Free Essay on Strategic Management at IKEA

IKEA is one of the worlds greatest home ware sales and distributor. It deals with readymade furniture and other household items. The original company store was established in 1943 by a young Swedish gent called Ingvar Kamprad. Based on their aim to make products that transform homes and households to places with better experience, IKEA boasts of a massive number of three hundred and fifteen stores of their products in twenty seven different countries worldwide (as at August 2014) with Ingkar Incorporation their parent distributor ("Company Information - IKEA", 2016). The success of this company can be attributed to key strategic competencies and strengths.

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Main Capabilities and Competitive Advantages

IKEA in particular has stood out as one of the major companies who have effectively handled the resources and capabilities at their exposure to create a sustainable competitive advantage over other affluent companies. These strategic capabilities are attributed to effective management form the top downwards; well defined policies and routines; and their corporate culture. Key to this success is their widespread distribution stores in 27 countries world-wide. This is driven by their capability to establish long lasting relationships with their suppliers. This helps in gaining more knowledge of their consumers preferences and need and designing products that suit these preferences. IKEA has also invested in automated production contributing to high volumes of quality and affordable products. (Alange, Clancy, & Marmgren, 2016)The companys FY14 Sustainability Report outlines their key goals and achievements that further reveal their cutting edge objectives and initiatives like;

Waste management, energy and carbon initiatives that aim to transform the company into producing absolutely renewable products before the folding of the decade through recycling and zero waste process.

The company provides affordable but high quality products into the homes ensuring energy and water saving and no waste production.

The company has resorted to a minimum wage mechanism to ensure employee satisfaction that is reciprocated through better customer service and for the success of the company business.

IKEA also works hand in hand with the local community through good relations with local communities. An instance is the recreation of the urban forest in New Jersey. ("Sustaining a Competitive Advantage with a Sustainability Edge", 2015)

Conclusion

IKEA remains a top drawer type of company due to its commitment to strategic management mechanisms that has enabled it to possess sustainable capabilities and competitive advantages over other similar companies in the industry. This success is as a result of investment in production of quality and affordable products; zero waste and energy saving initiatives; and good relations with the local communities.

References

Company Information - IKEA. (2016). IKEA /JP/EN. Retrieved 25 September 2016, from http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_JP/about-the-ikea-group/company-information/

Sustaining a Competitive Advantage with a Sustainability Edge. (2015). Sustrana. Retrieved 25 September 2016, from http://www.sustrana.com/blog/2015/7/31/sustaining-a-competitive-advantage-with-a-sustainability-edge

Alange, S., Clancy, G., & Marmgren, M. (2016). Naturalizing sustainability in product development: A comparative analysis of IKEA and SCA. Journal Of Cleaner Production, 135, 1009-1022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.06.148

Strategic Management. (2016). Google Books. Retrieved 25 September 2016, from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=Y198wt_sU1YC&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201&dq=IKEA+group+of+companies+capabilities&sour

The secret of IKEA's success. (2011). The Economist. Retrieved 25 September 2016, from http://www.economist.com/node/18229400

IKEA, I. (2016). GRIN - IKEA. Strategic competences and capabilities. Grin.com. Retrieved 25 September 2016, from http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/113429/ikea-strategic-competences-and-capabilities