In a few years, the company was growing at a healthy rate.Īt the turn of the century the company kept pace with constant innovations in the electrical industry by developing a skilled staff of technical and commercial specialists. This brief training in business helped once he assumed control, Anton began winning the company new customers both at home and abroad.
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Anton had left school early to work in London for a brokerage firm. Frederik thus turned to his youngest son, Anton.Īnton Philips, who was 16 years younger than Gerard, joined the firm in early 1895. Frederik was preoccupied with his banking and commercial interests in Zaltbommel, and, while Gerard possessed the technical ability necessary to manufacture electric light bulbs and other innovative products, he was not by nature a businessman. The company was clearly in need of someone with commercial skills and ambition to make it profitable. After negotiations broke down with the prospective buyer, the Philipses decided to risk everything rather than sell at too low a price. That might have been the end of the family's venture into the electrical industry had it not been for the fact that the only offer they received was considered unacceptable by Frederik. The company suffered heavy financial losses in 1893, and by 1894 the two men decided to sell the business. Father and son had underestimated the strength of international competition in the young industry, especially from the large German manufacturers who had entered the market in the early 1880s and were already well established. The firm could not produce as many lamps as Gerard had forecast, nor did the lamps fetch the price he had expected. Production started in 1892, but the fledgling company encountered problems from the very beginning. Philips & Company began operations in a small factory in Eindhoven.
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The elder Philips, a wealthy tobacco merchant and banker from Zaltbommel, provided the financing while Gerard contributed the technical expertise. On May 15, 1891, Gerard Philips, a young engineer who saw commercial potential in newly developing electrical technology, formed Philips & Company, a partnership with his father, Frederik Philips, to manufacture incandescent lamps and other electrical products. The early years of the company were very much a family affair. Consumer Electronics-with 47 percent of turnover in 1992-remained the most important division, especially as Philips poured new resources into R&D and marketing in order to directly compete with Japanese manufacturers and capture a greater share of that market into the 21st century.
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Into the 1990s, the nine product divisions remained: Communications Systems Components Consumer Electronics Domestic Appliances and Personal Care Industrial electronics Lighting Medical systems Semiconductors and Polygram (recorded music and music publishing). acts as the holding company of the Philips group, with nine chief product divisions responsible for global product policy and approximately 60 national organizations responsible for conducting general policy in their respective geographical markets. Throughout the company's history, the family has sustained a strong commitment to technological innovation, market expansion, and stringent management policies.Īn efficient organizational structure has helped maintain management's hold on the increasingly gargantuan company. (known as Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken, or Philips Incandescent Lamp Works, until 1991) has grown from a small light bulb maker into one of the largest and most successful electronics firms in the world. Inspired by the visions and leadership of several generations of the Philips family, Philips Electronics N.V.