宜家——以创新击败对手
[b]IKEA - Attack your competitors with innovation[/b][b]以革新击败竞争对手[/b][b];[/b][b]以价值回报客户[/b]
[b]Attack your competitors with innovation; reward your customers with value. [/b]
An entrepreneurial [b]streak (n.[/b][b]条纹，少许[/b][b])[/b] was pulsing through the veins of [b]Ingvar Kamprad [/b]from an early age. At five, he was selling matchboxes door-to-door. By seventeen, [b]dyslexic(adj.[/b][b]诵读障碍的[/b][b])[/b] Kamprad was selling pencils, an enterprise that developed into a mail-order business also selling soap, seeds, and stockings. This venture was so successful that Kamprad registered the company name IKEA: an [b]acronym[/b] （[b]取首字母的缩写形式）[/b] where I stands for Ingvar, K for Kamprad, E for Elmtaryd (the name of the farm Kamprad grew up on), and A for Agunnaryd (the Swedish village he grew up in). IKEA started in a shed that had been used for storing [b]milk churns([/b][b]牛奶桶[/b][b])[/b].
By twenty-three, after serving a carpenter's apprenticeship, he had turned his attentions to a furniture business. He had very big plans. Today, IKEA has 225 stores in more than thirty countries, an annual turnover of more than $17 billion, and 90,000 employees. Kamprad is one of the richest men in the world with a personal fortune of $18.5 billion. Kamprad revolutionized furniture retailing by making what was once a luxury more accessible to more consumers. Now, instead of spending many years' salary to furnish a home, IKEA customers can deck out their homes with only a few months' salary.
Other IKEA stores appeared throughout Sweden with the flagship store in Stockholm opening in 1965. Other megastores followed in Norway, Denmark, Germany, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Britain, and the United States. The company, where titles and suits and ties are rare, remains privately owned through a web of private trusts and charitable foundations. Profits have never been revealed, but Swedish analysts estimate that IKEA's profits are around 6 to 7 percent of total sales. The company [b]ethos[/b][b]（[/b][b]n.[/b][b]气质，风格）[/b] encourages its more than 90,000 staff to be known as co-workers, and all must follow Kamprad's nine [b]commandmentsx(n.[/b][b]戒律[/b][b])[/b] that center on themes of enthusiasm, humbleness, questioning the status quo, responsibility, self-analysis, simplicity, and thrift. Company policy also extends to a blanket ban on extravagance, favoring economy class airfares and public transport rather than taxis. Waste is a mortal sin to Kamprad, from leaving the lights on to time-wasting. He recommends dividing the day into ten-minute blocks.
从幼年开始，英瓦尔坎普拉德的血液里就流动着创业的激情。5岁时，他挨家挨户地卖盒装火柴。17岁时，有阅读障碍的坎普拉德开始卖铅笔，并由此创办了一家经营肥皂，种子和长袜邮购生意的小企业。生意很成功，坎普拉德将公司名字注册为IKEA：一个缩写词，I代表Ingvar（英瓦尔），K代表 Kamprad（坎普拉德）， E代表Elmtaryd （坎普拉德在这个瑞典农庄长大成人） ，以及为Agunnaryd （他在这个瑞典村庄成长） 。刚开始宜家的经营场地是在一个曾用于存储牛奶桶的棚子里。
23岁时, 他把目光转向家具生意，此前他曾在一家名为卡彭特的商店做了一段时间学徒,之后便开始酝酿一个大计划。今天，宜家在30多个国家开设了225间卖场，有90000名员工, 年营业额超过170亿美元。 坎普拉德成为世界首富之一，个人财富达185亿美元。坎普拉德掀起了一场家具零售革命，使更多的消费者能负担得起一些曾经是奢侈品的家具。有了宜家，人们现在不需要花费数年工资购买家具，而是仅拿出几个月的薪水就可以置办起一个家。
1995年，宜家旗舰店在瑞典斯德哥尔摩开张，此后宜家分店遍布全国。挪威，丹麦，德国，澳大利亚，加拿大，荷兰，英国和美国也纷纷有了宜家大卖场。宜家的职员少有西装领带打扮，公司也没有职称一说。 而且目前宜家仍然是一家通过私人信托网络和慈善基金会维系的私有企业。宜家的利润从来没有向外界透露过，但瑞典分析家估计宜家的利润约为销售总额的6%-7%。宜家文化鼓励把90000多名职工称为“合作员工”的叫法， 希望他们都能遵循坎普拉德提出的“九诫”，分别是热情，谦逊，质疑现状，责任感，自我剖析，简洁，节俭。公司的政策也延伸到全面禁止奢侈浪费，鼓励员工乘坐飞机经济舱, 搭乘公共交通工具而不是出租车。对坎普拉德而言,浪费是弥天大罪，从离开不随手关灯到浪费时间, 一律不允许。他提议以十分钟为一小段来划分每天的时间。
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