Ingvar Kamprad - The IKEA Maestro

                                                 INGVAR KAMPRAD

Ingvar Kamprad is the founder of the successful home furnishing company known as IKEA. He was born on the 30^th March in 1926 on a small farm, Elmtaryd, which is found outside the village of Agunnaryd in Sweden. Ingvar Kamprad understood business since a very tender age. It is said that he started selling matches to some of his neighbours by using his bicycle at the age of five. He would purchase the matches in bulk quantity from Stockholm and re-sell them individually for a small profit. Seeing that the business was working, he added fish, Christmas cards, seeds and pens to the list of the products he was selling.

At the age of seven years old, Ingvar Kamprad expands the items sold by adding Christmas tree decorations, pencils and ball point pens. At this time, he was riding his bicycle in order to go sell his products further across his neighborhood. He then realized that he could buy such products very cheaply in Stockholm, re-sell them individually at a very low price but still make a decent profit out of the whole transaction.

In 1943, Ingvar Kamprad graduated from school and received a girft from his father, which he used to open the first IKEA store. Originally, the latter sold only pens, picture frames, wallets, watches, simple jewellery and anything that he could get for a low price. It was only after eight years, in 1951, that he first introduced furniture into his inventory.

As timber is very accessible in Agunnaryd, Ingvar Kamprad was capable of buying various furniture pieces from the local craftsmen at a rational price. It is thus that the well-known IKEA, home furnishing store, took birth. In 1953, IKEA’s first showroom was opened and by 1958, the successful businessman established the biggest furniture display in Scandinavia.

However, being a visionary, Ingvar Kamprad was not satisfied with having the largest furniture display in Scandinavia. He then soon extended his business to Norway and across Europe. As the prices in the economy kept fluctuating, he wanted to find a way to keep the prices of the products sold in IKEA low while at the same time stay competitive in the market. It was at this time that he made a revolutionary decision which consisted of leaving the furniture sold in the store unassembled in flat boxes. This actually saved on labour, labour costs, storage problems and transportation costs. Ingvar Kamprad also decided that he would leave the IKEA showrooms open to all customers. The latter could in fact collect the furniture they chose themselves, today known as self-serve technique. At the same time, the businessman was minimizing labour and was staying ahead in the market.

Ingvar Kamprad continued to expand his business and today the IKEA showrooms are found across the world in countries such as Canada, Australia, Germany, Malaysia and Russia. The 190 showrooms found in approximately 30 countries actually generates about $148 billion yearly and gives employment to some 85 000 people internationally. The great businessman who started at the early age of five has now stepped back from the day to day procedure of IKEA and he gave his company shares to a nonprofit organization called INGK. The latter is the richest nonprofit organization in the world and it is directed by Ingvar Kamprad and his family who live in Switzerland.