Case Study : Global Enterprise Ikea

IKEA is a world famous furnishing company known for selling Scandinavian-style furniture and other home-based goods. The company has over 230 stores, with operations carried out in over 42 countries with well over 70 000 employees. The stores themselves can occupy 410 million shoppers per year. It is a Swedish based company built on the idea of offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products such low prices, that a majority of people will be able to afford them. The IKEA group is currently solely owned by the INGKA Foundation through a holding company, unlisted on any stock exchange.

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

IKEA pursues sustainability in a big way which is why competitors could learn from their company. IKEA has a wide variety of products under its label. Today, 71% of all IKEA products are recyclable, made from recycled materials, and or both (A.Jefferies, 2009). In addition to this, Ikea recycles 84% of waste generated in its stores. IKEAs sustainability focuses on four components: products and materials, suppliers, climate change, and community involvement. IKEA bases

I decided to do my research at Lowe’s Home and Improvement. Lowe’s Home and Improvement is a hardware store that sales everything from your basic household appliances to minor cleaning supplies. Lowe’s believes that in order to maintain great customer service they feel that they must follow these simple rules: Provide customers with environmentally-responsible products, packaging and services at everyday low prices, educate and engage employees, customers and others on the importance of conserving resources, reducing waste and recycling, review and communicate progress made toward achieving established goals and objectives, and to engage on public policy issues related to sustainability. In this report I will discuss how I observed two

Nordstrom has continued to improve their dedication to the environment, steps such as: reducing carbon dioxide released into the air, using organic cottons and investing time and money into the discovery of more sustainable fabric clarification. Although many of these steps may seem like obvious choices so many large companies are still struggling to make the leap nordstrom has shown in these areas. The hunt for more sustainable fabrics is in hopes to lower the unlawfully logged forests and continue to encourage other brands, which they outsource from to be aware of how and where their fabric materials are made. The ethical decision to improve their own environmental practices and inspire other brands to do the same shows they care about the recent changes in society and are willing to form to these

Chapter 1 - “Everything we make does some damage.” Only upon acceptance of this statement can businesses begin to evaluate their operating practices and research new methods in an effort to eliminate waste and their footprint in the environment. The goal of creating a sustainable business is not one faced by just those companies who choose to take on the challenge. All companies share the basics of business - raw materials in plus required

Environmentalism in the UK: A Look into the Environmental Strategies Incorporated at Marks and Spencer

Looking into the sourcing of a multinational company is very important as we would know risks of investing on that company well. Inter IKEA Holding S.A. is a fully owned by Interogo Foundation in Netherland, which is an enterprise foundation registered under Liechtenstein law. It has no listed their shares on any market in world, the company elaborates that, they wish to create ownership structure that stands independence and long-term approach. Their profit will only be reinvested into IKEA Foundation for charitable purposes and keeping purpose for future investment. As a result, they used Euro (€) as their main currency.

Operations management is not only important for IKEA, but this is important forco most companies. And this is important for IKEA because the company aims to reduce wastages, increase productivity, time, and resources management in order to make sure that the production cost is low and at the stores the company aims to make sure that their warehouse is utilised properly, customers are explained the details and finally the product is delivered without issues so that the shifting cost is low. So this indicates that there will be set of operations irrespective of what field a business is in and at the end of the day successfull businesses are those which manage their operations effectively and efficiently. Besides, the firm relies significantly on its supply chain, which entails a range of processes from raw materials acquisition to the delivery of their products to their costumers. The key operational processes from raw materials acquisition to the delivery of their products to their costumers. The key operational processes are managed and controlled at the firm’s head quarters in Almhult, Sweden. Nevertheless, there are some operational problems that have been reported at the organization including costumers’ frustations because of overcrowding in its retails stores and product availability and wait times. Some of the measures that Ikea has implemented to address these operational problems include establishment of checkouts for costumers with small items and increasing the

A different approach about Ikea’s success is given by Sara Kristofferson in her book Designed by Ikea, London 2014. In the first chapter, Kristofferson refers to the relationship between the swedish goverment and Ikea.

Being sustainable can be financially beneficial to a firm in regards to their costs. Decreased energy consumption reduces a firms operating costs which increases the firm’s share prices (Peloza & Yachnin 2008). This shows that sustainable energy consumption can help firms to be more profitable as they can reduce their day to day running costs. An example of this would be Marks and Spencer. Marks and Spencer put into action a program called Plan A in order to improve their sustainability. This plan was focused on making the business become more energy efficient and reducing their carbon footprint through a variety of methods such as reducing Co2 emissions and reducing wastage in packaging. Marks and Spencer’s plan a report showed that their energy consumption for warehouses, stores and offices increased in efficiency by 34% since putting plan A into action. The innovation and new ways of doing things stimulated by Plan A was leading to savings of £50m p.a. (Grayson 2011).

study in sustainable collection in the supply chain process in the fast fashion segment of fashion industry; a case study based approach focusing on H&M and its main competitors.

Founder Anderson was the driving force behind this radical “mid-course correction”, to use the name of his book. In the 1990’s, Anderson recognized “that the Earth is damaged and hurting – badly” (Anderson, 1998) and changed the direction of the company significantly. This sustainable mindset touches every aspect of the company’s operations from its supply chain to its production line and even after the customer has purchased and installed it. It’s an inspiring story and it shows that working towards a sustainable operation is possible and can be profitable.

4. What is IKEA’s strategy toward suppliers? How important is this strategy to IKEA’s success?

IKEA has adapted to the operations function of a business. This function is the main function of every company. This key function, of which IKEA has adapted to, is the business function responsible for managing the process of creation of goods and services. The operations function is responsible for organising, coordinating, planning, and controlling the resources that are required in the production of goods and services. IKEA has effectively implemented this function by understanding the needs of customers. In particular, this applies to those who have a lower income, and/or, limited space. IKEA’s employees within the product design and product development departments, focus directly on the price and quality, as well as the design and function of products. Elements of the design are typically agreed on within the factory itself, this is where manufacturers and designers work together, to create a product with regard to the greatest use of raw materials and manufacturing opportunities. IKEA’s operations have proved effective as in 2013 it earned $35.5 billion. IKEA has a large amount of suppliers, greater than 1300. IKEA purchases most of their