1. IKEA (Louis Orme-Lynch)
October 6th 2012
IKEA-Case Study
• Ingvar Kamprad invented IKEA, he begun the business in a shed and today it is one
of the worlds largest businesses.
• He had big plans for his business. His strategy was to seriously undercut his
competitors.
• Today IKEA has 225 stores in more than 30 countries. It also has an annual turnover
of more than $17 billion and 90,000 employees. This leads to Kamprad being one of the
richest men in the world.
• The company has always worked extremely hard on the method of keeping things
simple in a complex world. (Peters and Waterman) an example of this is Kamprads
great idea of “flatpacking” this meant that people could easily take the flatpacked
furniture in their cars and assemble it themselves.
• IKEA stores appear in some of the worlds main countries, eg. (Norway, Denmark,
Germany, Australia, Canada)
• The company remains privately owned through a web of private trusts and charitable
foundations.
• Profits have never been revealed, however it is estimated that they are 6 to 7 percent
of total sales.
• The company have a laid back way of leadership and management its ethos
encourages it’s staff to be known as coworkers.
• Unlike many managers Kamprad does not just sit behind a desk he is very involved in
his company. Eg. (spent a 7 hour train journey surveying passengers on what they
thought of IKEA.
• Despite Kamprads large fortune he still flies economy and never wears suits to work
and catches public transport. Today he is known as the senior adviser in the company
while his three sons are involved in the day to day running of the company.
