A Humble, Respectful, and Long-Term Engagement

Ikea’s philosophy has been to recruit and invest in local people. The company’s values and management style often add a different perspective to these markets. At the same time, how the company thinks about people, leadership, and management is sometimes confusing and creates curiosity, motivation, and new learning opportunities for local managers. Ikea typically builds long-term relationships with suppliers, and this contributes to developing competences among the supplier base.

The Example of India

Let’s consider the case of India. For the poorest people in the country, Ikea is providing education and health care in cooperation with UNICEF. This help prepares them to enter the job market. For the people working in low-income jobs, Ikea supports them by improving conditions at the suppliers through the company’s code of conduct. Regarding the middle class, Ikea is supporting them by offering good home furnishing products at reasonable prices (in India, this will be possible as soon as foreign ownership rules are eased). For entrepreneurs, Ikea supports its suppliers and thus contributes to more jobs and global competitiveness. Throughout the environment, Ikea stresses innovation that is in the interests of the population. For example, the company supports new ways of growing cotton that will decrease the use of pesticides and reduce the use of limited water resources (i.e., the Better Cotton Initiative referred to on page 51).