{"id":58994,"date":"2016-05-12T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T06:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/e52.nl\/?p=58994"},"modified":"2016-05-12T08:00:29","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T06:00:08","slug":"open-innovation-at-philips-we-had-to-learn-to-play-outside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/open-innovation-at-philips-we-had-to-learn-to-play-outside\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Innovation at Philips: “We had to learn to play outside”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The reputation of the High Tech Campus Eindhoven is\u00a0undisputed worldwide: one of the rare places where open innovation has resulted in an effective ecosystem around high tech hard & software. Where large and small, producer and supplier, competitor and colleague, strengthen the value chain together. What began as a place where Philips combined\u00a0its own research activities around their “NatLab” in the nineties, has become a center where around 10,000 employees in 150 companies collaborate in research, innovation and business.<\/p>\n

On the eve of the celebration of the 125th anniversary of Philips, former CTO Rick Harwig<\/a> takes us back to the period that\u00a0was so decisive for the current success. It was the time when the urge for open innovation and entrepreneurship and the need for efficiency reinforced each other.<\/p>\n

About this need for efficiency:\u00a0at the end of the eighties, Philips was in great financial problems. Under the leadership of CEO Jan Timmer, Operation Centurion was there to put an end to that situation. It\u00a0not only led to massive layoffs, but also to the loss\u00a0of various business units. Harwig at that time was still recovering from the disappointment coming from the folded project ‘Mega’: a collaboration with Siemens in the field of integrated memory products. Mega was a success content-wise but pretty much on the day that the finished product was delivered, the business killed the project. Harwig had\u00a0to accompany the 525 people from the development and manufacturing center to a new future.<\/p>\n

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High Tech Campus, \u00a9 Philips 125<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“They were without exception very talented people, so most of them found new jobs quite fast. In\u00a0no time we found\u00a03500 found different jobs where they could get to work. On a worldwide level, so when we recently got together again, they flew in from all corners of the globe.” Then, seriously again: “But for me this\u00a0was a defining moment. I knew then for sure that we would\u00a0never do a project in this way again. If Mega had shown anything it was the bankruptcy of the separate development of technology and business. ”<\/p>\n

So for Harwig, the decision to bring together all research and development activities into one place was not only an efficiency operation, but also an opportunity to put his ideas on entrepreneurship and open innovation to work. “In the ’90s Philips R & D was fragmented among dozens of places around the world, each with its own traditions, and\u00a0each having its own processes. That made the reconciliation sometimes rather complicated, so it was, especially considering the miserable position of Philips at that time, logical that all these activities were\u00a0put together at the High Tech Campus. Fortunately I was not alone in my\u00a0belief that the real efficiency could only be achieved in a system of open innovation and entrepreneurship. We had to learn to play outside.”<\/p>\n

From the Linkedin profile of Rick Harwig<\/a>:
\nOpen Innovation<\/strong><\/em>
\nThis is best or at Carried out through partnerships. The days of innovating in isolation are over. No one company can be expected to know all the answers. That’s why we regularly work together with a wide network of institutes, companies, universities and hospitals to Jointly develop meaningful new breakthroughs.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n