Strategic Management at Ikea

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With the determination of one young man who believed he could serve a purpose in society by bringing style, value and a better life to the white-collar, Ikea was created. Since Ingvar Kamprad launched Ikea in 1943, an empire providing affordable design home furnishing has flourished. Through differentiating itself in its value chain by transferring delivery and assembly to the customer, Ikea's stores doubled as warehouses where the furniture is shipped in flat-packed boxes. Customers shop among the display model and pick up the box for the furniture to be assembled at home. These activities considerably reduce costs, savings that are passed on to the customers, offering prices low enough to fit most budgets, as well as giving the company a higher margin. As these value-chain activities distinguish Ikea from its competitors, it has become its competitive advantage because no one can reproduce them without significant trade-offs.

In the past 6 to 8 years, IKEA has gone through another major development stage as it chose to expand further its already leading position in the furnishing industry. In fact, Ikea has been working on a global expansion strategy since it was first established in the 1940s. Since its vision was