Preparation of the euro and adjusting computer systems to erase the millennium bug problem were opportunities for companies for self-evaluation, the euro project director for Philips Electronics told a conference yesterday.

Mr Ton Ruhe said the pace of corporate changeover to the euro from January 1st would be set by the "early movers" who could benefit from the move and its synergies with the millennium project.

Philips was fixing its internal conversion rates, adjusting its invoicing procedures and producing its quarterly reports in euros from that date because the long-term benefits were greater than the short-term disadvantages. "If you compare Europe with the US, we do not believe we will survive global competition if we deal with this on an individual level," he said.

He was speaking at the Cranfield School of Management and The Irish Times-hosted conference on `Developing a Winning Marketing Strategy for the EuroZone'. Mr Ruhe added that one of its competitors, Sony, will be listing dual prices next year in a bid to gain market share. Mr Alan Taylor, the chief executive of European Insight, a consultancy company, said that although Britain was not one of the 11 first wave countries to participate in the euro it would become a de facto member of the euro zone. British companies trading with foreign businesses would be forced to deal in euros even if it is not legal tender in their own country.

"The UK political entity in the formal connection of currency and exchange rates becomes an irrelevance when you are looking to holding on to a trading relationship."

General Motors's programme director for EMU, Mr David Hopkins, said a central issue for companies was to "train, train, train" and demonstrate enthusiasm for the project. But it was important to make sure distribution channels did not make false claims of euroreadiness and that it was not "some sort of corporate virility statement". He said price transparency would not bring price co-ordination but prices would "narrow to the extent to which cross border arbitrage becomes unattractive". The euro zone would still consist of multiple domestic markets and governments would still impose varying taxation rates which currently meant a 20,000-euro (£15,873) difference between the lowest and highest tax on an Opel Vectra in EU countries.