Philips CEO: Left-Handed Technology Right-Handed Market

Pierre-YvesLesaicherre, the CEO of Philips Lumileds who has been in office for more than a year, was interviewed in Beijing a few days ago. He said that since he took office, one of the most profound feelings is that he has realized that although the company’s technical strength is strong, it is effectively transforming it. There is still room for improvement in becoming a product and effectively pushing it into the market. So, the most important thing he has done since he took office is "to expand the product mix from last year's 40 models to 140 this year and to 250 at the end of this year."

"Technology needs to be transformed into products and markets," he said. "Especially for Philips Lumileds, we need to change from a technology-oriented company that is widely recognized by everyone to a market-oriented company, and constantly enhance communication with customers and the market. More powerful market influence."

Target 2013: Sales increased by 30% year-on-year

At present, Philips Lumileds is divided into automotive lighting, display backlighting, mobile camera flash, and general lighting. From the business growth perspective, Philips expects this year's high-power LED production will increase by 50%, and medium-power LED production capacity will be To reach 1 billion, so the overall output will have a 100% growth, while sales are planned to achieve a 30% increase.

In terms of high power, we believe that current competition is more focused on light efficiency and quality. There are relatively few competitors in this area, but in the low- and medium-power areas, the competitors are obviously more, especially Taiwan and South Korea. Departmental companies are more challenging in terms of product prices. But in any case, medium power will become one of our strategic priorities.

It is worth mentioning that among the four business segments of Philips, the mobile photoflash business is currently the fastest growing, with a global market share of 60%, and all major mobile phone manufacturers in the world use our products. We are also advancing and developing cooperation with China's top mobile phone manufacturers. The general lighting business is the second most important business segment in Philips' four business lines. At this stage, the sales ratio of lighting LED products to Philips Lumileds has reached 50%.

Pay attention to "product" and "market"

One of the changes in Philips is that we have re-adjusted our business structure. The management has enriched a group of semiconductor professionals and will be more conducive to business development in terms of staffing. Second, in terms of distribution channels, Greater China is In addition to the original Future Electronics (FLS), Philips added three distribution partners, including Yushang, WT and Avnet, at the beginning of the year.

In addition, the company also clearly recognizes that although the company has strong technical capabilities, such as epitaxy and phosphor technology, it still has great potential to efficiently convert excellent technologies into products and bring them to market. dig. So, so far, the most important thing Philips has done is to expand its product line, and now it has expanded its product range from the original 40 models to 140 this year, and will further expand to 250 by the end of this year, which also means that we will Have more products for different needs, to serve a wider range of customers.

In my opinion, technology is very important, but equally important is the need to complete the transformation from technology to products, and to market transformation. Especially for Philips Lumileds, it needs to be more market-oriented from a technology-oriented company recognized by everyone. The company changes, so Philips will pay more attention to the communication with the market in the future, so that more people come to understand Philips. Of course, this also includes positive interaction with the public and communication with the media. These are all important for Philips.

From the beginning of last year, the medium power has also become the mainstream of the market, and in the second half of the mid-power whether there is the possibility of price cuts, Pierre-YvesLesaicherre that the medium power in the price has been very close to the bottom line, at least, the kind of greater The price reduction will not be possible anymore, and the price reduction will obviously slow down.

Now, everyone is fighting for production and scale. In particular, Korean companies have a significant excess capacity in mid-power, and Taiwanese companies also have different levels of losses.

All-round promotion of the Chinese market Pierre-YvesLesaicherre said that the Chinese market is crucial to Philips and is a focus of Philips' market. In fact, in the past three weeks, he has been in China (including mainland China and Taiwan) for two weeks.

The current largest market for Philips is concentrated in the United States, China, Europe and Japan. At present, the Chinese market accounts for approximately 20-30% of Philips's business share.

For the development of the Chinese market, Philips' plans will be all-encompassing and will not only be reflected in the marketing of the products, but will also be planned accordingly in the industrial cooperation. At present, in terms of high power, many domestic companies still fail to meet corresponding requirements in terms of yield rate. However, in terms of medium and low power, they have already obtained more qualified technical standards and mass production scale, and may seek cooperation partners in local Chinese enterprises. It will be one of our options for strategic planning.

There is a lot of room for imagination here. Perhaps, Philips can become a chip supplier for packaging companies in mainland China on the supply chain. In terms of phosphor technology, it may be possible to negotiate technology transfer with interested manufacturers. In short, the Chinese market The status is very important. At the same time, it also has confidence in the Chinese market and is actively seeking more possibilities to promote the Chinese market in all directions.

More appreciation of Jobs Lesaicherre said: The most admired person, of course, is Jobs, because he has many excellent places, the greatest of which is the transformation of technology into the products needed by the market. He learned a lot from Steve Jobs and also hoped to become an influential person like him.

For Chinese companies, because of the company's mobile phone business relationship, Huawei, which is in contact with China, believes that Huawei not only pays attention to investment in hardware, but also pays more attention to investment in research and development. This is a very farsighted vision. But unfortunately, in the field of lighting in China, I still do not see companies with such a strong emphasis on R&D and innovation. The impression given by Chinese lighting companies is often that they are very courageous in investing. So Philips knew that the number of MOCVD in China in the past two years was very high. The capacity utilization rate was not high enough and the return on investment was not satisfactory. In his view, Chinese companies seemed to invest more in research and development, relying solely on the help of the government. insufficient.

LED has actually affected the traditional pattern of lighting industry. Many companies that did not originally engage in lighting business have joined in and have an impact on the industry, such as Samsung, and China’s Sanan. In fact, these companies were not the first to do lighting. of.

In fact, Philips also saw that before Apple, Nokia has dominated the world, but in a few years these once-legendary brands have disappeared from the eyes of people, and many well-known TV companies have disappeared. This shows that traditional The leaders are not necessarily the winners of the next wave of markets. Only those companies with farsightedness and the ability to successfully use the comprehensive capabilities of technology and marketing are the final winners.