IKEA is a private Swedish conglomerate that primarily caters to home services and goods and sells home decor, furniture, and kitchen appliances. The company has been in the business of selling ready to assemble home accessories since 1943 and has since diversified its range of products and services and is now a worldwide phenomenon. The company is one of the largest consumers of wood in the world in retail. Today, we’ll know about the IKEA Mission And Vision Statement.
The success and continuing expansion of this company can be owed to its focused mission and vision statements, as well as its core values. Given that the mission and vision statements primarily focus on serving their clients with the best services possible in an affordable range, one can deduce that its popularity all around the world is well-founded. Since The commitment to serving their clients has been a priority, this corporation has ensured that their clients remain loyal.
IKEA’s mission statement emphasizes the areas in which the corporation as a whole needs to work to achieve its goal of being the supplier of affordable home furnishing products to their clients. The vision statement of the company focuses on the long-term goal that the company aims to achieve. It is only by looking at both the mission and vision statements together that we can identify the true approach and strategy of IKEA to their business.
While the mission statement broadly classifies all the areas in which the company strives to perform well, the vision statement targets certain specific areas which need to be focussed on. Along with these, the core values also focus on IKEA’s commitment to serving its customers with only the best while maintaining a level of quality that sets them apart from rival retailers.
Mission Statement
IKEA’s mission statement is “to offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them”.”
Even though this is not the official mission statement of the company, IKEA defines this statement as the company’s idea which dictates their daily functions and operations. After reading this statement, certain core elements emerge which can be listed as follows:
- To provide well-designed and functional products
- Home furnishing products at low prices
- Affordable prices aiming at accessibility
These core elements stand for the approach and strategy of the company to provide specific services to their clientele.
Mission Statement Analysis
The reason why IKEA is a popular retailer of home furnishing products is that the products offered by them distinguish them from their competitors. The company has always been one that adapts after seeing the changing trends in the market and the changing needs of the user. Since the company aims at affordability, it becomes necessary to keep adapting with time so that their client base keeps growing and already existing customers keep returning.
The range of products IKEA offers has been expanded over the years to include kitchen appliances, rugs, bathroom appliances, and products aimed at kids and infants. The first core value is well and truly looked after as there has been a successful integration of technology in the company plants which allows for the company to provide their customers with quality products.
Since IKEA is a retailer, the priority is to offer goods that draw customers in but it is not enough to make them stay and keep returning. The second core element takes care of customer loyalty as IKEA’s pricing aims at expanding their client base by providing products that fit the budget of every client regardless of their social status. Because IKEA offers a wide range of products at prices that offer access to different strata of the society, it has expanded from its origin country, Sweden, into thirty countries around the world.
As per the third core element, which is directly related to the second core element, the customer base they build with their low prices and wide range of well-furnished products is invaluable to them. And it is not so only because it is written on their official website. The company proves that customer service and support are important by their actions as well. Numerous discount offers are run by the company throughout the year and the company’s customer service is specially molded around the needs of each of their customers.
It can thus be said the company’s mission centers around durability, affordability, and smart design. The long-term growth of the company depends on their customer loyalty and also on the profits generated by the company and their investments in sustainable approaches in their business. IKEA is in the support of environmental conservation and stays in contact with farms that produce raw material for the company for the same. Moreover, the employment of child labor is also interdicted in the operations in any way related to the supply chain.
The company expanded its stores and product range worldwide without forcing its customers to pay an excessive price. Sustainability hence is promoted by the company as an option that is both affordable and preferable and is now portrayed as a luxury as other companies tend to do. The approach of IKEA is focused on providing quality products from the very base without compromising their integrity.
The home furnishing products that IKEA thus provides are not only well-made but are also made with keeping the environment in mind. The mission statement, therefore, stands for the company’s aim to keep serving its customers with products that are of top-notch quality while remaining sustainable while not being expensive.
Vision Statement
IKEA’s vision statement is “to create a better everyday life for the many people.”
The vision statement of the company aligns better with its concern for the environment, society in general as well as its customers and employees. Whether it is the marketing of the company’s products or the customer support service, IKEA manages to follow through with its commitment to making life better for the many people connected with the company.
The vision statement of IKEA can be divided into the following core components:
- Creating a better quality of life
- Serving every day through its products
- Enriching lives of involved people
Given that the vision statements in business focus on the future goals that the corporation aims to achieve, IKEA follows through the idea of its mission statement with its vision statement.
Vision Statement Analysis
The very first element in IKEA’s mission statement is to create a scenario where the lives of its customers are made better with the use of its products. This element is closely connected to the first core element of the company’s mission statement which is aimed at providing their customers with well-designed products. IKEA achieves this through constant innovation in its design and remains relevant following the changing trends and needs of the customers.
Given that IKEA deals in home furnishing products of a wide variety, it is of vital importance that not only the design but the functional aspect of the products is well planned out as well. The mission statement focussed on providing not only well-designed but also functional products to their customers which related well to the second core element of the vision statement. After all, what would the customers do with a beautifully designed home appliance if they cannot sufficiently make use of it?
IKEA’s products, therefore, are made so that they make the everyday lives of people who use them better. The marketing team of the company does a great job in advertising exactly what IKEA offers without misleading customers to expect something that the company does not provide. The second component directly relates to the third component of the vision statement.
Through the use of the company products, people would not only benefit but their daily lives would be all the better than it was before they opted for products from IKEA. And it is not only because the products offered are well thought of and in line with the demand of the market. IKEA aims to fulfill the goals of its vision statement through another effective strategy which it has been making successful use of. It is through the pricing strategy that IKEA’s products reach clients from all walks of life and can reach one step closer to its vision. While the vision statement does not explicitly talk about affordable pricing, it is one of IKEA’s many defining features and cannot be overlooked.
Core Values
It is through its core values that one can tie the mission and vision statements of IKEA together. The company is focused on serving its customers with the best there is and its core values take the idea forward by explaining exactly how the company should operate to achieve the ideal presented in the vision statement.
IKEA’s core values include “leading by example, simplicity, commitment to innovation and creativity, accountability, togetherness, caring for the environment and consciousness for cost.”
The company is fixated on being the provider for service which is unparalleled and inexpensive at the same time. Whether it is through the company’s sustainable approach or its dedication to its customers, the company rightly puts ‘leading by example’ as its first core value. Humbleness or simplicity is another value that differentiates this company from other private corporations that value profit and distinction above all. Togetherness is the core value that appreciates unity which should be valued in the society by the company on a fundamental level.
The company’s passion for creating new designs and promoting innovation with changing times has also been advantageous to the business. The company has succeeded in the creation of a culture that values innovation with enthusiasm and appreciates change with creative approaches. Accountability is part of the professional culture of IKEA which builds trust and promotes integrity. Differentiation as a core value stands for the company’s acceptance of change and how readily they are willing to adopt a different or unconventional approach if it means that their products would be better received.
Willpower is not listed as a core value but IKEA’s resolution towards its causes makes this quality worth mentioning in this list. It is through nothing but sheer willpower that IKEA sticks to its aim of providing reasonably priced products. The final core value brings us back to the company’s cost-consciousness. IKEA realizes that all of its innovation would be for naught if it cannot reach the maximum number of people which can only be achieved by making its products affordable which it does by using raw materials in a creative and resourceful manner.
The Takeaway
While IKEA does not present a mission statement officially, the probable mission statement gives us enough idea about how the company approaches business and how it keeps its clientele at the very center of its business approach. The vision statement, on the other hand, does not talk about the business or financial aspect of the company at all.
While it presents a future scenario where IKEA aims to build a society that is living a better quality of life because of their services, it does not state the business ideal which is to be achieved along with it. The vision statement does not make the aim of the company clear but relays that the customer and their quality of service are of the utmost importance to the company.
What can be said with certainty though, is that IKEA is committed to providing affordable solutions to people regardless of their social status. Through its core values, we can glean that the company acknowledges the value of simplicity while also accepting that sometimes unconventional approaches are the best way to stay on top of the game. The customer and the services provided to them remain the center of IKEA’s operations which is what differentiates it from other competing corporations.
The takeaway from this analysis can therefore be that IKEA has its focus on providing a service by making it more accessible to a wide range of customers. Even though the business aspect remains hazy, the company’s commitment to building and deserving its client base remains firmly in place whether it is the mission statement, the vision statement, or the core values.
