Exceptional

Inspiration
Ideas, facts and figures from the world of business
Business pioneers: Ingvar Kamprad
The founder of IKEA was an entrepreneur from the age of 5.
Today, IKEA has more
than 300 stores in
28 countries, and the
firm’s affordable but stylish,
ready-to-assemble furniture
adorns millions of homes
around the world.
The origin of the company
that commercialized
Scandinavian style is a
classic entrepreneur’s tale.
Ingvar Kamprad grew up on
his family’s farm in southern
Sweden and did his first
deal aged 5, when he bulkbought
boxes of matches
from an aunt in Stockholm
and sold them individually at
a modest markup.
He founded IKEA in 1943,
aged 17; the name is made
up of his initials plus the E
from Elmtaryd (the farm)
and the A from Agunnaryd
(the local village). Initially
he sold a range of goods by
DID YOU KNOW?
Every branch of IKEA has a
children’s play area called
Småland — the name of the
province where Kamprad
grew up, and also Swedish
for “small lands.”
mail order, adding furniture
to his offering five years
later. In 1952 he opened a
showroom in the nearest
town, Älmhult. As he said
later: “At that moment, the
basis of the modern IKEA
concept was created: first
and foremost, use a catalog
to tempt people to come to
an exhibition, which today
is our store.”
But the innovation for
which IKEA is best known
came in 1956. The story
goes that one of the
company’s draftsmen was
struggling to load a table
into the back of his car and
ended up removing the
legs — and the multibilliondollar
flatpack furniture
industry was born.
IKEA grew quickly: the
first store outside Sweden
opened in 1963, and in the
1970s it expanded around
the world, becoming one of
Sweden’s most successful
and best-known companies
in the process.
Kamprad himself — now
89 and one of the richest
people in the world — is
legendary for his frugality;
he is said to recycle
teabags and to stockpile
packets of salt and pepper
taken from restaurants.
This is echoed in IKEA’s
corporate philosophy,
with its emphasis on
low prices, sustainability
and continuous product
development. It has proved
to be a winning formula.
4