Ikea’s Swedish roots run deep
Furniture retail giant capitalizes on value of a good creation story
ALMHULT, SWEDEN— Apple and Cupertino, Walmart and Bentonville, Ikea and Almhult.
Having a birthplace lends heft to a brand. Or maybe brands with heft realize the value of a good corporate creation myth, centred in a place with mystical qualities: the ocean, the Ozarks, the forest. Such a story can draw employees in and send them back out with renewed focus and purpose.
Ikea’s creation myth begins in the town of Almhult in southern Sweden. It’s a place of about 8,500 inhabitants on the shores of Mockeln lake, and the birthplace of Ingvar Kamprad.
Kamprad’s business — he began selling matches to neighbouring farmers — grew into one of the most successful commercial enterprises of the 20th century, bringing him untold wealth — untold because the company remains privately held, with no plans for an IPO on the horizon.
“I think that is one of the many fortunate things that our founder, actually he gave to Ikea, that Ikea is a visionary company, driven by a higher purpose than just revenues or money,” said Ikea CEO Peter Agnefjall.
“It is about siding with the many people, it is about creating a better everyday life for the many people, and when we do succeed with that, one way or another, we realize it’s actually good for our business, too, and our business grows and we make a small profit on it as well.”
Forbes estimates that Kamprad is one of the wealthiest men in the world, with a fortune of $3.9 billion (U.S.). In 2014, Kamprad moved back to the Almhult area from Switzerland after four decades of living abroad. He and his sons live in a small town not far away. He does not do interviews.
Ikea still sees itself as a rebel, in a rebel-for-thepeople kind of way.
Swedish furniture manufacturers refused to work with Kamprad when he presented them with the first designs for elegant and inexpensive furniture. The boycott forced him and his design partner to source products in Denmark, and then in Poland, where labour was cheaper.
The first Ikea store, opened in Almhult in 1958, has closed. The building remains as part of a campus of squat white buildings, including the functional-notluxurious Ikea hotel for employees and invited guests, a museum, a test laboratory and meeting centre.
In the lobby of the Ikea Hotel, in the birthplace of the world’s largest furniture retailer, deep in the woods of Sweden, a blue light shines.
It’s a bit of a riddle, stuck in the middle of an Ikea coffee table. The answer, as in most riddles, is amusingly simple.
Asticker on the table reads: free wireless charging. What? Put my phone down here, on a piece of furniture in a hotel lobby and it will recharge? On the furniture. Really.
This is the advantage Ikea has always had — great pitch when it comes to anticipating what people need before they know they need it, delivered without fanfare. Um, yes, we made this new thing. Look at the price! Can you believe the price?
The new line of furniture that seamlessly charges personal electronic devices is the result of Ikea’s new great leap for- ward. After capturing the market for fun, functional, well-priced furniture, after capturing the market for kitchens, Ikea is looking toward its next evolution.
Five years ago, Ikea slowed down its product development to focus on a blueprint for growth to 2020. Ikea wants to be at the forefront of the next wave of urbanization about to crash around the globe, bringing most of its inhabitants into cities by 2017. There, people will have many, many problems for Ikea engineers and designers to solve.
In a perfectly imperfectly translated mission statement, Agnefjall says: “It’s about creating a better everyday life for the many people.”
The many people, it must be added, with “thin wallets.”
Successful companies have an evangelical mission and the person heading that mission for Ikea is Agnefjall, who spent many years working directly for Kamprad, now 89 and retired.
Agnefjall is tall and soft-spoken. His cornflower blue sweater over dark jeans and a dress shirt — business attire in Sweden is not Bay Street — matches his bright, clear, mild gaze.
For two years running, Ikea has flown select members of the worldwide press to Almhult — editors of the magazines readers turn to for inspiration on how to decorate their homes.
“The reason why everyone has Ikea in their homes is that it is affordably priced and it gives people the opportunity to have affordable design in their homes,” says Sandra E. Martin, editor-in-chief of Canadian Living at TVA Publications.