Ikea - summary points
- Ikea redefined furniture based on customer needs and
benefits instead of existing products.
- Restructuring the value chain created superior customer
value and competitive advantage
- Ikea leveraged its core competencies to global markets
Alexander Consulting Enterprise
3/22/2016
“If you are going to be the world’s best furnishing
company, you have to show you can succeed in
America, because there is so much to learn here.”
Goran Carstedt
Alexander Consulting Enterprise
3/22/2016
Ikea - summary points II
Value Chain
Product
Design
Purchasing Logistics
Marketing Distribution Retailing
Applied Competencies
Innovation
in design and
materials
Flexibility
New logistic Innovative
promotions
Economies of system
- catalog
Scale
“cash and
carry”
Fun Buying
Experience
Competitive Advantages
Low cost
High
perceived
value
Low cost ,
Low cost
stable supply
Alexander Consulting Enterprise
brand equity Low cost
high degree Fun Element
of
differentiation
3/22/2016
Perceived
value
Fun element
Ikea - summary points III
1. Industries globalize when a coordinated worldwide strategy
yields competitive advantages that outweigh the benefits of
local position, local presence, and local tailoring of the strategy.
2. The logic of competition is the same as in local business:
- leverage core competencies
- must have competitive advantage
- competitive advantage must be sustainable
- environmental changes often open up a window of opportunity
Alexander Consulting Enterprise
3/22/2016
Ikea - summary points IV
3. In international competition, competitive advantages may
arise from:
- location (labor cost, cost of resources, etc)
- ability to leverage core competencies worldwide
- ability to respond to local market needs
4. In a global Industry, a firm’s worldwide system of product
and market positions is pitted against its competitors’
worldwide systems
Alexander Consulting Enterprise
3/22/2016