win-win solution for expanding HR operations if the result is better
job performance and productivity, according to Development Dimensions
International's 2005 monograph titled, "Employee Engagement: The Key to Realizing
Competitive Advantage."
The current level of HR staff expertise is as important to expansion plans as is future
HR expertise required to sustain department operations. Although many HR managers
are generalists by profession, a qualified compensation and benefits specialist might
be better equipped to negotiate group health coverage and select an administrator for
implementing and managing a newly formed retirement savings and investment
program.
After the proper estimation over a few periods, success can be found and estimated
well. Thus investment in HR will prove as the most feasible way for Philips now.
Because this highly facilitated organization, should have more focus on their human
resources, not merely on their equipments and facilities.
In this stage, efficiency in cost management should be experienced.
HR managers must be able to show whether expansion is cost-effective. Demonstrate
that HR is a "revenue-impact" department even if HR isn't a revenue-generating
department, says human resources consultant John Sullivan in his January 2012
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Some of the greatest innovations of the modern era have been realized by companies
like Philips collaborating together to set standards. This ensures interoperability
between devices and safer, more reliable products. Just looking at how MP3
revolutionized the way we store and enjoy music! Philips IP&S has contributed too
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deploy the right tools, in a way that your developers will welcome. Translating
new ideas into innovative products and putting them to the market rapidly is
increasingly important. Not just for a single new product, but also to generate a
stream of new innovative products.
Merging organizations need optimized & aligned processes
Globalization trends mean organizations across the globe must work together
during product development, which means processes must be aligned and
harmonized. We can help you to set-up and guide these change programs in a
systematic way, and bridge cultural and historical gaps through major change
efforts.
Industry Consultings extensive knowledge and experience in systematic
innovation process improvement includes assessment techniques and approaches
for planning and implementing process improvement programs. Proven
approaches and hands-on, seasoned professionals help Philips make the right
innovation process choices and use their resources cost effectively.
Financial implementation:
As the organization give their customers the highest standards, they will see a
boost in profitable revenues, stay connected to their best customers and lower
costs. Winners will be those that know their objectives, understand how much
customization they really need, keep things simple and create a repeatable model
for delighting customers again and again. Engaging customers through superior
quality raises the stakes.
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3. Acquiring greater
customization:
market
share
through
product
The principle reason Philips fall behind to fully recognize its brand potential is
because of lacking in customizing products to more personalized forms, a strategy
which other companies are getting benefitted from. There is a considerable gap
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between the companys efforts to customization with the actual customization quality
standards. As an international giant, Philips can should not fall behind regarding this
perspective. Therefore, it is a dire need for Philips to have focus on customization
from this moment.
An ever increasing number of companies are offering consumers the possibility to
customize their products, exactly as the customer wants. This trend has impacted
every type of consumer good product one can think of from clothing to vehicles, to
home accessories and even mobile phones. Enabling customers to personalize their
goods at the moment of purchase builds feelings of ownership and product loyalty
and gives the company a competitive advantage over those selling similar products.
The question is not why a company would want provide customization and
personalization the benefits of that are already well documented. The real question
is how. How can companies affordably build in to their supply chains the ability to
customize singular products as well as is there ever a way to profitably offer this?
None of these options are an easy decision. It may come down to evaluating the cost
structure and the expense of shipping products for assembly and fulfilment, before
shipping to customers.
Getting Products in the Hands of Customers
Another important consideration is delivery time these processes need to be set up
in a way that wont excessively delay product delivery. Customers will be as easily
turned off by the wait time as they were turned on by the personalization. Whatever
physical facility approach they choose, Philips need to make sure it is (or they are) in
an area where quick shipping is possible.
The cost of shipping, along with the time it takes to get products out to the customers,
is an important yet often overlooked element of setting up personalization services.
Understanding Demand in Real-Time
Supply and demand has always been of critical importance when it comes to
consumer goods. In the case of personalization, it is even more important. How many
products do they mass produce to default specifications? How many do they leave
prepared for personalization?
These are important questions and the answers can have a direct effect on whether
they are personalizing with profitability, or backtracking on what they can deliver.
Philips need real-time insight into their operations orders, returns, expectations,
market trends, etc. You also need real-time insight into where their products parts
and materials are. If there is an increase in demand, can they get the materials to
manufacture more products? This insight will enable them to have a much clearer idea
of what is needed right away and what can be held back until demand increases.
Without real time information, an offering like personalization becomes much harder
to deliver as promised, without making inventory, logistics operations costs and
fulfillment times increase exponentially.
Financial implementation:
As the organization give their customers the design-it-yourself option, they should see
a boost in profitable revenues, stay connected to their best customers and lower costs.
Winners will be those that know their objectives, understand how much customization
they really need, keep things simple and create a repeatable model for delighting
customers again and again. Engaging customers through customization raises the
stakes.
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