| It's Me: the Spider in the Web |
Fabio Offredi,
Product Strategy and Marketing Director di Philips Electronics Singapore | Spider Man is not flying among Manhattan's skyscrapers, but is spinning his commercial web in the heart of Asia and tells us all about the One Philips philosophy . The idea of product strategy in Philips is deeply rooted. Product planning is an independent function and not integrated, as often happens in other companies, in marketing or project management". Fabio Offredi has been travelling around the world for the last 22 years and has a good insight into the global market, he is the product strategy and marketing director of Philips Electronics Singapore and this is how he describes the role of the product planner. Spider in the web, is how we call him, because in order to develop a product he needs to connect the many factors necessary to create it, as for example combining the technology needs with the consumer needs in order to create value proposition. For us the consumer is central, therefore the spider must take both strategic and operative marketing into consideration. Industrial design and development functions are necessary to understand the technical and legal restrictions and to identify opportunities. It is always in this metaphorical web that it is necessary to relate both with the development of platforms - meaning entire systems or families of products - and the development of a single article. It is at this point that the spider in the web has to confront himself with production, also that of external companies who produce for Philips. There is a growing tendency of having our articles produced by other companies. We keep vertical productions only in strategic sectors or in those characterised by high intellectual properties. An example that will probably surprise you is the important production, here in Singapore, of irons, in which many details, construction formalities and materials are covered by registered trade marks. If on the one hand our industrial designers are also expert in technology and economy, on the other hand our engineers need to know the designer rules. We must all revolve around a central point, the product, which is the synthesis of everybody's know-how. We do in fact meet around a check-list and everybody must approve the business plan according to individual competences and responsibilities: client needs, technical aspects, business case, design, legal requirements etc. Philips devotes great attention to each person working in the group, there is a special section with offices dedicated to following people like myself, who travel around the world, and there is a programme to evaluate and offer the right opportunities to young talents. Differences in culture and custom, which could become a problem, are turned into competitive advantages". Arjen Benders, the design director of Philips Design, tells us how professional know how has changed in the last years.
The designer's work is closely connected to the technological aspect.
The public wants nice looking functionally evolved appliances. Lovers of design don't necessarily despise technology, they just don'twant to see it. A new generation of professionals is developing, necessary to the new market demands: total designers who must also possess economic and marketing notions". Fabio Offredi continues by saying: "Buying an electronic product today is an emotional event more than a rational one. Once upon a time, buying a television was an important event, nearly an institutional one. Now we follow trends, fashions, emotions or sudden impulses. Compared to ten or twenty years ago attention to design has increased, therefore great attention is laid to the finishing of the product, like the choice of materials pleasant to the touch and the sight. From this point of view Philips has made a big step forward, from a technology push policy it has turned towards understanding desires and needs of the public. The AmbiLight television is a perfect example of internal cooperation, a concept we callOne Philips. The whole group contributed to the project: Philips Lighting, Philips Consumer Electronic and Philips Design.
Other sectors in which Philips is investing are: Lifestyle, innovation, medical (diagnostic appliances) and consumer- medical for wellness.
Singapore's role is strategic. Since our arrival, at the end of the 70's, Singapore's economy, thanks to Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister from 1959 to 1990, was growing rapidly.
To produce here was cheap and Philips moved many of its plants. But by the end of the 90's this city state had already moved towards research and development. As a consequence we closed our plants and opened an innovation campus and recently a inno-hub, a structure of pure innovation at the service of all the different sectors of the group". |
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