Cousin Ingvar Kamprada said that he loved to fish and crayfish, loved adventure and danger. So he was. A person who left a mark not only in the business world, but also in the apartment of every fifth inhabitant of the world. A brilliant entrepreneur, innovator, founder of the huge furniture empire "IKEA" and the largest hunks among the rich, the real Scrooge is Kamprad Ingvar. The media accuse him of sympathizing with the Nazis, avoiding taxes, outdated views on business. And the Swedes themselves say that Kamprad has done much more for Sweden than all the politicians put together. What was this man really like?
A family
Ingvar has always said that the most important thing in his life is the family. It was they who influenced his life and supported when IKEA took only the first steps.
Talking about his biography, Ingvar Kamprad often joked that the trade in his blood. His mother also came from the family of the famous merchants of Elmhult. Ingvar's father was not a good entrepreneur and ran a family farm very poorly.
Ingvar's grandfather was the owner of a store in which the boy often spent time and sometimes earned money. Thanks to his grandfather, Kamprad was seriously interested in commerce. Subsequently, Ingvar will build the IKEA furniture factory on the site of the store. Unfortunately, his grandfather was not a very successful businessman, and, unable to bear the tax burden that fell on his family, he committed suicide. Ingvar's grandmother took over the grandfather’s business, from whom, in his own words, he learned strength of character and inherited the ability to trade.
Kamprad himself was twice married and has four children. They adopted a daughter from their first marriage with their first wife. In the second marriage, Ingvar and his wife had three sons, who at the moment inherited the company of his father.
Legendary person
The story of Ingvar Kamprad is the story of the true success of a country boy who managed to become a legend in life, along with Steve Jobs and Henry Ford. His main goal, he called the immortality of his company. Some people from his environment say that he was born in order to manage IKEA.
The early years and the first business
Ingvar was born in 1926 in a parish hospital and became the firstborn in the family. The boy spent the early years of his life on a farm near the town of Elmhult. And when he was 7 years old, the family moved to Elmtard, where Ingvar's father began to manage the farm. Things were not going very well, the family managed to make ends meet only because the mother of Ingvar persuaded her husband to rent rooms to the guests.
Ingvar himself recalls that all of them then lived in one room, the rest were lodgers. This, possibly, led to the fact that until the end of his life he would remain an unpretentious person and a “herd animal” (as Kamprad called himself).
At about the age of five, Ingvar Kamprad became interested in money and how to earn it. Aunt helps the boy buy one hundred boxes, which the boy subsequently sells at one fair and gets his first profit. A little later, he will begin to trade postcards, fish and sell it to neighbors. They are driven by a desire to make money and help his father.
Later, he will be engaged in the sale of ballpoint pens, which at that time were a novelty in the stationery market. He will do this for quite a long time, importing pens from France, he sold them with a significant margin in Sweden and even once made a presentation of the goods, during which he promised every guest a coffee and a bun. The presentation was attended by more than a thousand people, and Invar almost went broke.
What does the name "IKEA" mean?
In 1943, Ingvar, at the age of seventeen, decided to open his first company. He comes up with the name very quickly “IKEA” - this is an abbreviation in which “I” means Ingvar, “K” is Kamprad, “E” is Elmtard (the place where Ingvar lived), and “A” is a borrowed letter from the name farm of Invar's father "Agunnard".
How was IKEA created?
In 1943, Invar enrolled in a school of commerce. The very first business idea of Kamprad was the sale of trifles: pens, lighters, saws. He imported the goods at low cost, then sold them in different cities of Sweden.
For the first time the idea to do furniture business arose in his post-war years. According to Ingvar Kamprad, he decided to found IKEA in order to get around his long-standing rival merchants. The young man bought several pieces of furniture and placed an advertisement for the sale in the newspaper. There was only one problem, furniture - the goods are very expensive. It is difficult to believe that at the beginning of the last century it cost a lot of money and not everyone could afford the purchase of furniture. Most people made it on their own.
Ingvar set himself an ambitious task: to make furniture a consumer goods. For this, furniture needed to be greatly reduced in price. By 1950, the entrepreneur hires three more employees and transfers to them the current concerns about the company. He goes to search for cheap furniture.
Ingvar Kamprad begins the story of IKEA with a search for small local producers with the best prices. And he does it superbly. Competitors, seeing the threat in Kamprad's pricing policy, are also starting to lower their product prices, but they cannot keep up with it.
How did the first IKEA factory appear?
Even the lowest prices do not suit Invar, who is accustomed to saving, he decides to open the first IKEA factory for the assembly of furniture and individual components, which allows lower prices. The idea came to the entrepreneur when he saw one loader unscrew the legs at the table for that. To load it in a car before transporting.
At this time, Kamprad invents his famous formula, which states that it is better to sell 600 cheap chairs than 60 expensive ones.
The fight against competition
Low prices allowed IKEA to quickly become one of the leading companies in the country. This, of course, did not suit competitors. The unfair battle for the buyer has begun. Competitors spread unflattering rumors about IKEA and its young leader.
Companies are forbidden to take part in exhibitions. It came to the point of absurdity. Once, the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, was banned from participating in the exhibition held in the building owned by him.
In addition, due to the fact that the price of the furniture was very low, consumers began to complain about its quality. The goods were still sold through advertisements and catalogs, so buyers buying furniture could not evaluate its quality. An immediate solution was required. And Ingvar finds him. He organizes his own exhibition of his own furniture at the factory, this solves two problems at once: customers see the goods and there is no dependence on competitors. Things got better, and five years later, Ingvar and the company manage to open a full-fledged store on the top floor of the factory.
By the end of the eighties, IKEA storehouses already covered all of Europe, not only western but also eastern. Kamprad even tried to break into the market of the Soviet Union, but failed. He managed to open his first store in Russia only in 2000 in Khimki. Now in Russia there is also the IKEA plant.
Another innovative approach was the opportunity to try out furniture. Anyone could sit on a chair and check how comfortable it was or lie on a bed from IKEA. In the company's trade pavilions, this is now allowed to visitors.
Cause of death
On January 27, Ingvar Kamprad, the former owner of IKEA, passed away in the Swedish city of Smoland at the age of 91.
Until 92 years, he did not live only some 2 months. Ingvar's body was discovered in his mansion in bed. According to police, an elderly Invar died of old age during sleep.
The heirs
Kamprad divided his empire back in 2012. This year, he sold the rights to use the brand to the "daughter" of IKEA in the Netherlands, IKEA Systems.
To his sons, he left posts in the company. The eldest son, Peter, manages all the assets of the family and holds a key position on the board of directors of Ikano. Jonas, middle son, member of the board of directors of IKEA Group. The younger Matthias is the chairman of the board of directors of Inter IKEA.
condition
The IKEA business is very private and family owned. The company has no shares and almost all asset sales happen inside the company. The company conducted its first brand assessment in 2012 in order to sell one of the companies belonging to Ingvar, the IKEA group of companies. In 2015, the company's net profit amounted to more than $ 30 billion, by 2018 this amount increased and reached $ 36 billion.
The exact value of the IKEA brand is currently unknown. The condition of its founder Ingvar Kamprad is also a mystery. But shortly before Ingvar’s death, media began to appear in the media that over the course of 91 years, Kamprad had managed to save more than $ 52 billion and become the richest man on the planet (according to Bloomberg). Forbes Magazine, in its estimates, was more modest and estimated the state of Kamprad a little more than 3 billion, and the general condition of the family was equated to 3.5 billion.
Stingy?
Invar Kamprad was most often accused of pro-Nazi views and incredible stinginess. Was Kamprad really like that?
Ingvar preferred to use cheap IKEA furniture at home or used old furniture, which was often over 20 years old. So, once, he mentioned that he prefers to sit on an old armchair, which he acquired 30 years ago. Ingvar has been driving an old Volvo car for more than 20 years, trying to fly economy class when possible, and wears clothes purchased at a flea market or in a second hand. He is accused of tax evasion in Sweden. Ingvar moved to Switzerland only to reduce the tax burden. And among businessmen, a story is known when Kamprad was not allowed to receive prestigious awards for entrepreneurs just because the guard did not believe that a billionaire could ride a bus. Ingvar Kamprad often used public transport. Ingvar's neighbors said that he never donated money to the poor.
In fact, in addition to the old Volvo, Invar also had a Porsche, he had a villa in Switzerland and a small vineyard. If he needed to quickly get to the meeting, then he could fly on a charter flight.
When the head of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad was asked in an interview about whether he considers himself a miser, he replied that he considered himself a miser and was proud of it. Later, he explained that he achieved such incredible indicators thanks to an extremely modest lifestyle. Thus, he tried to set a good example for his children and employees. The truth is that Ingvar spent a lot of money on the development of the company.
Despite Ingvar’s stinginess, the IKEA Charitable Fund annually continues to transfer tens of millions of dollars to combat the exploitation of child labor, protect the rights of children and solve the problems of homelessness. It is known that the fund became a co-author of the UNICEF Save the Children document.
Fascist?
Kamprad was repeatedly accused of sympathizing with the Nazis. In one of his books, Ingvar Kamprad said that his grandmother was a fan of Hitler and tried to instill in him love for Nazi Germany.
In 1994, letters from a Swedish pro-Nazi were published. They mentioned that Kamprad was an activist of the New Swedish Movement group, expressing racist views. A real scandal erupted! Workers and consumers demanded an explanation. After that, Kamprad published a letter entitled "My biggest fiasco", in which he regretted his participation in the Nazi organization. In addition, it is worth mentioning that one of Ingvar's best friends was a refugee, Otto Ulman, a Jewish Jew. Subsequently, Otto will help Ingvar open his first business and will greatly influence his vision of finances.
Books
Despite the fact that Ingvar suffered from dispersion all his life and did not know how to read, he managed to participate in the creation of several books.
In 2002, the famous book created by Ingvar Kamprad “There is an idea! About the history of IKEA, in collaboration with Bertil Torekul. Honest revelation, a guide for young businessmen. In it, an elderly 82-year-old Ingvar spoke about his childhood, about how he came up with the idea of a furniture store "for all" and charitable activities.
Torekul Bertil’s book “Saga of IKEA” was written as a result of numerous interviews given by Ingvar. He never spared time for his biographer.
The best work of Ingvar is the book "Testament of a furniture dealer", in which he outlined all the basic principles of his company, talked about how to increase sales and corporate governance.