NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

As part of society, all of us — including companies — have an obligation to contribute to the positive state of the world. There is great opportunity in aligning business objectives with societal challenges and to create business solutions that generate both financial as well as lasting social impact. For example, Sustainable Development Goal 3, achieving healthy lives for all, is a major global challenge that needs to be addressed, and even more so in emerging economies where access to quality, affordable health care is not a given. But this challenge is not insurmountable.

While many emerging economies have made improvements in the delivery of health care, Philips is convinced that a radical transformation of health systems is needed to realize the goal of equitable access. But due to the complexity of health systems, it is paramount that all transformations are done through partnerships, and are grounded in innovation along the entire continuum of health.

We believe we must embrace the SDGs and take our responsibility to help realize them. So Philips has set a target of improving 3 billion lives a year by 2025, with the aim of making the world more healthy and sustainable through meaningful innovation.

There are three critical ingredients to ensure the implementation of this goal:

1. Putting in place new business models based on shared-values;
2. Developing new and sustainable financing mechanisms for health care; and
3. Investing in local-for-local innovation.