Essay on Ikea's Global Sourcing Challenge

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

1) Issue – The team wants to develop new ventures and wants to keep it in house. They realize that everyone has things that they are working on. They start thinking of pulling warehouse staff to assist with order fulfillment, but right away Maria says no that it is not cost efficient to outfit them with new hardware. The

In IKEA, the Unsolicited Proposal came from many directions. Firstly, in 1952 the boycott by Swedish retailers to IKEA, obliged to IKEA to seek new sources of furniture. Second, the Swedish furniture market demand fall by the early 1970s. Third, IKEA had identified as we said before two big markets to

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

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.

Global sourcing is an important sourcing strategy for IKEA Company. According to Hultman, Hertz and Johnsen (2012), in 2008, IKEA has 54 different sourcing countries and 30 purchasing departments which were located all over the world. With the expansion of its market, IKEA was not satisfied with selling its product only in domestic and Nordic market instead it put its higher goal in global market. Therefore the sourcing market also expanded with the growing market. There were 64% of its products were sourced from European countries which were mainly in eastern part like Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Hungary; China with a 22% share of the supply was the largest single supply market, and Poland with a 16% share (IKEA 2007). However, IKEA also trades off the cost of raw materials and cost of transportation, hence IKEA combined the Global sourcing with local sourcing strategy to lower the total cost.

The case I will analyze and discuss in this case study is “IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor”. I will begin with the vision, values, and strategy of IKEA and an internal analysis of the issues that they have faced as of the time of the case. Next, I will detail the issues IKEA faced in the years prior to the Indian rugs and child labor challenge. Then I will describe the Indian rug and child labor problem that IKEA faced

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.

IKEA is considered to be a low cost, high quality producer in the furniture industry, therefore it is important to

4) For those recommending that IKEA continue to source carpets in India, would you suggest

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?

The practice of world trade amongst countries has taken over the rate of domestic production. It has led to the free flowing of money across national borders, which opens doors for companies and investors to seek for best rates for financing anywhere across the globe. Such trend is known as globalization and Cullen & Parboteeah (2008) defines globalisation as the worldwide trend of borderless and interlinked world economies, and companies no longer restrain by domestic boundaries and possibly conduct any business activities throughout the globe.

IKEA is the largest furniture chain in the world, and in 2011 the Swedish company operated over 270 stores in 25 countries. In 2011 IKEA sales soared to over $35 billion, or over 20% of the global furniture market. Most of its stuffs believed IKEA will massive growth throughout the world in the coming decade because IKEA could provide what customer wanted: good design, and good made contemporary furniture with an affordable price. In one word, IKEA’s global approach focuses on simplicity, attention to detail, cost consciousness, and responsiveness in every aspect of its operations and behavior. (Jones, 2013)

As pointed out in Ikea's mission statement, the company is in business to produce high quality products at a low cost. This would support a

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