Interview: Royal Philips’ Journey From Medtech Supplier To Healthtech Partner

CEO Frans van Houten on adding informatics and building a health care solutions company

Health care delivery has been transformed over the past decade, and so has Royal Philips, whose CEO Frans van Houten explains why both were necessary, and the extra impetus for system-wide change following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Philips supplied

If business were a tug-of-war, Royal Philips’ Frans van Houten would have his team pulling in unison. “We all need to be at the same end of the rope,” he said, which goes a long way to explaining how the CEO has been able to transform Philips from an industrialized holding company in 2011 to a health technology solutions company in 2021.

Van Houten marked 10 years as CEO in March, and later this year will preside over Philips’ final withdrawal from non-health care businesses. That moment will come, as planned, in...

Despite the COVID-19 disruption last year, Philips secured comparable revenue growth of 3% in 2020, just 1% below the bottom end of the guidance issued by the group in late...

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