It does have the largest home furnishing industry chain in the world, a huge R&D and design team, a strict product inspection system and an efficient logistics center. More importantly, the spirit of IKEA has been deeply rooted in the hearts of employees, and through their efforts, the concept of "creating a better daily life for the public" has been realized. As one of the fastest growing markets in the world, IKEA plans to open a store in China in 2025.
Smaran stone wall makes IKEA spirit.
Amholt is a small town with a population of only 8,000 in Smaran province in southern Sweden. 1943, Ingvar Kamprad 17 years old. His father gave him a graduation gift to help him set up his own company. "IKEA" consists of the initials of the founder's name (IK) and the initials of his farm (Elmtaryd) and village (Agunnaryd). At first, IKEA sold pens, wallets, photo frames and almost all low-priced products that can be thought of, such as nylon stockings.
Today, IKEA has the largest home furnishing industry chain in the world. Amholt is still the "heart" of this business empire-IKEA headquarters.
IKEA corporate culture originated from Smaran. The barren land here is one of the poorest places in Swedish history. The harsh conditions require Smaran people to make full use of limited resources. In the past, Smaran was mainly used for agriculture, but many stones in the field could not be cultivated, so people dug out the stones and built stone walls to divide the areas to prevent animals from coming in and destroying crops.
Building a stone wall requires physical strength, skill and teamwork, and now Smaran stone wall has become a symbol of IKEA's perseverance.
"Creating a better daily life for the masses" is the concept of IKEA. Since the establishment of IKEA, Ingvar has been determined to provide beautiful and practical household products for everyone. "No matter what your dream is, no matter where you are, no matter how thin your wallet is, we will stand with you."
From R&D, design, procurement, manufacturing, packaging and transportation, everything revolves around this center, and the IKEA team spares no effort to realize this declaration by all possible means to reduce costs and ensure quality.
First of all, IKEA's purchasing company looks for the most suitable raw material suppliers around the world and makes large-scale purchases to ensure the lowest price. In order to further reduce the logistics cost, IKEA has concentrated nearly 20 distribution centers and central warehouses in major transportation routes and distribution centers around the world, so as to facilitate the logistics contact with stores, pack products in flat plates, and reduce storage space and transportation costs. Ikea has a calculation that if we can save 1% logistics storage space, we can save 6 million euros.
IKEA's concept of reducing costs is also reflected in design management. Its design products also consider the concept of "flat" packaging. For example, in order to make the tray hold more coffee cups, the designer shortened the height of coffee cups and installed new handles. In this way, the pallet that can only hold 964 cups can now hold 2004 cups, and the transportation cost is reduced by 60%. Or adopt new materials and technologies to improve product performance and reduce prices, and the cost saved can benefit customers.
Any enterprise can maintain sustainable development, which is ultimately achieved through employees. At present, IKEA has more than100,000 employees worldwide, many of whom have worked at IKEA for more than 65,438+00 years. People who care about customers, are willing to keep learning and improving, and have team spirit are the people IKEA needs.
IKEA advocates simplicity and equality, and all offices are open. Everyone is wearing T-shirts and work clothes, and they can't tell who is the manager and who is the ordinary employee. They enjoy their work in such a relaxed atmosphere.
How different is IKEA's corporate culture? How long can it be implemented and to what extent? It does have the largest home furnishing industry chain in the world, a huge R&D and design team, a strict product inspection system and an efficient logistics center. More importantly, the spirit of IKEA has been deeply rooted in the hearts of employees, and through their efforts, the concept of "creating a better daily life for the public" has been realized.
Corporate culture of an old Swedish man
The true corporate culture should originate from the growth history of the enterprise and be shaped imperceptibly. When these cultures radiate from the inside out and run through the team from top to bottom, corporate culture is no longer a project for managers to entertain themselves, but a source of work motivation and team tacit understanding. At this time, corporate culture should be the belief of all employees.
Many people want to imitate IKEA, and many domestic manufacturers, distributors and even retailers want to set up a furniture company like IKEA.
The former IKEA agent in Japan also wanted to set up his own "IKEA", and invited many experts and Italian designers to set up a company called Actus. His money was abundant, but it ended in failure.
Stephen Carlson joined IKEA Furniture Company on 1986, starting as a salesman and then purchasing. He was sent to Pakistan on 1995. He came to China in 2000. He has been in this emerging market in Asia for more than 20 years and once served as a "sustainable manager".
In his view, IKEA products are easy to imitate, not difficult to imitate, and some people are already imitating hardware such as decoration and display. However, corporate culture cannot be imitated. In the past, some old IKEA employees wanted to follow suit after leaving their jobs, and investment companies intervened, but they never succeeded.
Why? He told a story about ingvar, the founder of IKEA.
Many years ago, IKEA decided to develop in Russia, open a store in Moscow and send a manager. A year later, the Moscow branch lost $200 million. When the manager came back to report his work, he was scared to death. I don't know how he will scold him and punish him at the thought of meeting ingvar tomorrow.
So he stayed in a small hotel near the company for about 100 euros a night.
The next day, he walked into the conference room with a nervous mood. Yingwa sat there, and all the senior staff of the company were there. He started to report that the Russian branch lost $200 million, but Ingvar didn't look up and asked him to report the next thing. After the meeting, Ingvar asked the manager where you stayed last night, and the manager replied where you stayed in the hotel. As a result, Ingvar flew into a rage and asked loudly: There are so many beds and mattresses in the company, why don't you stay in the company and spend money on a hotel!
200 million dollars was lost, and he didn't say a word. He flew into a rage to spend 100 yuan on a hotel. Why?
Because of the loss of 200 million yuan, in his expectation, he also lost 500 million dollars in the early stage of his development in the United States. Russians, like Americans, should have their own furniture, and the size, color and so on should meet the requirements of local people.
This is IKEA. You can't spend a penny you shouldn't.
Stephen said that in the company, he only wears a T-shirt to work, works with employees and doesn't have his own office. Unlike the bosses of many furniture companies, his desk is 3 meters (Obama's desk is only 1.8 meters) and his office is 60 square meters.
Stephen recalled that ingvar was 86 years old when he came to China for the last time. It happened to be his birthday, and everyone celebrated him in the shop opposite the Shanghai Gymnasium.
Everyone let him speak and prepared a microphone. He didn't need it. He asked everyone to gather around to listen to his speech. He likes to talk to employees at close range.
Engwa first came to China in 1986. He didn't stay at the newly-built Jinling Hotel, which was a five-star hotel. He thinks it's too expensive, but he only wants to stay in a hotel below three stars, and the meal fee can't exceed 100 USD. Wherever he goes by plane, he is always in economy class. ...
Ingvar is IKEA and the corporate culture of IKEA.
However, in 2009, Johan Stenebo, who was Ingvar's personal assistant and worked in IKEA for more than 20 years, wrote the truth about IKEA-The Secret Behind hidden in sofas, candles and toilet brushes, which gave China people a new understanding of this furniture empire.
The Secret Behind hidden in sofa, candle and toilet brush.
John Sternberg wrote in 2009: "This Swedish old man, who has 303 shopping malls and 65,438+035,000 employees in 26 countries around the world, always wears clothes and pants bought by Tesco supermarket; He is good at writing but pretends to be dyslexic; Fluent in English but deliberately showing poor oral English in front of the media; I only like to have a drink or two occasionally, but I only promote my alcoholism ... Even those who hate the rich can't resent Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA. He is the fifth richest man in the world, but he acts like a clumsy poor old man. "
Ingvar's wealth exceeds the GDP of many countries. Over the years, IKEA has used the media to get rid of negative news like a "non-stick pot", but its glamorous coat seems to have been torn off by the first insider in 20 years.
"Some people say that I am the richest man in the world. That's a fake. Pure fiction. Ikea has always belonged to the foundation. My family and I didn't get a penny from IKEA. " Stenebo remembers that ingvar had made such remarks many times. But where did IKEA's huge profits go?
In his book, he introduced that Ingvar weaved an extremely complex network of companies and foundations, and controlled IKEA through foundations and trust companies. On the surface, these foundations are managed by some lawyers. In fact, Ingvar has absolute power over all foundations. He can appoint and remove directors of foundations and trust companies at will. He also allows funds to flow between wholesale companies, retail companies, trading companies, import companies and Dutch foundations, thus proving that tax avoidance in countries with business activities is justified.
Ingvar's Nazi background was also exposed, the power struggle of Ingvar's three mediocre sons became a laughing stock, and the internal spy system was also exposed ... Of course, the truth that John shook out was not limited to the Inva family.
This furniture brand, which is the first choice for foreign tenants, has become the "standard" for tasteful life seekers in China. There is also the IKEA restaurant, where young people taste the Nordic lifestyle from Swedish meatballs and cranberry juice, and the elderly taste the "sunset love" from members' coffee. But the truth revealed by John, how can people face the moral integrity of the "Levin Up" brand?
Environmental protection has always been the propaganda point of IKEA, such as the tropical rain forest restoration experiment in Borneo, Indonesia, but don't forget that IKEA is a global timber consumer, consuming 65,438+0% of the global forest resources every year.
A few years ago, IKEA banned the publication of this catalogue because Ingvar was worried that someone would use this shopping manual to calculate the number of trees cut down by IKEA every year.
Raw materials purchased by IKEA also include wood from unknown sources. We have long turned a blind eye to illegal logging of natural forests by upstream suppliers, including illegal logging of trees in China. Do you still think it looks good when you hold IKEA soft-wool pillows and know that quite a few feathers are pulled from live geese? These geese often go through several rounds of purgatory plucking before slaughter, which is also the secret of the low price of goose feathers.
Like Zara and other fast fashion brands, IKEA is often accused of copying the works of famous designers and selling them at low prices. Ingvar's defense is that there is no pure new design in this world. However, if IKEA finds that other brands of goods are fraudulent, it will spare no effort to mobilize the global legal team and take it to court without mercy.