Receive The IKEA Edge: Building Global Growth And Social Good At The Worlds Most Iconic Home Store Author Anders Dahlvig Format Kindle
There are only a small number of retail firms which are successful at both home and abroad: Yes to Ikea and HampM No to WalMart and Tesco.
Unlike leading global manufactures like Apple and Samsung who can innovate in one country and sell to every country, retailers belong to service industry which needs to face different biz environment and customers tastes whenever they enter new one.
Only those companies, which are focused enough to manage complexity of retailing and have enough power to control its valuechain, can thrive on a global scale.
Ikea possesses the two virtues: it is a highly specialized home furnishing firm with longterm time horizon supported by the longserving founder it designs, partly produces and delivers its own merchandise, owns and develops its property.
This book offers valuable ideas about what can and cannot be globalised, and how to achieve it in a successful manner, The book, written by former Ikea CEO that has been with the company foryears, is a glimpse into three decades of Ikea's leadership, management, and overall vision.
It offers an interesting nonUS management perspective that focuses on social impact and longterm business goals instead of shortsighted quick wins that maximize profit for shareholders without regard the business has on the environment and local communities.
The message that you can run a successful global business while still doing good is a valuable contribution, even though the book builds its case on just one company in the retail industry.
The main criticism I have is that the books sometimes comes off as slightly idealistic, probably because the author often stays on the surface level, hiding a lot of the nittygritty everyday complexities from the
reader.
The managerial style described in the book is unmistakably Swedish, and the applicability of the presented advice to other companies both in ownership structure and industry is questionable.
Still, it was refreshing to read a management book from a different cultural context, and I'm giving it a high rating because its core message of doing good as a business and defining growth as maximizing social impact should become the norm across industries.
This is an excellent book to read about how this retail chain grew while keeping its values and traditions, The book also depicts tactics that worked well for IKEA and few which did not work well, how this organisation grew and supported for society as well Different perspective into this giant home furniture retailer/manufacturer.
Less about leadership and more a list of stats to support his success as CEO, Not a readasyou go book, the author makes it goes the direction of how Ikea operations and how its being affected and affect others, Very executivetechnical Worth the time, not as paradigm shifting as I had hoped, A shouldread autobiograpy on leadership for knowledge workers, managers, directors, Clevels, and entrepreneurs, Must read for all BBA/MBA students, It gave me nice insights into Ikea, Lectures by Dahlvig related to this book can be found on YouTube, I sometimes use examples from the book and part of the lectures in my classes, I divided that book forparts:
CSR how IKEA does the right things for the world
Specifics of retail it is rather wide and thin
Values, leadership, vision those kinds of buzzwords
Thend part is my favorite one.
IMO entire book is sometimes too utopian, I'm not sure whether socially responsible companies will ultimately win
Praise for The IKEA Edge
“A very good book from a talented business leader that links values, culture, and the achievement of business and social objectives together.
I have read it now three times and learned something from every passage, ”
Michael Spence, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences,
“With Anders Dahlvigs recommendations, we could solve many of the worlds problems by persuading the big multinationals to change their Memorandum and Articles of Association.
Big business working in the interests of humanity would be a powerful tool, ”
Gordon Roddick, cofounder of The Body Shop
“The IKEA Edge is a fascinating case study of an entrepreneurial companys growth to maturity.
Anders Dahlvig is incisive and surprisingly straightforward in sharing the IKEA story, As a fourthgeneration family business owner, I recognize the inherent paradox of building a good, valuedriven company and managing for profit, Anders Dahlvig proves it can be done, ”
Antonia Axson Johnson, Chairperson, Axel Johnson AB
About the Book:
With Anders Dahlvig at the helm fromto, the furniture giant IKEA averagedpercent yearly sales growth and annual operating profits in excess ofpercent.
The company hired more than,new employees and opened new stores around the worldall while maintaining its reputation as one of the worlds best corporate citizens,
In The IKEA Edge, Dahlvig tells the story of how IKEA matured from an entrepreneurial startup to a leader in the furniture industry.
He recounts hisyear career at the company and what he learned along the way, In his rise from store manager to president, Dahlvig developed the unique vision he relied upon to lead IKEA through good times and badby combining traditional business goals like profit and growth with the progressive interests of social responsibility and environmental stewardship.
Dahlvig proves that these objectives, which are usually viewed as polar opposites, can actually work wonders together,
The IKEA Edge serves as an expansive case study for “doing good business while being a good business, ” Dahlvig clearly lays out the cornerstones that support IKEA: a vision of social responsibility market leadership with a balanced global portfolio differentiation through control of the value chain and building for the long termfour principles that can be applied in any business, in any industry.
social and business agendaand it continues to grow, even during the worst global recession in history, In a time when the publics trust of business has hit bottom, such an approach to business is more critical than ever,
A combination of personal memoir, call to action, and strategic vision, The IKEA Edge provides the inspiration and information you need to develop a socialgood/goodbusiness agenda for your own company.
Public trust, brand recognition, customer loyalty, and a worldclass reputation will soon follow,