Start TheMonth from ecsw.com: 12 Lessons from Ikea
Dear Phil
I spent the weekend reading a book on your behalf. Well, I know you’re busy. It’s called ‘Great Ikea, a Brand For All The People’ by Elen Lewis. I’ve extracted 12 lessons from the book for you. They are below, book-ended by lessons from Jack Welch and a fun trivia quiz from Shaun Smith, both of whom are presenting at our conference in May, as is Ikea. Have fun…
CONTENTS
- Four more Jack Welch rules
- 100 million Swedish meatballs
- Ikea is the new church
- Ingvar’s Nine Commandments
- Ikea as anti-marketing
- Be the customer
- The boss who asks customers ‘Is this cheap enough?’
- The re-usable ribbon
- When the boss slept in the car
- Flatpack by luck
- Why Ikea products have silly names
- Get customers to speak your language
- When the Boss hid in a carpet
- See, Feel, Think, Do: The ECSW.com Trivia Quiz
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Royal Lancaster Hotel, London, 15-18 May 2006
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1) FOUR MORE JACK WELCH RULES
We’ve had about 35 ‘Jack Welch rules’ so far in this newsletter. But, I keep finding more, and they’re just so compelling. So, here are four more:
1. Manage Less
Teach your managers to manage less, even though their training may be to manage more.
2. Instil confidence
Treat employees with respect and build their confidence.
3. Get out of the way.
Employees do not need constant supervision. Let them do their jobs. You will be surprised at the results.
4. Emphasise vision, not supervision
Managing less lets managers think big thoughts and come up with new ideas to benefit the business.
SOURCE: 29 Leadership Secrets From Jack Welch, by Robert Slater. Come learn from the world’s most admired CEO in person and join in the Q & A with him at our conference in London in May: it’s a lot cheaper than calling him in and paying his consultancy fee, I can tell you. Details here:
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http://www.ecustomerserviceworld.com/ecswuk2006/
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2) 100 MILLION MEATBALLS
In 2003, Ikea sold 112,606,338 meatballs in its restaurants
This and the other 11 Ikea fascinating facts and odd stories, below, are from Elen Lewis’s new book on Ikea. They’re in this monthly newsletter because Ikea are coming to talk to us at our conference in May on their ‘reverse’ approach to customer service, and this is a bit of preparatory research for you, to whet your appetite.
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3) IKEA IS THE NEW CHURCH
In Britain, on some Sundays, more than twice as many people attend Ikea as attend church. One estimate suggests that 10 percent of Europeans were conceived in Ikea beds.
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4) THE NINE COMMANDMENTS
“We have decided once and for all to side with the many”, the first of Ikea’s Nine Commandments, are the opening words to Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad’s 1976 book A Furniture Dealer’s Testament. “What is good for our customers is also, in the long run, good for us.” His aspiration was “to create a better every day life for the majority of people.”
(Editor’s Note: Kamprad’s aspiration for Ikea is virtually the same as Sam Walton’s vision for Wal-Mart.)
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5) IKEA AS ANTI-MARKETING
Ikea is an anti-marketing brand. On paper it doesn’t work. It never asks its customers what they want, but tells them instead. The barriers to purchase are extraordinary. We’re expected to get into our cars, drive out of town, become gnarled up in traffic, be herded around a spaceship of a shop with a thousand other followers, collect our own stuff from the warehouse, and then build it – with missing screws and unintelligible instructions.
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6) BE THE CUSTOMER
Kamprad is famous for playing a game during his arduous 15 hour visits in Ikea stores. He pretends that he is a customer shopping with his wife, Margaretha. Kamprad plays both parts. So, during these inspections, he’ll walk around pretending his wife is with him, talking to her, asking her opinion. At every room set and display he checks the imaginary shoppers have everything they need. He will say things like: “So Margaretha, what do you think of those sofas and where is the pen where we could write down notes about it?” It’s as if he’s fine-tuning a violin.
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7) THE BOSS WHO ASKS CUSTOMERS…
…‘Is it cheap enough?’ There’s the story within Ikea of Kamprad, on a store visit, questioning customers as they queue for the checkout. Seizing items from their trolley and basket he keeps asking them how much they paid for their things. Apparently everyone just thought he was a bit crazy. They didn’t realize they were being questioned by the Ikea founder. Then he would ask them, “Well, is it worth it? Is this item worth the amount you’re paying for it?”
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8) THE RE-USABLE RIBBON
Kamprad was invited to Almhult, the tiny town in Smaland where the first Ikea store opened in 1953. A statue of Kamprad in the town centre had been erected and Kamprad was supposed to attend to cut the ribbon and officially inaugurate his statue. When the moment came, instead of cutting the ribbon, Kamprad carefully untied it, rolled it up in his hand and handed it back to the mayor, saying: “Now you can use this ribbon again.”
Editor’s note: I’ve included this story from the book, and the ones below about Kamprad’s legendary thrift, because Ikea has a low-cost culture that it shares with customers, and it comes from Kamprad’s obsession with low-cost and his hatred of waste.
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9) WHEN THE BOSS SLEPT IN THE CAR
An ex-employee recalls a business trip to a factory in Poland. They were travelling in three cars, but got lost and couldn’t find a cheap hotel. The only hotel free in the area was a Marriott, an expensive chain that Kamprad immediately vetoed as it cost too much. They all slept in their cars that night.
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10) FLATPACK BY LUCK
Gillis Lundgren was Ikea’s fourth employee. Lundgren’s most important contribution to Ikea was the invention of flat pack furniture. Frustrated by the space a table took up as he tried to squeeze it into his car, Lundgren took the legs off and flat pack furniture was born.
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11) WHY IKEA PRODUCTS HAVE SILLY NAMES
A book case called Billy? Kamprad named the very first chair he sold in the early 1950s ‘Ruth’, because as a dyslexic, he found it difficult to remember order numbers. The naming of Ikea’s products has continued ever since. See point 12), below, for how this language acts as a glue linking customers to the company and to other Ikea customers (there are Ikea fan websites complete with quizzes based on knowing the names of products).
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12) GET CUSTOMERS TO SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE
Critics of Ikea suggest that persuading us to speak in their language is a subtle technique for encouraging compliance. Joe Kerr from RCA told the Guardian: “In following them, you become evangelists for Ikea. If you look at police interrogation techniques, for example, you see that one of the ways you break somebody’s will is to get them to speak in your language. Once you’ve gone and asked for an Egg McMuffin or a skinny grand latte or a Billy bookcase, you’re putty in their hands.”
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13) WHEN THE BOSS HID IN A CARPET
Established sectoral players often gang up on a challenger brand that sides with customers, to try and force them out of the market. Ikea’s prices were so low that the National Association of Furniture Dealers in Sweden sent an ultimatum to some suppliers threatening to stop buying from them if they continued to sell to Ikea. Both Ikea and Kamprad personally were banned from trade shows. Kamprad smuggled himself into one, hiding in a rolled up carpet in the back of a Volvo.
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LEARN MORE FROM IKEA DIRECT
Michael Hay, Ikea’s Global Strategic Planner and Communications Strategist, will be presenting in the Customer Service Management Track of our conference on Tuesday 16th May on Ikea’s customer and brand strategy. Here are the session details:
IT’S RIGHT TO BE WRONG – THE REVERSE IKEA WAY
Learning Points:
– How to attract customers
– Determining pricing to please the customer
– How to let the customer do part of the production for you
– Don’t sell: offer a better life
– How to segment customer expectations. If you meet the expectations of women, you exceed the expectations of men.
You can find out about this and other conference sessions and book online here:
>>>
http://www.ecustomerserviceworld.com/ecswuk2006/
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14) SEE, FEEL, THINK, DO: THE ECSW.COM TRIVIA QUIZ
Shaun Smith, a previous Chairman of our European Conference on Customer Management, will be presenting in the Customer Experience Management Track of this year’s conference on Tuesday 16th May, based on the research for his new book, published this week – See, Feel, Think, Do: The Power of Instinct In Business.
Shaun’s put together this customer experience management quiz for us.
1. Which property developer got so bored with hotels putting chocolates on his pillow he started his own hotel brand?
2. Which European President of a world-wide brand likes wearing black leather trousers when he gives key-note speeches and why? (Clue: He was a keynote at our 2002 European Conference on Customer Management)
3. Which life insurance company pays out on your policy before you die? (Clue: The story of how Ron Barbaro, president of this company, came up with this product, is told as an example of lateral thinking by Edward de Bono, who is keynoting at our conference this May)
4. Which director of a leading UK brand takes her team clubbing in Sao Paulo to check out the latest trends?
5. Which founder of a US firm drives slightly slower than everyone else on the motorway so that more people notice his branded car? (Clue: He’s presenting at our conference this May.)
6. Who conducted a market feasibility study by counting empty bottles?
7. Which brand of car had a radiator grill that looked like a toilet seat?
8. Why do doctors get sued for their bedside manner?
9. Who almost went bust searching for a million books? (Their first Global Customer Services Director was a big hit at our conference last year)
10. Who created a best selling games console by warning people not to buy it? (Guess what: They’re presenting at our conference this May, too!)
COME AND GET YOUR INSPIRATION LIVE AND IN PERSON!
This monthly newsletter can only give you a taster of how you need to change in 2006. Reading is no substitute for being at our conference, when the inspiration and latest examples of how to put it into action sear into you, person-to-person, and your emotions and senses are engaged, not just your intellect. Not to mention the networking.
The European Conference on Customer Management, 15-18 May, 2006, London.
TEN KEYNOTES
1. Jack Welch, Former CEO & Chairman,General Electric
2. John Kotter, “The Number 1 Leadership & Change Guru” (BusinessWeek)
3. Marcus Buckingham, Renowned Expert on Outstanding Leadership & Management Practices
4. Philip Kotler, The World’s Foremost Authority on Marketing
5. Malcolm Gladwell, Author, ‘The Tipping Point’ & ‘Blink’
6. Jacqueline Gold, CEO, Anne Summers & Knickerbox
7. Karan Bilimoria, Founder,Cobra Beer
8. Sir Ranulph Fiennes, World’s Greatest Living Explorer (The Guiness Book of Records)
9. Richard Kimber, CEO,First Direct
10. Edward de Bono, Leading Authority in Creative Thinking
More info and save up to £300 by booking before 7 April.
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WHY DO I RECEIVE THIS EMAIL?
Because at some point you signed up on our website as an associate member. This email newsletter is a benefit of associate membership. It is written for eCSW.com by Phil Dourado, author of Seven Secrets of Inspired Leaders, and is designed to bring you customer-centred insights and tips and to raise a smile on the first of each month, while trying to tease you along to attend our conference (hey, we have to pay for these emails somehow).
COPYRIGHT REMINDER
It’s the author’s, apart from the bits that obviously belong to other people. Feel free to pass this on in its entirety to anyone who might be interested. And feel free to use quotes from it in internal presentations, reports etc. But, please remember to credit eCSW.com’s Start The Month email newsletter as the source. Thanks.
