A taste of the best. Part 4: Eindhoven

Eindhoven is the 5th largest city in the Netherlands with a population of 220,000 in the city and about 440,000 in the agglomeration. The city grew most because it was home to multinational Philips since its founding in 1891 until 1997 when headquarters were moved to Amsterdam. And the city grew because of Philips in the most literal sense: the company built an entire village with houses for its employees. Many of my relatives worked for Philips since my mother’s side of the family hails from the Eindhoven region.The letters in the name of the well-known football club PSV Eindhoven stand for Philips Sport Club. There was more industry in Eindhoven; tobacco, textile and the city even manufactured cars. But in more recent years DAF has become a brand that only constructs trucks. Nowadays Eindhoven is a high tech city, with a so-called “brainport” which, according to the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), was the world’s smartest region in 2011. The Financial Times ranks Eindhoven in third place after London and Helsinki, in the overall ranking of its Foreign Direct Investment Index (fDi index).