Executive Summary
This report provides information on each of the following areas pertaining to IKEA’s organization, culture, ethical framework, revenue and so on. The following sections provide the relevant data:
1) Organization Background & Benchmarking
2)Organization Background, Ethics/Legal, and Current events
3) Marketing, Financials & Accounting
4) Organization Culture, People, and Diversity
5) Strategy and Planning Analysis—Organization Goals
6) SWOT analysis
7) Recommendations, 21st Century, and Moving Forward
A brief summation of the separate sections is as follows: 1) focuses on IKEA’s standard store concept and how benchmarking analysis can be used to more effectively harness the firm’s potential in development. It also examines internal benchmarking that is a factor in the firm’s ability to promote progressive ideals; 2) focuses on ethical and legal compliance within the organization and how the company has addressed issues such as child labor and equality in the workplace; 3) focuses on how the firm differentiates itself from competitors, the strength of its financials, and accounting difficulties it is having in Europe; 4) focuses on the company’s positive organizational culture, and its commitment to people and diversity; 5) shows that IKEA has implemented a strong sustainability strategy in order to obtain its organizational goals; 6) reveals that IKEA has several strengths that outweigh its weaknesses and that there are opportunities to develop its brand even in the face of e-commerce engines like Alibaba and Amazon; 7) provides recommendations to enhance to the “experience” aspect of its retail outlets and the need to maintain its progressive platform in the 21st century.
Organization Background & Benchmarking
As Martenson and Servin (2002) point out, IKEA has used a “standard store concept” to facilitate the development of IKEA stores across 40+ different countries all over the globe. This standard store concept enables the organization to quickly build stores that are essentially all the same in a way that is efficient, simple to manage, and highly standardized. However, the problem is that retail construction costs vary significantly from one country to the next. A benchmarking analysis can help to oversee the continual process of updating the standard store concept in order to make it more efficient where these differences in economies arise.
IKEA has as other organizational issues that are not related simply to build-outs and expansion. There is human capital at stake as well and the improvement and development of its human capital as well as its corporate social responsibility in the various regions around the world are essential factors that must be taken into consideration. Benchmarking analysis can be applied here as well.
As an organization, IKEA wants to be recognized around the world as a good and positive environment where diverse people can come together to achieve a common aim, that is reflective of the overall community’s values and beliefs. To this end, the organization seeks to promote equality within its workplace environment and has been recognized and honored as a progressive company by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 14th Annual Scorecard on LGBT Workplace Equality.
As IKEA (2017) notes, “the CEI (Corporate Equality Index) is a national benchmarking survey and report on corporate policies and practices related to LGBT workplace equality, administered by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation.” However, the company does not just focus on equality in the workplace but also on providing its workers with the opportunity to create a better life for themselves. A number of points can be mentioned to this end to show how benchmarking analysis has led IKEA to offer incentives to its employees so that it retains its 100 percent score on the CEI and at the forefront of the more than 1000 companies worldwide monitored and assessed by the HRC. These incentives include:
· Extending benefits coverage to spouses and domestic partners including health/medical, dental, vision, dependent coverage, COBRA, FMLA, bereavement, relocation/travel assistance, adoption benefits, employee discount, employee-assistance program.
· Including in the employee medical plan gender reassignment surgery and other services.
· New minimum wage, retirement savings (401k)— IKEA offers a 401K plan and matches a portion of contributions. IKEA offers a 100% match on the first 4% of salary contributed, and a 50% match on the next 2% of salary contributed.
· Health benefits, paid time off, and growth and development opportunities via education assistance for workers, including undergraduate and graduate programs, plus tuition discounts (Corporate News, 2016).
Organization Background, Ethics/Legal, and...
References
6Q. (2016). IKEA corporate culture of the heart. Retrieved from
https://inside.6q.io/ikea-corporate-culture-of-the-heart/
Corporate News. (2016). IKEA US receives 100 percent on 2016 CEI. Retrieved from
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/about_ikea/newsitem/111815_pr-IKEA-2016-corporate-equality
Freedman, D. (2017). Bricks, mortar—and experiences. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved
from https://www.wsj.com/articles/bricks-mortarand-experiences-1503258657
IKEA. (2017). Come be yourself with us. Retrieved from
http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/this-is-ikea/working-at-the-ikea-group/index.html
http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/pdf/yearly_summary/IKEA_Group_Yearly_Summary_2015.pdf
http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_JP/about_ikea/pdf/SCGlobal_IWAYSTDVers4.pdf
http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=1345445&fileOId=2433217
http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/pdf/reports-downloads/sustainability-strategy-people-and-planet-positive.pdf
from http://fortune.com/2016/02/12/ikea-tax-avoidance/
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