Quotes from Frans van Houten

When you try to master the emotions of a decision and say, if you're 50 years from now and you look back, 'Did we take the right decisions?' Then the decision becomes a lot easier.

We typically sell a catheter lab to a hospital, and it sits there for the next 10 years, and we don't visit the cardiologist on a daily basis. Volcano have a disposable business. They are in the cath lab on a daily basis.

The agreement to acquire Volcano significantly advances our strategy to become the leading systems integrator in image-guided therapies.

You can't have a single design for all cities. The look and feel of the streetlights are very important.

We are very optimistic about our opportunities in China. Our toothbrushes continue to sell very well, while the growth of private hospitals diminishes the risk of government preferring domestic suppliers.

Minimally invasive surgery is the way forward: the patient goes home the next day; there are fewer complications.

Waste does not exist in nature because ecosystems reuse everything that grows in a never-ending cycle of efficiency and purpose.

Our myopic focus on producing and consuming as cheaply as possible has created a linear economy in which objects are briefly used and then discarded as waste.

Sometimes that Dutch consensus approach doesn't move you forward fast enough.

City farming is not only possible, it is the very definition of the kind of meaningful, sustainable innovation we will need to meet the grand challenges of the 21st century: climate change; population growth; ageing population; urbanization; rising demand for energy, food and water; poverty; and access to healthcare.

Healthcare continues to move outside the hospital and into our homes and everyday lives. With leading doctors and psychologists, for example, we've developed personal health programs designed around patients to catalyze sustainable behavioural change.

Government should seek more strategic approaches to developing dynamic, resilient infrastructure. Business must be more creative in offering financing solutions as partners with government, and people must support sustainable innovation as a public policy priority.

Concerns about the possible side-effects of connected care are swept aside by the expectations of the benefits when people are confronted with a chronic disease themselves. Resistance that could be privacy-related completely disappears.

The computer can do a much better job than the human eye, as it is much more systematic in analysing tissues.

In the back of my mind was the nagging discussion: where do we take the portfolio? You can get rid of TV, fine, but then you are in lighting and in health, and those don't have a lot to do with each other.

There's much unlocked potential in Philips.

I remain convinced of the compelling case for connected care.

Crucially, healthcare needs to become connected. It should become effortless for medical professionals to share relevant data with colleagues around the world. Medical devices and systems in hospitals should be able to combine multiple sources of information.

Growing and aging populations are putting increased pressure on health-care systems that are already buckling under the burden of chronic diseases like cancer and diabetes.

The entire dynamics of the lighting market are changing. Value is moving toward systems and services.

A siloed approach between suppliers doesn't really help hospitals well enough.

Sustainable solutions based on innovation can create a more resilient world only if that innovation is focused on the health and well-being of its inhabitants. And it is at that point - where technology and human needs intersect - that we will find meaningful innovation.

With access to professional coaching and support around the clock, patients will feel more empowered to manage their own physical wellbeing.

We can't think in terms of designing products that we throw over the wall to customers, but instead, we need to design products that are upgradable and maintainable and that can be mined for materials and components that can be reused.