Company Profile
The IKEA Concept began when Ingvar Kamprad, an entrepreneur from the Småland province in southern Sweden, had an innovative idea. In Småland, although the soil is thin and poor, the people have a reputation for working hard, living frugally and making the most out of limited resources. So when Ingvar started his furniture business in the late 1940s, he applied the lessons he learned in Småland to the home furnishings market.
Ingvar's innovative idea was to offer home furnishing products of good function and design at prices much lower than competitors by using simple cost-cutting solutions that did not affect the quality of products. Ingvar used every opportunity to reduce costs, and he scraped and saved in every way possible - except on ideas and quality. This is how the IKEA Concept began.
Needs & Benefits
In 1968 IKEA enters the computer age and acquires an IBM computer. In 1984 IKEA deploys the first Nexus MEMO system and soon about 40% of the then 10,000 employees have e-mail. The use of Memo goes hand in hand with the IKEA concept, a well-designed, functional and robust product offering e-mail to as many employees as possible at an affordable price, a very low TCO.
Today, the IKEA trademark represents the leading home furnishings brand in the world with more than 235 stores in more than 30 countries and more than 110,000 co-workers. Following the trend over the years, 40% or more of the employees being Nexus Neon/MEMO users, is still true, there are more than 60,000 users in 9 systems and growing. More than 3,000,000 messages are distributed per week and over 10,000 formatted memos are used during the same period.