Remembering the past, creating the future  

As the nation celebrates its 50th birthday, Philips invites one very special member of the pioneer generation to give our young Philips interns his insights on innovation.

Philips first arrived in Singapore in 1951 as a trading firm with a team of four. Over the last six decades, it has grown, evolved and celebrated many milestones with the country. Both a Singapore and a Philips pioneer, Dr Tan Jok Tin was involved in several milestone projects in the 1980s and 90s including the infrastructure for Changi Airport, Singapore’s first air quality monitoring system and the world’s first wireless traffic control system.

He describes the company’s growth in tandem with the country’s. Singapore’s industries have evolved with its people. From a labor-intensive industry, we quickly moved to a skills-intensive one, then capital, then technology, then knowledge, before we came to the innovation-focused industry of today. A society hungry for innovation breeds a generation of innovators.

When asked for advice for the next generation of innovators, Dr Tan says the ability to identify a need and the creativity to solve it with technology, defines the spirit of innovation.

The world today has seen so many new innovations. What innovation ideas do our children have, for the home of the future? Tweet your children’s answers here, the top responses win a suite of Philips home appliances.