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IKEA Scadinavian design takes over the world You may not know it, but you probably have at home any piece of furniture or decoration that has been designed in Scandinavia. Scandinavian design is very popular all around and that has been one of the recipes for success of the Swedish furniture store IKEA. If you live in a big city, you probably have a Swedish IKEA store near you. Visiting a IKEA shop is like visiting a Scandinavian home... and the world loves Scandinavian homes! Millions of people around the world have already fallen in love with Scandinavian style at IKEA. The secret: the very Scandinavian philosophy of "creating a better everyday life for the many people". Functional, quality products at a price that as many people as possible will be able to afford. Because making good quality products does not necessarely means making them expensive. The IKEA concept is one of the most studied business cases of the century. It was born in 1965, when the largest IKEA store was opened in Stockholm. Nobody was expecting hundreds of people waiting to get into the store, so the managers decided to allow people to enter the warehouse and help themselves. That was the origin of IKEA's low prices: purchasing as inexpensively as possible and flat-packing furniture for customers to put together themselves. Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA The world's favourite furniture store was born when young 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad registered his firm IKEA (Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd) on July 28, 1943. Ten years later, Ingvar opened his first furniture showroom in the town of Älmhult, southern Sweden. Today, there are 202 IKEA stores (October 2004) all around the world, giving work to over 84,000 people in 43 countries and producing sales for 12.8 billion euro (15.5 billion USD) in 2004. In April 2004 Swedish business weekly Veckans Affarer reported that Ingvar Kamprad had overtaken Microsoft's Bill Gates as the world's richest man. Ingvar Kamprad, born in 1926, may be the wealthiest man in the world, but he likes living a modest life. He flies in economy class, avoids wearing suits, lives in a discreet home, and drives his old Volvo when he is not using public transportation. He also shakes the hands of all 1,000 employees who attend his company's annual meeting. Ingvar has kept ownership of his company in the family. His three sons work at IKEA and one will eventually be named his successor. A company with Scandinavian values The IKEA business idea is to offer a wide range of well designed, functional home furnishing products at a low price – but not at any price. All IKEA suppliers must follow certain fundamental rules: working conditions must be acceptable, child labour is not tolerated and suppliers must adopt a responsible attitude to the environment. Anders Dahlvig, IKEA Group's president, said that "We´re moving in the right direction, but we must remain humble (...) We should remain humble about what has been accomplished so far, because there is so much more that still remains to be done. We can not change the world on our own. All we can do is to take small steps in the right direction." IKEA learns by listening, and a willingness to listen to what other people know through experience has paved the way for years of cooperation between IKEA and various non-governmental organisations such us Greenpeace, WWF, Save the Children and United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF. The purpose behind these relationships is to increase knowledge within IKEA, and, in some cases, to work together with them on selected projects. Some of them are: » Child Rights Project in India In August 2000 IKEA and UNICEF initiated a joint child rights project in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The aim is to prevent and eliminate child labour in “the carpet belt”, by addressing the root causes, such as debt, poverty, the lack of access to education, disability and ill health. The project started with 200 villages with a population of more than 400,000 and is expanding with more villages in 2004. This means that a total of 500 villages with a population of about 1.3 million people will benefit from the project. » Sow a Seed Project in Malaysia In 1998 IKEA set up a project with the aim of rehabilitating rainforests that had been devastated by logging and forest fires in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo. Since then more than 1 million trees have been planted. IKEA has pledged to continue the planting work until 2008, and in the intervening years the area planted will double in size. » Immunisation Project in India IKEA, together with UNICEF and United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO), has initiated in 2002 an immunisation programme to provide protection for infants up to twelve months old against the six most common childhood diseases. Vaccination is also given to all pregnant women. » Scholarship to study responsible forest management Since 2001 IKEA has been funding a one-year course on sustainable forest management in the Baltic region. Every year 20 students from the Baltic states, Poland and Russia, receive scholarships enabling them to take part in the course, which is taught at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science in Alnarp, Sweden. » The Right to Play Project The IKEA Group supports UNICEF in helping children recover from armed conflicts in Angola and Uganda. By July 2004 IKEA had raised €846,882 to UNICEF. In Angola, the IKEA contribution will reach some 80,000 children through a non-formal education effort whose focus is on learning by playing.
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