...9-906-414 REV: NOVEMBER 14, 2006 CHRISTOPHER A. BARTLETT VINCENT DESSAIN ANDERS SJÖMAN IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (A) In May 1995, Marianne Barner faced a tough decision. After just two years with IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer, and less than a year into her job as business area manager for carpets, she was faced with the decision of cutting off one of the company’s major suppliers of Indian rugs. While such a move would disrupt supply and affect sales, she found the reasons to do so quite compelling. A German TV station had just broadcast an investigative report naming the supplier as one that used child labor in the production of rugs made for IKEA. What frustrated Barner was that, like all other IKEA suppliers, this large, well-regarded company had recently signed an addendum to its supply contract explicitly forbidding the use of child labor on pain of termination. Even more difficult than this short-term decision was the long-term action Barner knew IKEA must take on this issue. On one hand, she was being urged to sign up to an industry-wide response to growing concerns about the use of child labor in the Indian carpet industry. A recently formed partnership of manufacturers, importers, retailers, and Indian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) was proposing to issue and monitor the use of “Rugmark,” a label to be put on carpets certifying that they were made without child labor. Simultaneously, Barner...
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...Case 8-2 IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge. 1. How should Marianne Barner respond to the invitation for IKEA to have a representative appear on the upcoming broadcast of the German video program? I suggest Marianne Barner to refuse to appear on the upcoming broadcast of the German Video Program. Every coin has two sides. Accepting this invitation is the opportunity for IKEA to quickly response the child labor issue in public media. In this way, IKEA could assure that they will be more aware of social responsibility and potential upcoming social issues in the future. However, the German Video Program won’t allow the company to preview the video and that the program clearly “planned to take a confrontational and aggressive approach aimed directly at IKEA”. If they go to the invitation with no preparation of what kinds of issue and questions could probably be faced with, it might potentially mislead by the videos or questions they answered in the show. Therefore, Marianne Barner should politely refuse the invitation and respond the video when they have a chance to review and verify the truth in the video. While, in the meantime, IKEA have time to investigate the truth and assign more policies to against child labor issue for their suppliers. 2. What actions should she take regarding the IKEA supply contract with Rangan Exports? IKEA should sent out the investigation term to figure out the truth whether the Rangan Exports failed in compliance with the ethical...
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...The global sourcing challenges of IKEA Who does not know IKEA? Famous for its design and very affordable house furniture, IKEA is the leader on its market. Founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad this business grew tremendous fast that it has become the reference in term of low-cost self assemble furniture in the world. The sourcing strategy of IKEA follows a manufacturing Code of Conduct towards its suppliers named “The IKEA Way in Purchasing Home Furnishing Products” (IWAY) . Besides this code, the strategy is rather well established especially regarding the relationships between the company and its suppliers from the economically developing countries. But the question is; are Ikea’s international procurements processes efficient? Can they be improved? This essay will focus on Ikea’s global sourcing’s tradeoffs and will highlight the way they can be enhanced. The first part of this essay will describe the regular sourcing process of IKEA including the strategy, the second part will emphasize how the sourcing should be done to be successful and the last part will provide recommendations about the processes according to the analysis. For a company, global sourcing is basically choosing different suppliers all around the world in order to use worldwide efficiencies and reduce costs. Global sourcing offers various advantages such as low cost materials and skilled labour, diminution of lead times, and also economical advantages like low taxes or low trade tariffs. These benefits...
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...9-906-415 REV: NOVEMBER 14, 2006 CHRISTOPHER A. BARTLETT VINCENT DESSAIN ANDERS SJÖMAN IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenge: Indian Rugs and Child Labor (B) After more than a decade spent struggling with the issue of child labor, Marianne Barner felt good about how IKEA had responded. But occasionally, she found herself wondering whether the progress the global furniture retailer had made was real and durable. Just as it had in the mid-1990s, in 2005 the company could still find itself on the defensive in dealing with the issue. Even more troubling to Barner was that after 10 years of working to prevent child labor among IKEA’s suppliers— introducing a clear code of conduct, developing internal controls and third-party audits, training its suppliers, supporting their corrective actions, and instituting stiff sanctions against offenders—the company was still finding cases of child labor in its supply chain. The latest issue had been drawn to Barner’s attention by Kaisa Mattson, the head of IKEA’s compliance office in south Asia. Like Barner herself a decade before, Mattson was facing the decision of whether to terminate a relationship with a long-standing major supplier. This one, however, had violated not one but several items in IKEA’s detailed code of conduct, known as “The IKEA Way on Purchasing Products”—or IWAY for short. Venkat Industries was a textile mill with over 10,000 workers, and a recent audit had shown that it had stopped using the water treatment plant it had...
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...Background: IKEA was founded by Ingvar Kamprad who embedded his strongly held values and beliefs in IKEA’s culture. IKEA was created out of Kamprad’s family kitchen selling goods such as fountain pens, cigarette lighters and binders that later turned into a catalog business operations selling furniture. In developing IKEA’s furniture retailing business model, Kamprad was confronted with a cartel of furniture manufacturers that kept prices high by controlling the Swedish industry. This issue later became the vision of the company “creating a better life for the many people”. IKEA also introduced their key feature of self-assembled furniture where customers bought furniture in flat packages and put them together at home. This was known as the “knockdown” concept that allowed IKEA to save on transportation and storage costs. Conflict with the cartel of furniture manufacturers in Sweden forced IKEA to source materials from abroad. To maintain IKEA’s quality and delivery, IKEA taught their processes and provided machinery to their suppliers in Poland. After expanding their suppliers globally, IKEA created a general procurement principle that that stated IKEA should develop close ties by supporting its suppliers with a long-term relationship. By the mid-1990s IKEA worked with 2,300 suppliers in 70 countries. IKEA has 24 trading service offices in 19 countries that monitor production, test new product ideas, negotiate prices, and check quality. Since 1980’s IKEA has been looked upon...
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...Grading Course: Name IKEA’s Global Sourcing Challenges Professor’s Name [optional] University The stakeholders of IKEA- Stakeholders are groups or individuals (customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and shareholders or other financiers) who can affect or be affected by the successes and failures of a business. In case of IKEA, their customers who bought furniture form them in 70 nations, all the employees who work for IKEA in 70 countries all over the globe, their suppliers all over the world who supply IKEA with the raw-material as well as furnished furniture, and all those who financed the company to open its stores and make primary investments in the 70 countries, for its geographical expansion are the “real stakeholders of IKEA”. IKEA was founded in the early 1950s, but in the mid of the 1960s it became a global furniture manufacturing company. During its expansion all around the globe, Ingvar Kampard (the founder of IKEA) opened multiple stores in different countries, some of them were self-financed by him while others were assumed to be opened as the tie up between the company’s and their stockholders (for finance) in that company, especially, those who financed the company to open the chain of stores on the foreign land. Also, when some problem arises in the indigenous market when Sweden’s local large furniture retailers threatened and all the sourcing and suppliers were blocked and even small retailers were ordered not to sell IKEA’s product, under that circumstance...
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...child labor, they can’t ignore the challenge this program may bring. • IKEA has gained some positive accomplishments to the child labor issue and took actions to eradicate child labor. It is a good chance to further publicize their efforts. • Marianne should prepare herself well by analyzing the situation of that year (May 1995) before going to the program; Rangan Exports should be investigated by both independent 3rd party auditors and IKEA before the program. • It is the opportunity to communicate with the public regarding Ikea’s long-term strategy with accurate milestones to prevent child labor, in response to their social responsibility. • If Marianne is not outspoken, an eloquent person from the senior management who is familiar with IKEA’s child labor issue and company’s stand should go to the program. 2. Should IKEA continue to deal with Rangan Exports? • No. Rangan Exports apparently violated the contractual commitment it had made not to use child labor. Legally speaking, IKEA should terminate the contact right away. • In 1994 after the Pakistan child labor issue, IKEA already had a clause to all supply contracts, stating that if the supplier employed children under legal working age, the contract would be cancelled (a “black-and-white” clause). • By halting the contract with Rangan Exports, IKEA sends a clear message to other suppliers that principles must be adhered to. • Indian rugs accounted for a tiny part of IKEA’S turnover. Even if cutting off Rangan...
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...IKEA The Impact of Globalisation Definition of Globalisation Globalisation is the process by which organisations or businesses start operations on an international scale by committing facilities and resources in foreign countries. The International Monetary Fund, (IMF) continues to believe that this will lead to global convergence through aspects of trade and transactions, capital and investment movements, migration and the movement of people and dissemination of knowledge. Mission Statement - “to create a better everyday life for the many”. Focus Areas & Goals:- Children: IKEA believe that children are the most important people in the world. By supporting their local communities, they hope to assist in children to achieve their fullest potential through development and learning. IKEA has experience in this area and can make a difference. Environment: “Low Price, but not at any price”. IKEA aim to have a positive impact on the local environment and how their business may impact upon it. Their store effectiveness, is measured on how environmentally responsible they are. (IKEA.com (2012). About IKEA, The IKEA Way) Introduction Ingvar Kamprad was born in 1926 on a farm called Elmtaryd, in the small Swedish village of Agunnaryd. At the young age of just 5, he was already showing that he was to become a successful entrepreneur by selling matches to his parent’s friends and neighbours and within two years was selling further afield by travelling to other villages on...
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...successful global brand? Why has it been successful? Ikea is a very successful global brand, not because it has 226 stores in Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States with 410 million shoppers a year, not because other global brand like Wal-mart stumbled in Brazil, Germany and Japan but for Ikea’s unique cultural branding that merges the value and fashionable design to ensure the creation of an affordable contemporary household goods (not just the furniture with 5-10% sales in each country with Ikea stores) for the middle-class. This uniqueness of its corporate DNA is the main reason why the Ikea is so successful globally. The frugality of the founder of the Ikea with his desire to create “better life for many”, these two tenets are deeply embedded into Ikea’s corporate DNA. The frugality combining with the obsession with design forming a unique brand that became a global cult brand. As a global brand Ikea stands for 1) Unique household products with contemporary design, affordable prices that will inspire consumers 2) A gathering place the global tribes that are sensible in cost, design, and green environment. 3) Egalitarianism. The Ikea as a corporation is very flat, the executives performs first-line employees’ job in an “Anti-bureaucracy Week” 4) High Competitive. Constantly dropping the price (2-3% annually) to provide the best values for customers (consumers). What is the relationship between Ikea’s brand and design? As described in the Ikea’s corporate DNA...
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...SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT TERM PAPER ON IKEA’S SOURCING, DISTRIBUTION STRATEGY AND ITS GREEN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT BY: SUBMITTED TO: KANIKA MURARKA Dr. P R S SARMA 1226113122 MBA-IB IIIrd TRIMESTER INTRODUCTION IKEA Group (IKEA) is a global retailer of Scandinavian designed furniture and accessories founded in Sweden in 1943. It has operations in 44 countries across Europe, North America, Asia and Australia and is headquartered in Delft, Netherlands. It employs 13000 people and sells 9500 home furnishing products in 298 retail stores worldwide. IKEA recorded revenues of $36101.5 million during the financial year ended in August 2012, an increase of 9.8% over 2011. IKEA offers a range of furniture for living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens and children’s rooms. Its emphasis on providing home furnishing products at low prices has been the main reason for the widespread customer acceptance of its products which, in turn, has facilitated its growth in various geographies. The company designs, manufactures, transports, sells and assembles its merchandise to minimize cost at each level. To help keep prices low, the group ensures that production equipment and raw materials are used efficiently. Customer involvement also contributes to low prices. IKEA relies on customers to choose, collect...
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...What are IKEA’s firm-specific advantages? Country - specific advantages? IKEA’s firm and country specific advantages could be the following: IKEA sells the same furniture all over the world, so IKEA rips huge economies of scale from the size of its stores and the big production runs necessary to stock them. IKEA also offers a low competitive price because of the economies of scale (30% lower than competitors) Exclusive relationship between IKEA and its suppliers, offering modern and exclusive designs for IKEA. Designers also work closely with suppliers, keeping the costs low. Ready-to-assemble kits help to stack products in shelves in order to maintain larger inventories. The cash and carry shopping formula; you can go to the rack directly to collect the product and go home to build it by yourself. Successful use of the word of mouth and the use of catalogues in order to reduce the advertising costs. IKEA has simple and plain staff levels, lowering the fixed costs and giving more freedom to its employees. This management structure also helps making decisions in a faster way. 2. What are the cultural factors that make expansion abroad in retailing difficult? What has made it possible in IKEA’s case? Ikea has encountered many problems when entering the U.S. market because it had to adapt its products and its shopping style to the American standards. IKEA had to redesign its beds because the American citizens were not buying the European size beds (Beds in America...
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... Instead of having its own manufacturing facilities, IKEA subcontracts manufacturers. and also engages customers as pro-sumers, where they both consume and partake in the production process. Finally, IKEA has one of the most efficient internal production system. In addition, to maintain the cost leadership, IKEA’s suppliers are located in low cost nations with close proximity to raw materials and reliable access to distribution channels. Also, IKEA utilises economies of scale and competitive advantages as they look for suppliers that produce highly standardised products intended for the global market. IKEA is able to keep customers coming back with its effective marketing shown in its eye catching catalogues, good service and strong in stock position as the most popular styles and design trends are continuously anticipated. With these three aspects, IKEA is able to attract its customers, keep the customers coming back and keep the customers satisfied. While there have been successes, there also have been barriers. One barrier is the differences is customer tastes all over the world. As it is hard to satisfy different tastes from all over the world, IKEA merged the global taste by having a Scandinavian base. For example, IKEA would export Scandinavian style products to the U.S. and export U.S. products to Europe. Since globalization has been an ongoing concept, people all over...
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...Case study : How IKEA adapted its strategies to expand & become profitable in China Executive Summary: IKEA is known globally for its low prices and innovatively designed furniture. In China, however, it faced peculiar problems. Its low-price strategy created confusion among aspirational Chinese consumers while local competitors copied its designs. This case study analyses how IKEA adapted its strategies to expand and become profitable in China. It also assesses some lessons the company learnt in China that might be useful in India, where it plans to open its first store by 2014 and 25 stores in 10 to 15 years. Swedish furniture giant IKEA was founded by entrepreneur Ingvar Kamprad in 1943. He began by selling pens, wallets and watches by going door to door to his customers. When he started selling his low-priced furniture, his rivals did everything to stop him. Local suppliers were banned from providing raw material and furniture to IKEA, and the company was not allowed to showcase its furniture in industry exhibitions. What did IKEA do? It innovated to stay in business. It learnt how to design its own furniture, bought raw material from suppliers in Poland, and created its own exhibitions. Today, IKEA is the world's largest furniture retail chain and has more than 300 stores globally. In 1998, IKEA started its retail operations in China. To meet local laws, it formed a joint venture. The venture served as a good platform to test the market, understand local needs...
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...IKEA, which is now another name of success. Because it started small by a person named Ingvar Kamprad but at first it wasn’t a furniture retailer. He used to sell other products, later he added furniture to his product line. His furniture business boomed because he was the one offering better products and a lower price. During that time furniture used to be expensive in Sweden so his easy on the pocket priced furnitures became a hit. At first it was an order based service later on they opened the first ever self service store of their kind. Their business expended to other countries as well. Things were going right but challenges were present too. Because different countries had different cultures so it becomes tough for them to get along in North American culture. But they managed it by becoming flexible and getting rid of the one size fits all concept. IKEA’s main believe was that they believed in love, they believed in long term relationships with the people associated with them. They always tried their best to maintain their quality rather than profit. So they became more successful than ever. In the end we can say that if you keep up the good work always then success will always be on...
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...Administration, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, and Standardised approach to the world 199 ˚ Asa Thelander Department of Communication Studies, Lund University, Helsingborg, Sweden Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the marketing strategy in China of the furnishing retailer IKEA in the context of standardisation and adaptation of marketing activities. IKEA’s strategy in China is compared to its corporate strategy throughout the rest of the world. Design/methodology/approach – The four P classifications are used as a framework to compare the central marketing strategies of IKEA with marketing strategies used in China. The paper builds on both primary and secondary data. Interviews with senior managers at IKEA are conducted and studies on business and retailing in China are used. Findings – The marketing strategies used by IKEA in China are found to be different from the standardised strategies it uses throughout the rest of the world. Several of the changed strategies are central to the business concept of IKEA. Research limitations/implications – The present paper shows the challenges for a standardised marketing concept and its implications. Originality/value – The paper provides, in the context of the standardisation and adaptation of marketing activities, a more nuanced and up-to-date picture of the strategies used by IKEA compared to previous studies. Keywords Retail management, Marketing strategy, Standardization, China Paper type Research paper 1...
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