Philips Research brought together a group of companies to talk about their experience of Open Innovation in MiPlaza yesterday. The analogy they made was that they invite others to "cook in their kitchen", using Philip's inhouse skills in processing, materials analysis, testing, prototyping and user acceptance to help other companies bring products to life. Around 20-25% of their R&D capabilities are available in the MiPlaza facility, and there is a continuous process of review to open up more for use. The invitation-only audience illustrated just how open Philips are, covering the whole range of scale, from other multinational members like BT, Nokia, Samsung, native leaders like Cambridge Consultants, CSR, CDT, and many small start-ups keen to start a collaboration. Philips believe that ideas Not Invented Here will help them create a lot of value.
The keynote speech from Hermann Hauser showed just how effective this way of working has been for local companies. As he pointed out, when he was asked by the FT in the 1990s when Cambridge would produce a $1BN company, he crossed his fingers and said that there would be 5 within a decade, but actually there are now 7, 4 of which were his investments. Companies like ARM and Illumina enable new service levels from the mobile devices we use or the use of our own genetic information to personalize our medicine, working in partnership with other companies around the world.
Philips Research clearly feel at home here in Cambridge, and want our companies to feel at home in Eindhoven. It is great to see other divisions of the company engaging here - and giving more opportunities for Cambridge ideas to change the world.
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