The Strategy Of IKEA

* IKEA’s management philosophy; “Our vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people. Our business idea is to offer a wide range of well-designed, functional, home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible can afford them.” and all its activities is founded on its mission of offering wide variety of functional furniture for the house, of a quality and at

IKEA is a company promoting social values and paying close attention to the work atmosphere in order to encourage its employees to develop their talents and skills.

This paper aims to demonstrate a detailed description of the elements of ‘IKEA’ company based on its famous name in the furniture industry.

IKEA promotes equality among co-workers. Its employees cooperate on the principles of honesty, faith and integrity. IKEA believes that each employee deserves careful and respectful attitude. The company takes into account the needs of individuals within the organization and creates the environment of respect, trust and support. Consequently, one of the features of IKEA’s corporate

IKEA is a global furniture retailer, which is established on the concept of contributing wide range of well designed, functional, and low cost home furnishing products in 40 countries, with 330 stores and 154,000 workers (The IKEA concept, 2012). IKEA was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kampar and has turned in an international furniture retailer that specialized in stylish but inexpensive furniture designs.

Local partners could help IKEA to understand better the customer’s behaviors in the host market. The psychic distance would be reduced and consequently IKEA could adapt its products, its stores layout following its local partner advices. Traditionally IKEA used to push Swedish design into the new markets without considering the local needs. If they could find a local joint venture understanding well the local needs they could provide more suitable products.

While the company, CEO, and staff were all dedicated to the nine cornerstones of the business there were still some issues that IKEA would have to deal with, suppliers and sub-suppliers. IKEA ran into trouble in 1981 in Denmark when government regulation was changed with regards to formaldehyde emissions for building products. When

IKEA is rumored to be a very standardized retailer, i.e., a certain set of marketing strategies is used that are the same around the world. This indeed sets IKEA, operating on markets in Europe, US as well as Asia and Australia, apart among international retailers. Often the theoretical conclusions in international

IKEA is one of the largest multinational companies in the world dealing with several products. The company sells and designs furniture appliances and home accessories at an affordable price. Ikea has over three hundred stores worldwide enjoying the good name it has created for itself. While they are one of the most profitable furniture companies in the world there are significant challenges and threats that have been overcome and are still needed to be tackled.

The economy, the trade practices, and agreements are factors that help understand the purchasing power of customers, thus it deals with income, prices, savings, debts, and GDP. When a company has the intent of going for globalization, they have to carefully observe and study those factors, in order to have an appropriate marketing mix and in particular a price that is adapted to the country they are targeting. IKEA is present in industrializing and industrial economies where there is

Ikea has grown into a worldwide phenomenon with an almost like cult following and the world’s largest furniture retailer due in large part to its founder Ingvar Kamprad’s charismatic personality combined with his own philosophy of business management and the Scandinavian style of open management he has parlayed a fortune that will be left to one of his children who has proven their own business acumen by running one of his many companies profitably. According to Kamprad himself in his July 23, 2008 Acticule published by stoked in Major Companies Kamprad states;

IKEA’s Global approach focuses on the personal values and company’s belief, which is about how IKEA treat its employees and customers. Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, tries to transfer his values and belief, which is operation in a no-frills, cost-conscious way to store managers and employees. And the most important is he wants that they are all in business “together”, by which he means that every person who works in his global empire plays an important role and has an duty to everyone else (Jones, 2013).

IKEA is the world’s largest furniture manufacturer who offers a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at a low price that many people can afford it. IKEA’s mission statement describes the purpose and distinctive advantages of the company clearly. (See appendices Ⅰ) It can also motivate management by saying ‘create a better everyday life for people’ because employees need work together to achieve this goal.

Based in Denmark, IKEA International A/S is one of the world 's top retailers of furniture, home furnishings, and housewares. The company designs its own items, and sells them in the more than 140 IKEA stores that are spread throughout approximately 30 different countries worldwide. The company also peddles its merchandise through mail-order, distributing its thick catalogs once a year in the areas surrounding its store locations. IKEA is characterized by its efforts to offer high-quality items at low prices. To save money for itself and its customers, the company buys items in bulk, ships and stores items unassembled using flat packaging, and has customers assemble many items on their own at home. The company is owned by

In august 2008, IKEA had total 253 stores where 560 million people visited. Here the total sales became 23 billion Euros. Considering 20% sales profit here IKEA’s average customer per store and cost per store are given below: