Neil I. Patel

Probably Decoder listeners most famously associate Philips with the Hue light bulbs. That was the lighting division that got spun out into a company called Signify. You were there when that happened. Walk me through some of this process of taking the big conglomerate and turning it into lots of little pieces. Because here in the United States, mostly what we see is conglomerates getting bigger.

Probably Decoder listeners most famously associate Philips with the Hue light bulbs. That was the lighting division that got spun out into a company called Signify. You were there when that happened. Walk me through some of this process of taking the big conglomerate and turning it into lots of little pieces. Because here in the United States, mostly what we see is conglomerates getting bigger.

Probably Decoder listeners most famously associate Philips with the Hue light bulbs. That was the lighting division that got spun out into a company called Signify. You were there when that happened. Walk me through some of this process of taking the big conglomerate and turning it into lots of little pieces. Because here in the United States, mostly what we see is conglomerates getting bigger.

Walk me through going through that process in reverse.

Walk me through going through that process in reverse.

Walk me through going through that process in reverse.

I have a lot of questions about that because so many tech companies see that as an opportunity, see it as a market. There's a lot of general, I would say, consumer confusion about what some of these numbers mean. And then there's the ongoing support. So I have a lot of questions about that. But I just want to stay on the structure for one more turn.

I have a lot of questions about that because so many tech companies see that as an opportunity, see it as a market. There's a lot of general, I would say, consumer confusion about what some of these numbers mean. And then there's the ongoing support. So I have a lot of questions about that. But I just want to stay on the structure for one more turn.

I have a lot of questions about that because so many tech companies see that as an opportunity, see it as a market. There's a lot of general, I would say, consumer confusion about what some of these numbers mean. And then there's the ongoing support. So I have a lot of questions about that. But I just want to stay on the structure for one more turn.

A lot of what I hear about when I talk to executives at companies that are going through M&A or trying to buy something is that in the market today, what you need is scale. Scale to go buy computing capacity from a cloud provider. Scale to go buy chip manufacturing capacity from one of the fabs. Scale to go into market internationally because you can only hire so many software developers.

A lot of what I hear about when I talk to executives at companies that are going through M&A or trying to buy something is that in the market today, what you need is scale. Scale to go buy computing capacity from a cloud provider. Scale to go buy chip manufacturing capacity from one of the fabs. Scale to go into market internationally because you can only hire so many software developers.

A lot of what I hear about when I talk to executives at companies that are going through M&A or trying to buy something is that in the market today, what you need is scale. Scale to go buy computing capacity from a cloud provider. Scale to go buy chip manufacturing capacity from one of the fabs. Scale to go into market internationally because you can only hire so many software developers.

Scale, scale, scale. And you're describing focus, which is often the opposite of scale. We're going to take these companies, we're going to pull them apart, and we're going to have overlapping functions, like all the way overlapping functions, different companies. Where does that push come from?

Scale, scale, scale. And you're describing focus, which is often the opposite of scale. We're going to take these companies, we're going to pull them apart, and we're going to have overlapping functions, like all the way overlapping functions, different companies. Where does that push come from?

Scale, scale, scale. And you're describing focus, which is often the opposite of scale. We're going to take these companies, we're going to pull them apart, and we're going to have overlapping functions, like all the way overlapping functions, different companies. Where does that push come from?

Where does the tipping point come from where you say, instead of what we need is scale and efficiency, we actually need focus, even if that comes with having literally the overlapping capabilities of two different companies?

Where does the tipping point come from where you say, instead of what we need is scale and efficiency, we actually need focus, even if that comes with having literally the overlapping capabilities of two different companies?

Where does the tipping point come from where you say, instead of what we need is scale and efficiency, we actually need focus, even if that comes with having literally the overlapping capabilities of two different companies?

You're describing a pretty significant set of changes in how you think about Focus, how you operate the company. As you've mentioned, Philips is a very old company. The logo for Philips is still on other parts of the company. They've been spun off. The light bulbs still have the logo on them.

You're describing a pretty significant set of changes in how you think about Focus, how you operate the company. As you've mentioned, Philips is a very old company. The logo for Philips is still on other parts of the company. They've been spun off. The light bulbs still have the logo on them.