Leading by Design: The Ikea Story

Amazon.com
Leading by Design is really, of course, the story of Ingvar Kamprad, the Swedish furniture retailer who turned Ikea into a company that now has 41,000 workers at 150 stores in 30 countries who annually distribute 100 million catalogs and sell $6.25 billion in goods. And what a story it is. Based on extensive conversations with the subject, 100 additional interviews, and various documents both public and private, business journalist Bertil Torekull employs an unusual mixture of blunt first-person recollections and narrative overviews delivered with literary flair to peel away the intricacies of Kamprad's life. Along the way, Torekull reveals the creative forces that propelled Kamprad's distinctive entrepreneurial drive and fashioned a successful company. "Imagine one of the coldest little countries in the world. Think of the most barren part of that country. See in front of you a godforsaken place deep in the wild spruce forests," Torekull begins. "This book is about a man who grew up in that harsh environment, which was to mark his whole life and fundamentally color the philosophy with which he built his vast empire." Delving into a fascinating career that began taking shape at the unlikely age of 5, Torekull presents this tale in a way that entertains as well as educates. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly
Like IKEA's mass market-priced beds and dressers, this authorized history of the Swedish furniture company is accessible. Unfortunately, Torekull, a prominent Swedish financial journalist, is all too willing to downplay messy details as he charts the company's evolution from founder Ingvar Kamprad's first sales of cheap fountain pens in 1943 to the present-day behemoth, which boasts 150 stores in 30 countries on four continents with 41,000 employees. Emerging from the interviews with Kamprad and others is a flattering portrait of an entrepreneur with drive and vision who has been responsive to every opportunity to reduce costs. In a demonstration of quick reflexes in the face of changing market conditions, Kamprad sought out sources in Poland and other Eastern European countries as soon as local Swedish suppliers became too expensive. Over time, Kamprad's bold responses to challenges have undeniably been successful. Yet Torekull indicates that IKEA's future may not be as rosy as its past: Kamprad's sons tend to sit in silent obedience when their father is in the room, and new IKEA projects still invariably originate with Kamprad himself. The iron fist of the founder is also evident in the wall of disingenuousness that Torekull confronted in his attempts to investigate Kamprad's past associations with Hitler supporters and Swedish neo-Fascist political groups. Readers might suspect that Torekull would have relished writing an unauthorized history of IKEA. Confronted with the hagiographical excesses here, they will surely wish he had. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Torekull, an editor and founder of Dagens Industri, an economic newspaper in Sweden, provides a picturesque and insightful view of Swedish entrepreneur Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, who was born in 1926. A descendant of merchants and traders, Kamprad started his own mail-order firm (IKEA) at 17, selling fountain pens, Christmas cards, and other sundries. Years later, he was the first to develop the idea, commercially, of selling furniture unassembled in easily transported flat boxes. Drawing on personal interviews, extensive research, and meetings with Kamprad, the author eloquently describes the company, its founder, and his business philosophy. Kamprad's reputation was tarnished when in 1994 it was discovered that from ages 16 to 25 he had contacts with a pro-Nazi activist, who was favored by his stern German grandmother and German father. Kamprad explains how he was indoctrinated and regrets this time in his life, but he asks, "When is an old man to be forgiven for the sins of his youth?" Recommended for business collections.ABellinda Wise, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, NY Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
This biography of Scandinavian merchandising giant Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, is based on author Torekull's extensive conversations with his subject and on various public and private documents. The text often reads like an autobiography with lengthy first-person reminiscences delivered in Kamprad's voice. Born in 1926, Kamprad was a natural trader even as a child and eventually entered the furniture business in an attempt to imitate competitors. IKEA is now valued at $6.25 million and boasts 41,000 employees in 150 stores in 30 countries. Much of the book is devoted to explication of Kamprad's nine "commandments," which are the spiritual basis of the company but read like self-help maxims ("Most Things Still Remain to be Done"). The corporate origins of this book (Torekull was hired by Kamprad to tell the entrepreneur's story) call into question its objectivity, especially in the transparent glossing over of Kamprad's early affiliation with Nazism (a hot topic in the European press). Marginally recommended to fill controversy-fueled demand. Leon Wagner

From Kirkus Reviews
From Scandinavia comes a selective corporate history of IKEA, the international purveyor of furniture and housewares, interlarded with an idolatrous biography of its founder, Ingvar Kamprad (whose initials form the first half of the firm's name; the last two letters are for the Swedish places of origin). In an overblown text that is considerably less appealing than IKEA's inexpensive furniture, the story of the business is sketched from its birth during WWII to 1998 and its 137th store. If the cultlike, paternalistic theme of the Ikean ``family'' and the vaunted concern for the lives of ``ordinary people'' (i.e., customers) is overworked, the awestruck depiction of Kamprad as a visionary genius is risible. The paragon is given to weeping on cue and hugging employees. At one head-office gathering, employees are ``given a kind of laying-on of hands. . . . They depart with a fine Christmas present in their armsthree green towels with face cloths.'' The story of the poor boy who became a benevolent billionaire concerned with ``honor and reputation'' doesn't wash. This hagiography, published last year in Europe, seems to have been authorized in an attempt to answer press reports about Kamprad's former regard for ``Uncle Hitler.'' Forget the Founder's youthful embrace of Nazism; he now regrets it. Of course he does. Kamprad, no longer a Swedish resident for tax reasons, has much to say, in boldface, about himself. He emerges, at best, as a benign despot with a true facility for false humility. The description of the complex business organization is no more complete or reliable than that of the boss. With no serious analysis given to IKEA's business problems, the book often seems as wobbly as do-it-yourself furniture assembled with the wrong tools and mismatched parts. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Book Description
Based on exclusive interviews with the legendary founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, Leading by Design tells the inside story of Kamprad's humble roots and of the visionary concepts and innovative strategies that turned a small, Swedish mail-order company into a worldwide commercial giant.When in 1943 at age seventeen Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA, he had no way of knowing that IKEA would come to represent dedication to quality, a distinct design style, and convenience to the harried modern consumer. Today, more than 195 million people worldwide frequent his 150 stores in thirty countries, and almost 100 million catalogs are printed each year. As the grandson of German immigrants who went to Sweden in search of a better life, Ingvar Kamprad grew up on a farm in a rural village. But he was no farmer. Early in his life, he discovered his natural affinity for business. From cigarette lighters and fish to Christmas cards and pens, young Ingvar devoted himself to importing and selling anything he thought he could make a profit on. Furniture was just one item in a long and fairly undistinguished list'until, in an effort to best his main competitor, he took a chance on an armless nursing chair he called Ruth. It quickly sold out. Adding a coffee table and then a sofa bed and then a chandelier, Kamprad was astonished by how quickly the merchandise moved. The rest is business history. In Leading by Design, Bertil Torekull, a well-known Swedish journalist, reveals the genius and the secrets behind IKEA's extraordinary success. With candor and detail, he offers insights into Kamprad's cutting-edge management strategies, his enthusiasm to embrace innovative methods (such as producing ready-to-assemble merchandise and using a car door factory to produce affordable products with universal appeal), and the tools he used to grow the IKEA brand into a veritable industry unto itself. More than a standard business history Leading by Design captures the essence of Kamprad himself. It is a testament to the inspiration, the ideas, and the innovations that make a good business great.

About the Author
Bertil Torekull is a journalist, the author of six books, and the founder of Sweden's top economic daily newspaper, Dagens Industri.


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