Ikea Essay

3. What strategic alternatives would you suggest IKEA employ to further penetrate the U.S. market?

IKEA does a lot of effort to implement their new company’s strategy for 2020, so called, Positive & Planet Positive Strategy. In spite of IKEA’s commitment to human rights, it is difficult for them to control their entire global supply chain. IKEA with other of retailers, were lighted on having suppliers in India which employ labor. However, IKEA declares that those proves were found in carpets producer from India from only four suppliers. (Max Ebnother, 2014)

This assignment had to be written for the class of Management and Organizations at Stenden University, course IBMS, first year. We had a group of 6 and had to work it out together. We were enjoying getting into the world of IKEA, the world’s most furniture store on the market.

The services and products offered by IKEA provide value to its customers in various ways. For one, the products and services are very affordable. The products and services are not priced highly and therefore, the average customer can enjoy them. At the same time, the products are of high quality. From IKEA’s slogan “low prices but not at any price”, it is clear that the company prices its products lowly but that does not mean that the quality is compromised. IKEA satisfying its customer’s needs through providing them value for their money as they provide quality products that will last for a long time, and at affordable costs. The fact that the company has set the minimum acceptable standards for its wood, implies that it is also keen on quality and on the environmental impact of its action of making furniture ( Edvardsson, Enquist & Hay, 2006).

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.

Strategic alliances could reduce the complexity of logistics if IKEA is able to find a reliable partner in this field.

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.

3. Did it surprise you to learn that both a developed country ( the United States) and also emerging economies (i.e. China and Russia) are the fastest growing international markets for IKEA? Does this fact pose any challenges in the way IKEA ought to compete across the globe? Why or why not?

An objective of writing this report is to identity and analyzes operation system applied in IKEA, the well-known low cost yet high quality home of furnishing. Function, process and strategy of IKEA operation system will be accessed to identity the core competency that lead to the successfulness of IKEA in the world. Besides, other purpose in complete this report is to analyze the strength and weakness of operation system in IKEA. Operation management is procedure where processes of production or deliver goods and services is being monitoring and managing. Operations management is the activity of managing the resources which produce and deliver products and services (Slack, Chambers and Johnston, 2010). Operations

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 can establish their business by targeting both markets as their product range of interior furnishings are required by both households and business establishments. However, in either case, customers are the target for any company. To be able to find out the requirements of the customer is the challenge and is the area that the company needs to analyse

3. How would you characterize IKEA’s strategy prior to its missteps in North America? How would you characterize its strategy today?

IKEA was founded in Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943. IKEA has been established around the world in 26 different countries. Within these countries IKEA has a total of 303 stores. This business is effective in adapting to change through the use of the four key business functions; operations, finance, marketing, and human resources.

These value adding activities generate numbers of benefit to the organization. They help in saving relevant cost and improve efficiency. Once the company successfully transfer product to customers, it will attain the revenue. If these cannot be done effectively, it will not generate and profitability to the organization.