Circular Strategy at Philips: Turning Trade-Ins Into Revenue

How can a 100+ year old linear company transform its processes to make circularity commercially irresistible? In this episode, Patrick Lerou, Global Lead for Circularity, and co-host Florian Witt, Director of Technology at INDEED Innovation, discuss how Philips built a circular system for high-value medical equipment that turns trade-ins into revenue, parts harvesting into supply chain resilience, and refurbishment into a competitive advantage. What you'll hear in this episode: • How Philips uses a three-tier triage system to maximize value from returned equipment through resale, parts harvesting, or certified recycling. • Why "seeing is believing" works as a sales strategy, with factory tours convincing procurement directors and even governments of refurbishment quality. • How the Suez Canal crisis revealed circularity's hidden benefit: supply chain resilience through self-sourced components. This episode covers the operational mechanics and commercial logic behind enterprise-scale circularity, including how to navigate fragmented global regulations and connect data points. This is the fourth episode in the series Irresistible Circular Business, sponsored by INDEED Innovation, the global design and innovation firm pioneering the Circular Economy. The series showcases business practices that deliver irresistible commercial and circular results, with examples from different industries across different R-strategies.