• Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Special Offers
Business Intelligence Info
  • Business Intelligence
    • BI News and Info
    • Big Data
    • Mobile and Cloud
    • Self-Service BI
  • CRM
    • CRM News and Info
    • InfusionSoft
    • Microsoft Dynamics CRM
    • NetSuite
    • OnContact
    • Salesforce
    • Workbooks
  • Data Mining
    • Pentaho
    • Sisense
    • Tableau
    • TIBCO Spotfire
  • Data Warehousing
    • DWH News and Info
    • IBM DB2
    • Microsoft SQL Server
    • Oracle
    • Teradata
  • Predictive Analytics
    • FICO
    • KNIME
    • Mathematica
    • Matlab
    • Minitab
    • RapidMiner
    • Revolution
    • SAP
    • SAS/SPSS
  • Humor

How IKEA Builds Sustainable Innovation Into Its Business Model To Improve Lives

June 10, 2018   SAP
 How IKEA Builds Sustainable Innovation Into Its Business Model To Improve Lives

Most people think of a discarded plastic bottle as waste. But at IKEA, it’s a resource.

The IKEA brand has a set of commandments for doing business, and not wasting resources is one of them.

For example, every year, about 100 billion plastic water bottles are used worldwide, but only 30 percent are recycled, the rest ending in landfills or polluting the ocean. The furniture giant is committed to proving that recycled plastic can be used in the large-scale production of household goods. One example is a new line of kitchen fronts made of plastic and reclaimed industrial wood. The result is a product line that’s not only durable and beautiful, it’s sustainable.

Thanks to some of IKEA’s other business commandments, such as thinking differently and taking responsibility, the company is showing the world how a circular economy can function at scale in every part of their business.

“We’re even looking into circular solutions for our hardware equipment so it won’t end up in a landfill,” says Kristin Grimsdottir. As sustainability manager at operations & shared services at IKEA Group, she is responsible for a team that runs and enables sustainable IT solutions for IKEA Group.

Democratic design

When asked to describe IKEA’s vision for the future at the recent ThinkX event in Stockholm co-sponsored by SAP and Singularity University, Kristin Grimsdottir responds with passion.

“We are not merely a home furnishing company; we focus on life at home and how we can make it better for people. For instance, we’re already helping customers generate their own energy with home solar panels and battery storage options and exploring the area of urban organic farming so you can grow your own food in your kitchen,” she explains.

It is one of IKEA’s core beliefs that everyone has a right to a better everyday life. IKEA’s business idea is to offer well-designed furniture at an affordable price for the many people. One of the big movements going forward is about becoming even more affordable so that many more people can enjoy a better life at home– without compromising on sustainability, quality, or design.

This is possible thanks to the company’s principles of Democratic design. For every new product, the design team first sets the price and then works from there to create functional, attractive, high-quality items from sustainable materials.

Purpose-driven growth

A circular IKEA that reuses or recycles all materials is one way to prepare for the future, another is to drive efficiency through digitalization.

Clearly, there is no lack of innovation in the company. What’s missing is the seamless experience for customers that is a must in the digital world.

While IKEA is actively rolling out its e-commerce solution, Grimsdottir admits that they still have areas of improvement on the e-commerce front. But IKEA is embracing digital technologies elsewhere too. “For example, we’ve implemented IKEA Place, an augmented reality app that helps you decorate your home virtually”, she says.

For IKEA, continued growth requires the transformation of business and IT to implement a more modern IT landscape, develop advanced analytics capabilities and implement more efficient end to end processes. But more importantly, it also requires full buy-in from employees.

“Change is the new normal,” says Grimsdottir, “so it’s important that all of us try to embrace it. We are not implementing automation technology/AI in order to get rid of people but to streamline processes in order to reduce waste and increase efficiency and precision. It is important to be better to meet our customers’ expectations. And that gives our co-workers the opportunity to grow and develop more human, less robotic skills that are believed to be even more critical in the future.”

Every company has a purpose. For IKEA, it’s about creating a better everyday life for the many people without compromising on price, form, function, quality, or the environment.

After all, as IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad said, “To design a desk which may cost $ 1,000 is easy for a furniture designer, but to design a functional and good desk which shall cost $ 50 can only be done by the very best.”

This story also appears on SAP Innovation Spotlight.

Article published by Judith Magyar. It originally appeared on SAP and has been republished with permission.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Digitalist Magazine

Builds, Business, IKEA, Improve, Innovation, into, Lives, model, Sustainable
  • Recent Posts

    • Improving Dynamics 365 Data Integrations with Alternate Keys
    • Trump’s Note to Biden
    • FSI Blog Series, Part IV: Staying Agile in Trying Times
    • Soci raises $80 million to power data-driven localized marketing for enterprises
    • Conversational Platform Trends for 2021
  • Categories

  • Archives

    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • February 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    • December 2016
    • November 2016
    • October 2016
    • September 2016
    • August 2016
    • July 2016
    • June 2016
    • May 2016
    • April 2016
    • March 2016
    • February 2016
    • January 2016
    • December 2015
    • November 2015
    • October 2015
    • September 2015
    • August 2015
    • July 2015
    • June 2015
    • May 2015
    • April 2015
    • March 2015
    • February 2015
    • January 2015
    • December 2014
    • November 2014
© 2021 Business Intelligence Info
Power BI Training | G Com Solutions Limited