Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Ingvar Kamprad of Sweden: The Man Who Runs the Company

April 5, 2004 was just an ordinary day for most people. However, on this day, a report about wealth caused an "earthquake" in the world: Sweden's largest financial magazine "Business Weekly" stated that due to the impact of the depreciation of the US dollar, the founder of the famous Swedish furniture company "IKEA" Ingvar Kamprad, with a personal asset of nearly US$52.6 billion, surpassed Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has a net worth of US$46.6 billion, to become the new richest man in the world. As soon as the news was released, it caused an uproar. You know, Bill Gates has been sitting on the throne of the richest man in the world for ten consecutive years, and this unknown Ingvar Kamprad's wealth exceeds Bill Gates.

As a result, two people became extremely busy because of this matter: one was Peterson, the editor of the Swedish "Business Weekly", who insisted that the results he announced were correct, "More than a year ago, the dollar was still at 1 to the Swedish krona. : about 9, but now it has fallen to about 1:7.6; the difference between this entry and exit is billions of dollars.” Peterson added Kamprad’s bank deposits, securities, various real estate, and The entire IKEA company finally calculated that the total value of his assets was about 400 billion Swedish kronor, equivalent to 52.6 billion US dollars, thus surpassing Gates and Buffett.

Another busy person is IKEA spokesperson Marianne Barna, who was eager to refute the rumors. He pointed out that since Kamprad transferred the ownership of IKEA to a Dutch foundation in 1982, he no longer owns the entire The property of the group has been lost, so the assets of IKEA cannot be deducted from Kamprad.While refuting the rumors, Marion Bana acquiesced to the statistics about Kamprad's wealth on the "Forbes" global rich list. In that list, in 2004, Kamprad's personal net worth was 18.5 billion U.S. dollars, ranked 13th; in 2005, it rose to 23 billion U.S. dollars, ranked 6th.

The final result of the debate is not important, what is important is that such a billionaire has become the focus of attention.But compared to the hustle and bustle outside, Kamprad, the protagonist of the debate, is the quietest person. He avoids people's discussion of his wealth with an unusually silent attitude.Kamprad once had a wonderful remark: "When the first million arrived, I was really happy as hell, but now I have forgotten everything except the number on the money order. Money cannot Eat it for food, it just makes you rich. For me, the motivation for making money is to fulfill my dreams for my parents, for myself or other people who are very important to me.”

This is Ingvar Kamprad, a man who has created a business miracle. Today, when we look back on the growth process of IKEA and Kamprad with a calm mind, we will be surprised to find: how much Kamprad’s business talent has been carved in the growth history of IKEA. Deep marks. Ingvar Kamprad was born in Elmhalt in southern Sweden on March 30, 1926. His father was a farmer and his grandparents were German immigrants. They obtained a forest in Småland, Sweden through mail order. Then settle down.After two generations of hard work, after Kamprad was born, his family was relatively wealthy and he no longer had to worry about livelihood. However, due to the twists and turns of life, the family has always maintained the habit of frugality, which is also why Kamprad's later developments set the tone well.

Kamprad started his first business trip at the age of 5.One day, a friend of Kamprad wanted to buy matches with him, but the friend kept complaining that the journey to the store was very long, and said that he would rather spend some of his pocket money, even if it was more expensive. Walked so far to buy matches.Kamprad remembered that he had extra matches at home, so he told his friends that he could do this business with him, so they made a deal—Kamprad earned his "first pot of gold" in his life, although This bucket of "gold" is so insignificant, but it is so significant to Kamprad's life.

After a little longer, he began to sell matches to his neighbors on a bicycle. At that time, he had realized the benefits of "economies of scale". profitable.At the same time, Kamprad also pays attention to the difficulties and needs of the neighbors during the transaction, and he will take the trouble to buy for them any commodities that the neighbors are in short supply. In this way, Kamprad has earned a certain amount of profit. It also strengthened the relationship with his first clients.As time went on, Kamprad's business became bigger and bigger, so that when he could no longer walk on the street, he began his first transformation: he replaced the street peddling with mail order, and created an original notebook made of Mail-order catalogs were used to sell products-this is the earliest prototype of the catalog that IKEA now publishes hundreds of millions of copies every year.

At 17, Kamprad was going to school in Gothenburg.But before he left, he had a whim and wanted to start a company. However, according to the Swedish law at that time, the person who started the company must be at least 18 years old, otherwise someone must provide a guarantee.So, disregarding his family's advice to let him wait for a while, Kamprad Jr. resolutely rode a bicycle to his uncle's house. With his uncle's help, he submitted an application to the county council.In this application, he used the words "IKEA" (now IKEA) for the first time, and the meaning of these words is only his name Ingvar Kamprad (Ingvar Kamprad) and The abbreviation of the farm Elmtaryd (Elmtaryd) and the village Agunnaryd (Agunnaryd) where he grew up, who would have thought that after a few decades, the value of these words would reach more than 7 billion US dollars Giant (2004 US "Business Week" statistics)

It should be said that Kamprad founded IKEA just in the best historical period.It coincided with the end of the Second World War, and although Sweden, which was neutral during the war, was spared the baptism of war, it was also facing a situation of waiting to be rebuilt.At such a moment, Kamprad keenly saw the huge potential for the development of the furniture market, so in 1953, Kamprad decided to give up all other businesses and specialize in the operation of low-priced furniture, and the era of IKEA began. . In the early days of IKEA, things didn't go very well.At the time, the Swedish domestic furniture market was monopolized by manufacturing and retailing cartels, which relied on order contracts with each other to exclude new competitors.Therefore, in order to deal with the blockade of IKEA products by various domestic furniture exhibitions, Kamprad found an old abandoned factory building and transformed it into the first IKEA warehouse and showroom. Since then, the first "IKEA store" officially born.He also found another way, creating a business model that integrates manufacturers and retailers.This move has greatly reduced the price of household products, which has been welcomed by consumers, and IKEA's business has become increasingly prosperous.Such a result has attracted even more frenzied suppression from competitors. They restricted IKEA from participating in various trade fairs and united to put pressure on IKEA suppliers. But at this time, Kamprad was no longer a child. Know how to use various means to tactfully bypass these restrictions of the opponent.At the time, he was known as "the monster with seven heads" because Kamprad set up a series of different companies with different roles in the market, which made it impossible for competitors to prevent him from attending trade fairs.At the same time, he also launched fierce counterattacks one after another, and the most ruthless move was to announce special prices that competitors could not imagine at the trade fair.

Since then, IKEA has expanded step by step under the indomitable leadership of Kamprad, and no competitor can deter him. On the contrary, the small space in Sweden can no longer accommodate Kamprad's ambition. In the early 1960s, Kamprad went to Poland to find low-cost furniture manufacturers.He was impressed by the Polish tradition of wood craftsmanship, appreciation of furniture and low prices. His trip to Poland gave birth to IKEA's first overseas production base.By 1963, Kamprad opened the first branch outside Sweden in Oslo, Norway, and the business soon expanded to Denmark and Switzerland. In 1974, IKEA opened up its largest German furniture market in the world, and then entered the Canadian and Dutch markets. In 1985 and 1987, IKEA successfully entered the US and UK markets, and successfully developed the two foreign markets into the current largest and second largest markets.

On the development path of IKEA, each new stage happens naturally, but it is advancing on a tortuous road.When Kamprad Jr. sold his first box of matches, his business talent was revealed, and the drive of material desire was also awakened; when the first mail-order furniture sold better than other small commodities, he felt for the first time An urge to develop from a street peddler to a furniture dealer, he needed many things he couldn't see besides money.In the process of competing with other mail-order companies, when the ever-lowering prices affected the quality of goods and made customers gradually suspicious of the business, he began to realize the relationship between price and popular demand, and then he decided to make an entry into furniture. The new actions in the world began to create a home furnishing kingdom... IKEA has achieved today's achievements by breaking through the rules time and time again, and Kamprad has become a giant that cannot be defeated in the mall by virtue of such an unyielding spirit . Due to its successful operation, IKEA has now become one of the hot topics in many corporate research cases. The question of general interest is: what method made Kamprad, who was empty-handed, become a billionaire? Become a home furnishing empire like McDonald's and KFC are to the catering industry, and Wal-Mart and Carrefour are to the retail industry? After investigation and research, more companies tried to import some of IKEA's store layout and business model, but few succeeded, just like McDonald's and KFC have never lacked imitators, but they have never been able to compete with them. Challengers appear——Is it possible that IKEA can take giant steps in 37 countries on five continents, simply by copying? The answer is of course no. You can learn from IKEA to make the same shelves, wear the same clothes as IKEA for employees, open a store as big as IKEA, and even boldly go to IKEA to poach people with high salaries, but the final result may still be "painting a tiger is not an anti-dog". The reason for this is that any simple imitation is only limited to superficial copying, while a successful multinational company going global, in addition to a complete set of external systems, has its deep essence of corporate accumulation, and the latter is precisely the most critical , is also the most difficult to learn. What IKEA gives us is the harmony and unity of its harmonious corporate culture and unique management skills. Let us take a look at the wonderful experience presented by IKEA. For any company, corporate culture is the essence of the company and the foundation of a company's survival and growth. Even more so with IKEA.It has developed from a small mail-order company half a century ago to a large multinational enterprise with more than 190 branches and 76,000 employees today. , Various crises, but it can always rely on a kind of perseverance to stand firm, this is the most valuable and most worth learning. Kamprad said: "The true IKEA spirit is based on our enthusiasm, our persistent innovation spirit, our cost awareness, our responsibility and willingness to help others, our professionalism, and our simple behavior. As he leads IKEA forward, he will take the lead on many things personally: he will write product descriptions himself, because he feels that this is a direct-to-customer platform and must be taken seriously; he will He took out his wallet to pay the bill after eating a working meal in his store, because he believes that every employee must develop cost awareness; and the frugal behavior he has practiced over the years has now become an example for every IKEA member, and even IKEA cost The foundation of a system that is strong and not broken. These habits of Kamprad are closely related to his growth experience, but more importantly, he passed this quality to his IKEA in his own way. In 1976, Kamprad put all the IKEA values ​​he advocated into one - this is what he created the IKEA "bible" - "a furnisher's pledge".In this most conclusive paper, he listed nine principles for IKEA, the core of which is the concept of "the company is the home, and the home is the company" he advocated.Adhering to this spirit, IKEA regards "creating a better life for ordinary people every day" as the company's highest goal. Under such a goal, IKEA helps each other, is loyal to each other, unites as one, and lives simply. "IKEA is home" - this kind of simple language is often the most cohesive, it is far more intimate and more indestructible than those corporate spirits with gorgeous rhetoric and ambitious goals.Those employees who first entered IKEA were integrated into this kind of family-like intimate relationship with Kamprad, and this value was continuously transmitted to every new person who joined IKEA. Among the many experiences of IKEA, people think that the easiest to imitate is its catalog culture. All over the world, IKEA will produce a batch of catalogs with the commodity situation of the year on time every year.These beautifully made booklets have actually become an important communication medium for the IKEA spirit, because they are not only marked with attractive low prices and product descriptions, but also convey an IKEA life philosophy. IKEA's method is to classify and combine different products in the showroom to form imaginative model houses, and then copy these model houses to the catalog as they are, and it becomes a guide to guide consumption habits. The fashion home "magazine".Kamprad believes that when people see such a catalog, it doesn't matter much even if they don't come to IKEA to buy furniture, because such a catalog is not only a direct function of consumption, but also a kind of promotion of IKEA. Thinking concepts, and indirectly promoting the IKEA brand, in the long run, this way has a greater impact on consumers than selling a product directly. IKEA's way of spreading benefits from Kamprad's experience accumulated in his early mail order sales.At that time, he had to go door-to-door to introduce products to his neighbors on a bicycle every day. Later, when his business developed enough, it was impossible for him to recommend products one by one, so he thought of using a notebook to record products, and then let consumers Choose the product according to the introduction in the notebook.He was surprised to find that such a method can also reach a perfect deal.So when he flexibly applied his childhood discovery to IKEA, he created such a catalog culture. Today, IKEA's beautifully printed free catalog is very popular among consumers. In China alone, more than 2 million copies are distributed a year, and in the world, the number is even hundreds of millions.Someone once vividly said: In Europe where Christianity is common, the publication with the largest circulation is no longer the Bible, but the IKEA product catalogue. This experience of IKEA has also been successfully used by many companies today.Because people have found that the effect of advertising communication in this way is nearly 100%, which is not available in many modern media. For example, in TV advertising, only half of your advertising expenditure may be effective, and you Never know which half it is.But IKEA's catalog is different, it directly faces a special consumer group.Using this method for communication, although the one-time investment will increase, each branch is effective, and it is also worth the money from the perspective of long-term advertising effects. Like many business tycoons, Kamprad showed his God-given business talent at an early age.When he first started selling products, he discovered that buying in batches and selling them in pieces can make huge profits even at very cheap prices.This awareness helped him a lot at the beginning: his high-value and low-priced matches are often the most favored by neighbors; and now looking at IKEA's business model, it is also obvious that Kamprad has a consistent sense of business. Perhaps from a certain point of view, all commercial activities follow such laws, but a child who is just sensible can see this essence. Kamprad seems to have a natural talent for grasping the relationship between commodity value and price.He knew from an early age that customers always like high-value, low-price products.So, when he grew up, when he finally owned his own company, a question kept circling in his mind: "Why do poor people have to endure ugly things? Is it true that beautiful things must be so expensive that only the upper class can buy them?" Can you afford it?" Therefore, he positioned his company's goal as: "A good furniture product at a price that the middle class who is not too deflated but not too bulging not only likes but also can afford." For To achieve this goal, IKEA has launched a series of unique cost controls at all levels of the product. It should be said that in the wave of globalization of the retail industry, Wal-Mart in the United States is regarded as the most outstanding cost control expert. It controls the cost of all links in the distribution channel of commodities, so that its commodities can be lower than those of competitors. , still have higher profits.IKEA's cost control is similar to that of Wal-Mart, but it maintains its own IKEA characteristics. IKEA implements its own brand strategy. All products are custom-made by IKEA patented OEM. It must independently bear all the risks in the product circulation process. This is the biggest difference between IKEA and Wal-Mart, Carrefour and other retail giants.Therefore, pricing has always been at the top of the IKEA value chain process.IKEA's pricing mechanism is "design the price tag first, then order the product". The advantage of this is to ensure that the price of the product is the most conducive to sales. In the product development stage, IKEA can also combine low cost and high efficiency. Its design concept is "the product with the same price depends on who has the lowest design cost".Therefore, IKEA's world-class designers often go to war for "whether a screw is used less or an iron rod can be used more economically".This operation can not only reduce costs, but also often inspire some outstanding ideas, because "simplicity" is always the aesthetic taste pursued by IKEA. Today, IKEA conducts business in 37 countries on five continents, and has more than 1,800 suppliers who have supply relationships with them, which also creates conditions for IKEA to create more thrifty economies of scale.Under normal circumstances, IKEA will take its own final design and look for suppliers with the most suitable raw materials around the world, and those with the lowest price will get the order, so suppliers with low labor costs will appear in IKEA's directory in large numbers , including China. In order to pursue the goal of "valuable low price" to the highest extent, IKEA has been adopting the procurement method of allowing customers to assemble by themselves since its inception.It is said that this characteristic of IKEA is also the business experience that Kamprad learned when he was young.At that time, he had just entered Gothenburg Business School to study. When he was out shopping, he walked into a shoe store in Gothenburg, and he saw at a glance that the way they sold goods was too old-fashioned.The cardboard boxes on the shelves have been piled up to the ceiling, and you have to climb a ladder to get the shoes, and the shop assistants have to keep going up and down, busy among the various shoes... This is definitely not a wise move, it takes effort and wastes time.Inspired by this incident, Kamprad set a rule for IKEA in the future, which eventually became one of the secrets of IKEA: all goods must be placed on shelves for customers to pick up, and all furniture should be packed flat , for transportation.More importantly, this treatment also greatly facilitates the transportation of goods by suppliers and reduces transportation costs: they no longer have to worry about the huge space of furniture, and customers will be the best assemblers. Relying on its unique mode of operation, IKEA has won many loyal consumers in the course of decades of development. In 2003, more than 300 million customers visited IKEA stores around the world, and the annual sales of IKEA Group exceeded 13 billion US dollars. In the face of outstanding performance, Kamprad maintained his usual low-key and frugal style. Perhaps in his eyes, wealth is just a change in numbers, and his life will always belong to life itself.So when he lives in Switzerland, he still likes to drive an old-fashioned Volvo car through the Swiss countryside; sometimes he will take public transportation and go to the market to buy some cheap vegetables and fruits-the world can’t be seen in him The shadow of the richest man, but more like a neighbor's grandfather. But this old man who lacks a glamorous appearance has a far-sighted vision. He uses his wisdom to draw a blueprint for the continued development of IKEA's future.As early as the early 1970s, Kamprad began to prepare for his death. For him, the excessive inheritance tax in Sweden, three children who were too young to support the development of the enterprise, and support for future development The shortage of funds and the resistance of domestic counterparts all gave him the idea of ​​emigration. He first came to Denmark, and after four years in Denmark, he decided to move the IKEA headquarters to the Netherlands, and finally, in 1982, he donated the business to the Dutch Steiting Ingka Foundation - what he did Everything is to try to keep IKEA an independent and complete structure, so that it can develop according to its own route.After completing these tasks, Kamprad himself immigrated to a small village at an altitude of 700 feet near Lausanne, Switzerland, and lived a leisurely life in semi-retirement.Although IKEA is still Swedish on its birth certificate, in fact, it is no longer just Swedish, and all this was painstakingly planned by Kamprad. However, before he can really retire (and maybe he won't ever really retire, his most famous line is: "My life is work, endless work.") He still needs to complete one last thing, that It is to solve the succession problem that all family businesses will encounter. Kamprad has three sons by his second wife, Peter Kamprad, Jonas Kamprad and Matthews Kamprad.Now at an advanced age, he handed over the reins of the company to them.Kamprad's approach: Divide the company's assets into thirds and set limits on what the sons can do to change the company, ensuring that no one can shake the company's roots.At the same time, he also examined the performance of each son to finally determine who would become the final heir. According to Kamprad's wishes, his eldest son, 38-year-old Peter, took the post of chairman of the Netherlands branch, the birthplace of IKEA, which is the core power of the IKEA Group; the second son, 35-year-old Jonas, is in charge of the entire The group's large-scale product production; as for the youngest son - 33-year-old Matthews, Kamprad has hinted that he may take over the current IKEA chairman Andas Moberg's class.But until the final result comes out, this can only be a tantalizing puzzle! In 1976, at the age of 50, Kamprad decided to make a summary of his half-century career, especially his experience in IKEA in the past ten years, so that he had enough experience to submit an excellent answer.After careful consideration, he decided to use "A Pledge of a Furniture Dealer" as the title of this thesis, in which he systematically classified and summarized IKEA's successful experience, and finally concluded nine principles.These nine items are the essence of IKEA's survival philosophy and the foundation of IKEA's spirit.A summary is as follows: The first product series Our goal is to provide the most people with affordable, functional, beautiful and affordable everyday household items. The second IKEA spirit The true IKEA spirit is made up of our passion, our constant innovation, our cost awareness, our responsibility and willingness to help others, our dedication to work, and our simplicity of conduct. Article 3 Profit Creation Power "Profit is a good word" - IKEA earns its profit by low prices, high quality, developing economical products, increasing purchases and saving costs. Article 4: Start small Waste is crime. Rule 5 Simplicity is a virtue Complicated regulations can easily make people feel at a loss. Unrealistic and grand plans are often the prelude to the company's bankruptcy. Simple and casual can give people strength. IKEA never drives fancy cars and doesn't live in luxury hotels. Article 6 Be different IKEA has gone its own way, letting shirt factories make chair cushions, door and window makers making table frames, and charging up the price of umbrellas when it’s sunny and discounting them when it’s raining. Article 7 Demonstrates the power of development You can't do everything right in every place at once. ARTICLE 8 Taking Responsibility - A Privilege Fear of making mistakes is the cradle of bureaucracy and is detrimental to any process.Make full use of your powers and responsibilities and make decisions. Title IX has a lot to do and the future looks bright Let's maintain a team of motivated people who make the impossible possible. Everyone is equal before the law, but this man (referring to himself) deserves more equality than others, because more than 50% of Italians give him the right to rule and manage the country well.