Philips 2005 Annual Report Download - page 49

Philips Annual Report 2005 49
organizations around the world, including a Gold IDEA
for Ambient Experience for healthcare and 12 iF Design
Awards – recognizing Philips’ dedication and commitment
to people-focused solutions. Eight design awards were
given by Asian organizations, including awards for solutions
for clients external to Philips.
Global Service Units
All support functions, including Finance, Human Resources,
Information Technology, non-product-related Purchasing,
RealEstateandFacilitiesManagement,havemadesignicant
progress in turning Philips’ Global Service Units strategy
into reality. Global Service Units help the company to
achievesignicantorganizationalsynergies.Theaimisto
implement standard business solutions that help Philips
to deliver on its commitment to “sense and simplicity”.
The professionalism of Philips’ service organizations and
standardization of its internal processes will help the
company to respond better and faster to changes in the
corporate and business environment, and support its growth
ambitions more effectively. With Global Service Units,
Philips is becoming a leaner and more agile company with
a stronger focus on its business objectives. The Global
Service Units employ some 3,900 people.
Miscellaneous
Philips Optical Storage
Philips Optical Storage (POS), with some 5,000 employees,
provides optical pick-up modules, drives and media for
CD, DVD and Blu-ray to the consumer electronics, PC,
automotive and media industries. In addition, it provides
sound solutions to the automotive and consumer markets.
The concentration of the PC segment activities in Taiwan
and the collaboration with BenQ through the venture
PBDS (Philips BenQ Digital Storage) enhances Philips’
focus on DVD+RW and Blu-ray Disc development. PBDS
isamongthetopveplayersandhasbeensuccessfulin
bringing innovative products to market (e.g. 16x DL
DVD+RW drives). Philips, through PBDS, intends to
remain a leading player in the PC OEM and after-market
optical storage industry. In order to sustain competitiveness
on a global scale, POS will continue to explore strategic
partnerships and alliances to realize scale effects in R&D,
intellectual property, manufacturing and sales. To this end,
in January 2006 Philips signed a share purchase agreement
to transfer the optical pick-up unit of POS to Arima Devices.
Philips expects to take a share of approximately 14% in
Arima Devices upon completion of the deal, which is
scheduledfortherstquarterof2006.
Mobile Display Systems
Mobile Display Systems (MDS) is in the business of mobile
display units for the mobile phone market as well as the
automotiveandaviationmarket.MDSwasreclassiedfrom
Semiconductors to Other Activities in 2005. At year-end
2005, MDS was reported as a discontinued operation in
anticipation of regulatory approval of its merger with Toppoly.
Unallocated
Unallocated comprises the costs of the corporate center
– including the Company’s global brand management and
sustainability programs – as well as country and regional
overhead costs and costs of pension and postretirement
benetplansrelatingtoretiredemployees.Some
2,400 people are employed in Unallocated.
Sustainability
Our Sustainability Report 2004 covered the process of
embedding sustainability in our organization. The focus of
our 2005 report is on how we continue to create value in
our company with sustainability as a business driver.
The progress we made on our sustainability
management agenda over the past year will be provided
in the Sustainability Report 2005, which features extended
reporting on key issues including meeting customer
needs, health and safety, environmental performance
in manufacturing, EcoDesign of our products, supplier
management, social investments in the communities
we operate in, and the General Business Principles.